Robin Williams once told an interview he did sometimes "get sad," but the actor and comedian insisted that he was not clinically depressed.

Speaking to the NPR program “Fresh Air” in 2006, Williams said a lot of comedians have a dark side.

"In the process of looking for comedy, you have to be deeply honest, and doing that you'll find out there's the other side."

The Oscar-winning actor was found dead in California on Monday from an apparent suicide. Williams's publicist said he had recently been battling severe depression.

During the 2006 interview, Williams told NPR host Terry Gross that he was branded as manic depressive after an interview with Newsweek magazine in which he was asked if he ever gets depressed.

"Yeah, sometimes I get sad," Williams told Gross. "You can't watch news for more than three seconds and go 'Oh this is depressing.' And then immediately they branded me manic depressive.

"I was like, 'Um that's clinical, I'm not that.' Do I perform sometimes in a manic style? Yes. Am I manic all the time? No. Do I get sad? Oh yeah. Does it hit me hard? Oh yeah.'”

Williams said while he had never suffered from clinical depression, he does at times "get bummed."

"I get bummed, like I think a lot of us do sometimes," he said. "You look at the world and go 'Whoa', and other moments you look and go, 'Oh, things are OK.'

Williams had admitted to struggling with drug addiction in the early 1980s and he sought treatment in 2006 for alcoholism. He had been sober for 20 years before relapsing.

Williams announced in July that he was returning to a 12-step treatment program. He said he needed the rehab program after 18 months of nonstop work.

With files from The Associated Press