Rob and Nick Reiner Spoke About Growing Closer After Collaborating on a Film
Rob Reiner’s son, Nick Reiner, was arrested on suspicion of murder shortly after the news of his parents’ deaths broke. Nick previously worked with his father on a film based on his own struggles with drug addiction. The father-son pair said that collaborating on the project helped bring them closer together.
Rob and Nick Reiner spoke about working together
In 2015, Rob and Nick collaborated on the film Being Charlie. Nick co-wrote the semi-autobiographical film, and Rob directed it. He said that working on the film helped him gain a better understanding of his son.
“I mean, you know, we got into issues [but] … the whole process for me, it did make me understand him a lot more and I think it made me a better father, hopefully it did,” he said, per People.
Nick admitted that they hadn’t been close during his childhood. As an adult, he bonded with his father throughout the filmmaking process.
“It really clicked for me, because we didn’t bond a lot as a kid,” he said. “He really liked baseball, I like basketball and he could watch that with my brother, baseball. But when I saw him do that [directing], it was something that I’m interested in, I was like, ‘Wow, like he really knows a lot.’ And it made me feel closer to him.”
Rob Reiner said he regretted the way he handled Nick Reiner’s addiction
Rob said that while dealing with Nick’s drug addiction, he and his wife, Michele, sent him to rehab multiple times on the advice of experts. He said he came to regret this.
“When Nick would tell us that it wasn’t working for him, we wouldn’t listen,” he told the LA Times. “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.”
Nick went to rehab 17 times. When he refused, he went through periods of homelessness. Rob said that this tough love approach didn’t feel natural to him, and he wished he’d trusted his parental instincts.
“If your kid is going through rough times, [as] the parent, your main job is to keep your child safe. So I would do anything,” Reiner said. “At the end of the day, I know my child better than an expert does and I probably should have trusted my own instinct and that’s one of the things I did learn about the whole experience.”
He is currently being held on $4 million bail
On Monday, Los Angeles police chief Jim McDonnell announced that Nick was “booked for murder” (via The New York Times). He is being held on $4 million bail, but no further information about the charges against him is available at this time.
A source close to the investigation said police focused almost immediately on Nick. They arrested him on Sunday night and booked him early Monday morning.
