Rob Reiner’s relationship with his own father might 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.
Rob Reiner relationship with father
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 eventually eclipsed 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 that 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 said, “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.
