Nine years before famed Hollywood director/actor Rob Reiner and his producer wife Michele Singer Reiner were found dead, allegedly with their throats cut, in their Brentwood mansion, they sat down for a now-chilling interview about their son’s drug addiction.
It’s the opening passage of that story that chills with the later knowledge that Nick Reiner, 32, is sitting in a California jail on $4 million bail. His parents’ bodies were discovered in their home on December 14, and, according to People, authorities believe he killed them. Although authorities have not released any motive, the interview the Reiners gave with The Los Angeles Times, while Reiner was making the movie Being Charlie with his son, may be instructive.
That story starts with this passage, “For years, Hollywood director Rob Reiner and his wife struggled as their son Nick was addicted to hard drugs, rotating in and out of rehab facilities like they were shopping malls. The couple wondered if there was an end in sight, and whether it would be the tragic one that a voice in the back of their heads kept telling them was coming.”
Rob and Nick also sat together for a Q and A on the movie. Rob Reiner shared that “we didn’t set out for it to be cathartic or for it to be therapeutic, but it turned out to be that.” When Nick didn’t respond to a question about their relationship in real life, Rob added, “There were disagreements” and “at times it was really rough.” Nick said, “Sometimes it would get overwhelming for me.”
What Is ‘Being Charlie’?
Being Charlie was Rob Reiner’s attempt to grapple with his son’s continued struggle with drugs, which, according to a 2016 People interview, had landed the son on the streets as a teen. Like real life, the movie featured a famous father dealing with his son’s substance abuse addiction, although, in this case, the dad is a gubernatorial candidate.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, “Nick co-wrote the script with a friend from rehab, inspired by their experiences, while Rob directed the movie, drawing off what he went through as a father.”
The YouTube video for the movie contains the caption: “From Academy Award-Nominated Director Rob Reiner (STAND BY ME, A FEW GOOD MEN), BEING CHARLIE is a coming of age story about a troublesome 18-year-old (Nick Robinson of JURRASSIC WORLD) who breaks out of a youth drug treatment clinic and returns home to Los Angeles. He finds his former-actor father (Cary Elwes of THE PRINCESS BRIDE) is running for Governor and his parents are forcing him to enter adult rehab. There he meets Eva, a beautiful but troubled girl, and is confronted by his issues with drugs, love, and family. Also starring Common.”
Nick also spoke to The Times during that interview, saying, “Maybe this,” when asked if anything good came out of rehab. It was painted then that he was sober. “I got sick of it. I got sick of doing that…. I come from a nice family; I’m not supposed to be out there on the streets and in homeless shelters doing all these…things,” he said.
The dad in the movie tells the son character he’s sorry he was cruel in trying to get him to accept rehab. “I’d rather you hate me and you be alive,” the father character says, and The Times noted that the line “was taken almost verbatim from their own lives, and in fact developing the movie helped them achieve that level of communication.”
Nick’s sister Romy also spoke during that interview, saying, “This is my best friend and I was there for all of it. It’s weird but good to see in on the screen.” Tragically, people reported that it’s believed she found her parents deceased.
Rob told The Times, “When Nick would tell us that it wasn’t working for him, we wouldn’t listen. We were desperate and because the people had diplomas on their wall, we listened to them when we should have been listening to our son.”
