CULTURE

HBO Releases ‘Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind’ Documentary Trailer

(HBO)

The film, which premiered at Sundance this year, will invite viewers to do just as its title instructs.

The Hollywood icon’s 2014 suicide at 63 was an absolute tragedy, leaving fans and those who knew the actor personally devastated in its wake. Produced by Alex Gibney and Shirel Kozak, the documentary features rare footage and insights into Williams’ life and career–both public and private–narrated by his own words and those of his friends, family, and peers.

The film also includes footage of his standup acts and bits where he jokes and speaks more candidly about alcoholism amongst the other troubles that plagued him. “He was really comfortable on stage; off stage, I just felt he was holding himself together,” Steve Martin shares of his colleague in the trailer.

His widow, Susan Williams, divulged to People magazine in 2015 that an autopsy revealed he had a progressive brain disease called diffuse Lewy body dementia (the third most common cause of dementia), and that he had experienced inexplicable mental symptoms throughout the year of his death.

The trailer concludes with one last inspirational quote from the late comedic legend, “You’re only given a little spark of madness and if you lose that, you’re nothing.” Watch the full documentary when it airs on HBO July 12th.