Rob Reiner’s relationship with his own father may have informed the famed director’s tense dynamic with son Nick — who is charged with brutally slaughtering both of his parents as they slept in bed on the first night of Hanukkah.
The “Stand By Me” director spoke to NPR just three months before his murder, revealing his desire for his showbiz father Carl Reiner’s approval led to him being “hands-on” with Nick.
“I felt that my father didn’t, you know, love me or understand me,” Reiner told radio show Fresh Air.
“Because loving your father and looking up to your father doesn’t necessarily mean you’re feeling that back, that you’re feeling that from him,” Reiner told host Terry Gross.
Rob’s filmmaking success and fame would eventually eclipse that of his father Carl, who created The Dick Van Dyke Show, directed classic flicks such as “The Jerk,” and starred in “Ocean’s Eleven,” before dying in 2020 at 98 years-old.
The late “Misery” director claimed Carl was not always around when he was a child and a young man — something Rob made sure to not repeat while raising his own three children.
“I was never, ever too busy,” Reiner told NPR about his parenting. “I mean, if anything, I was the other way.” “I was more hands-on and trying to do whatever I thought I could do to help,” he said.
Speaking specifically about Nick, Rob stated, “He’s been great. He hasn’t been doing drugs for over six years.”
“I mean, he’s in a really good place,” Reiner claimed.
Rob further expounded that it wasn’t until his first directorial success with the movie “Stand By Me,” that he felt “separate” from his own dad.
Nick’s first film “Being Charlie,” made in 2016 with the overwhelming aid of Rob, was a major flop, making only $33,000 at the box office on an over $2 million budget.
That film was about a drug addict turned politician and was loosely based on Nick’s own well documented struggles with substance abuse — with the comedy scion becoming addicted to heroin at just 16-years-old.
On Dec. 14, Nick allegedly slit both Rob’s and mother Michelle’s throats and stabbed them both multiple times just hours after an argument at a Christmas party at the home of former late night host Conan O’Brien, authorities said.
He is charged with two counts of murder in the first degree.
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