Robin Williams’ character in Dead Poets Society exhorted his students to “carpe diem!”–Latin for “seize the day!” Williams gave the same advice, a bit altered, to Mila Kunis when they met. At the time Kunis was starring on That ’70s Show and Williams told her, “Remember this moment. Remember this time because things like this don’t happen very often.” Kunis told Esquire she’s never forgotten his words of wisdom.
Williams knew what he was talking about, having starred on an actual “70s show” himself–Mork & Mindy. And he knew more than he said about seizing the day, too. It wasn’t just in Dead Poets Society that he came across the phrase. Robin Williams starred as protagonist Tommy Wilhelm in a little known HBO adaptation of Nobel Prize-winner Saul Bellow’s famous novel, Seize the Day. Kunis reminded Williams of his earlier advice when they starred together later in The Angriest Man in Brooklyn. “It stands true today,” Williams replied. “Today, right now, at this very moment.” Seize it, he may as well have said.
