Rob Reiner revealed how making film with son Nick about his addiction changed relationship
Hollywood legend Rob Reiner spoke in the past about how his relationship with his son Nick changed after they worked on a film together about his son’s battle with addiction.
Rob and his wife Michele were found dead in their Hollywood home yesterday, with PEOPLE magazine reporting that their son Nick is being questioned by police.
Nick has not been charged with anything, but the death of his parents is believed to be an 'apparent homicide'.
The news has shocked the film world, as well as causing many to re-examine the film Nick and Rob made together about their family’s troubles.
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Called Being Charlie, the film was co-written by Nick alongside a friend from rehab, Matt Elisofon, and is heavily inspired by Nick’s battle with addiction - particularly his strained relationship with his father as a result of this.
Nick was in and out of rehab due to his drug addiction from the ages of 15 to 19, with Rob speaking about how he listened to doctors that told him ‘tough love’ was necessary despite his son telling him otherwise.
In an interview about the film, which Rob directed, he told AOL's BUILD series that it was the ‘most personal thing he’s ever done’.
Whilst he stated the pair did not go in hoping that the film would be ‘therapeutic’, he stated that the fact they were dealing with the addiction troubles Nick went through forced him to see what his son had gone through ‘more clearly’.
He said: “We were dealing with things that Nick had gone through and how I had related to it and how his mother had related to it, it forced me to have to see more clearly and understand more deeply what Nick had gone through.
“I think it forced him to see things that I had experienced during this process. It definitely brought us closer together.”
He went on to call it one of ‘the most satisfying creative experiences of his life’ and claimed it made him ‘a better father’.
Nick Reiner stated he found it a ‘pretty nice experience’, adding: “One of the things I did learn about the whole experience. I think the bonding came not from the story itself, but from the fact that we were working on a movie together and I could see him… in the form that he could express himself the best, which is making movies because he has so much experience.
“And so seeing that sort of turned me around to be like, I should probably shut up and listen to him because he knows a lot more about this.”
One of the aspects of the film is how Nick’s character’s father, a partial stand-in for Rob, listened to experts over his own son.
Speaking about this with the New Yorker, Rob said: “I learned how to be his father.
“When Nick was born, the doctor said, ‘You got a squirmy one here!’ We tried to mold him instead of celebrating his oddballness.
“Why I’m really angry with myself is, when I make a movie, I know that you get the best performance out of actors in different ways.
“Some you push, some you let go. But I didn’t take that understanding to the rehab process, because I was so scared of losing him.
“It turned out that Nick’s way was therapy, finding the right psychopharmacological cocktail, and being closer to his parents.”
Rob and Michele’s death was announced in a statement released by their family, saying: “It is with profound sorrow that we announce the tragic passing of Michele and Rob Reiner.
"We are heartbroken by this sudden loss, and we ask for privacy during this unbelievably difficult time.”
Topics: Celebrity, Crime, Film, TV and Film, Drugs, Mental Health, Parenting
Michael Slavin