By Lisa Richwine
LOS ANGELES, Dec 15 (Reuters) – Director Rob Reiner struggled with how to end a movie that was inspired by his son Nick’s years-long battle with heroin addiction and the impact of his substance abuse on the family.
On the day the final scene of “Being Charlie” was set to be filmed, Reiner decided to conclude the movie with the lead character not fully recovered but on his way to a better life.
“It’s a tough ending,” Rob Reiner told podcaster Marc Maron in 2016. But he added, “It’s hopeful and honest. His relationship isn’t perfect with his father, but it’s better than it was and it’s going to get better.”
On Monday, Nick Reiner was arrested for the murder of his parents, Rob and Michele Reiner, after the couple were found dead at their Los Angeles home.
Nick Reiner began using drugs at age 15, Rob Reiner said on the podcast. At 19, after several stints in rehabilitation facilities, the younger Reiner decided to start writing about his experiences. Father and son worked to develop the writings into a movie directed by Rob Reiner, maker of acclaimed films including “The Princess Bride” and “When Harry Met Sally.”
“It was the most personal thing I’ve ever been involved in,” Rob Reiner said of “Being Charlie,” which was released in 2015. “It’s one of the most emotional and satisfying creative experiences I’ve ever had.”
Nick Reiner, now 32, spoke openly over the years about his struggles with substance abuse. He told People magazine in 2016 that he had been homeless at times when he was on the run and refusing to go into rehab. He said he had at least 17 stays in rehab facilities.
“When I was out there, I could’ve died,” Nick Reiner said. He added that he had left his last rehab facility at age 19 and had “gotten acclimated back to being in L.A. and being around my family.”
Rob and Michele Reiner, who married in 1989 after meeting on the set of “When Harry Met Sally,” had two other children: a son, Jake, and daughter, Romy. The family posed for photographs together in September at the Hollywood premiere of Rob Reiner’s film “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues.” Pictures showed Nick with a shaved head and a beard, the only person not smiling.
Reiner’s first marriage was to Penny Marshall, who starred in the TV sitcom “Laverne & Shirley,” and was also a producer and director. He was an adoptive father to Marshall’s daughter.
(Reporting by Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles; Editing by Paul Thomasch and Matthew Lewis)
