Take a look at the resumes of all of the A-list directors in Hollywood, and you'd be hard-pressed to find a guy with a better stretch of films than Rob Reiner did from 1983-1992: "This is Spinal Tap," "Stand By Me," "The Princess Bride," "When Harry Met Sally," "Misery," "A Few Good Men."
Heck, even after the colossal flop that was "North," he bounced back with the cable-TV mainstay "The American President."
The son of comedy legend Carl Reiner, Rob Reiner grew up with guys like Mel Brooks, Sid Caesar and Norman Lear hanging around his house and made his first big splash on television playing Mike "Meathead" Stivic, Archie Bunker's liberal son-in-law on the classic sitcom "All in the Family."
Reiner's latest film is "Flipped," told from the dueling perspectives of a 13 year-old boy and 13-year-old girl who are discovering romantic love for the first time. "Flipped" will premiere in Indianapolis Aug. 2 as part of a special Heartland Film Festival event, and Reiner and "Flipped" stars Anthony Edwards, John Mahoney and Penelope Ann Miller will be in attendance for the red carpet.
I’m curious to know first of all how you got involved with this adaptation of a young adult novel.
Yes. My son Nick, who was 11 years old at the time—he’s 16 now—but was in 5th grade and was assigned the book, and he brought it home and we read it to each other. I was just blown away about how sophisticated the writing was. Usually when you’re reading a novel for young adults, it’s only on this one level. This had so much depth and insight, and it struck a chord in me and it kind of reminded me how I felt when I first fell in love as a young guy, and I was fascinated by the book’s style, and the convention of going back and forth between the boy’s point of view and the girl’s point of view. I had never seen that was, and I was surprised at how engaged I remained even though the story was told twice. But there was new information and the take was different. My son Nick said “You know, I think this could make a great movie,” and I said “you know, I think you’re right,” And that was the beginning of it all.
The one film that pops to my mind that uses that device of telling the same story through different points of view was “Vantage Point” a few years back, and it didn’t work out that well. How did you handle those challenges of telling the story over?
I think in “Vantage Point” it was basically just perception. In this case, we’re dealing with a very universal feeling, this powerful, universal feeling of falling in love from a boy’s point of view and a girl’s point of view. Hopefully it’s something everybody can relate to. What’s interesting is that you think back on it and though it’s a story about young kids, I believe it’s something adults will get more out of. It’s kind of like “Stand By Me,” which you know was a story about kids, but we found that adults appreciate it even more. There’s a great line at the end, and it’s from Stephen King’s novella, and it says “you never have friends like you did when you were 12.” And when you look back on it, it has a tremendous resonance. They remember how powerful those things are. When you’re 12 and going through it you don’t think anything of it. The same thing can be said for the first love. You’ll never forget the first girl you had that major crush on. I think people looking back will have very powerful strong feelings about it, and kids going through it now will relate just because they’re going through it. It works on both levels, so that’s one of the reasons why I think the back-and-forth point of view makes sense, because we each look at this really confusing, powerful time differently.
You did mention the story took you back to your own childhood. I noticed the “Bonnie Meadow Road” reference.
(laughs) Well, it’s actually “Bonnie Meadow Lane.” When I was a kid growing up in New Rochelle, I lived on Bonnie Meadow Road. I lived at 48 Bonnie Meadow Road. When my dad did “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” he had the Petries living at 148 Bonnie Meadow Road. So in this movie I made it Bonnie Meadow Lane, so it’s an homage to my youth and my dad’s TV show.
You’ve worked with some of the biggest stars of the times, and you also have a history of working with children in leading roles. Can you talk about some of the challenges this time around working with children, and without any major stars?
Right. Well, you’re right, I have worked with a lot of big actors over the years: Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, Michael Douglas, Tom Cruise and so on. I found that in the case of Madeline Carroll, I’ve never seen someone, she was 13 when we filmed, who was that kind of developed instrument, whose craft was so developed at that age. I put her right in there with those great actors. It was extraordinary how little I had to do with her in terms of directing her. She came full blown for the part, and had this incredibly fine-tuned instrument. Same goes for Callan. I didn’t know anything about Callan. We had a hard time finding a boy, because it’s hard finding a great-looking boy who has this kind of sexy quality, who has intelligence and at age 13, 14 can play that kind of stuff. Turns out Callan is from Australia, and has a thick Aussie accent. He was able to do this perfect American accent. The moment we’d stop the take he’d right away lapse into Ausie, and when we rolled he was this American kid. He had a great facility as well. These kids I think were more developed as actors than the ones I’d worked with on “Stand By Me.” Except for Corey Feldman, there was very little acting experience among the other kids, so we had to work hard and almost doing like an acting class for a few weeks before we started shooting. Kids have great instincts, but they don’t always have great craft, so you have to work with them. Professional actors who have been around awhile have a great craft and know how to turn it on and off and do what they need to do to make it work. But in the case of Callan and Maddy, their craft was as good as any seasoned actor I’ve worked with.
You have obviously been around awhile, you’ve gotten the awards and the respect, commercial and critical acclaim. Is there still something you’re shooting for-a goal-or do you take projects that just make you happy or interest you?
Well, first of all I still love doing what I do. I really enjoy it. I gotta say making this film I had the best experience of any film I’ve ever made. It was an absolute pleasure. Maybe it was because I was relaxed a little bit with my abilities, and we were in Michigan for the summer, and we had these wonderful kids and the parents. It was like almost going to movie camp, it was so much fun. But what I look for is a way to express myself. If I can find something in a book or a script or an idea that can resonate with something I have experienced or have gone through, then for me it’s just a matter of expressing yourself on the screen and expressing some of the thoughts and feelings and emotions that I’ve been through. In this case it was an easy one, because I related easily to what these kids were going through.
What is the most common crazy thing people shout at you? I’m sure “Hey, Meathead” is one of them.
I do get Meatheaded on a regular basis still. I’ve made the joke many times through my career that no matter what I do…I could win the Nobel prize and it would say “Meathead wins the Nobel.” It’s still traveled around, and because of Nick at Nite and TV Land, these shows play over and over. People usually…they recognize my voice, but they don’t usually recognize my face because I don’t look anything like I did when I was 20.
My dad even said “Tell Meathead I said hi,” so I had to throw that one out there.
There you go. (laughs) Tell him I said hi back.
I will! Can you talk a little about acting as well as directing. Was acting your first love?
I love to act. For me it’s like being let out on a playground for recess. It’s fun because I don’t have the responsibility for having to make all the decisions. I remember years ago Ron Howard called me up and asked me if I wanted to be in a movie he was doing called “Ed TV,” and I said “yeah, I’ll do it.” He said “well, let me send you the script…” and I said, “you know Ron, I don’t have to read the script, because if the movie’s no good, it’s not my fault.” I just love going to work and acting. I just did something on “Hannah Montana” recently. So whatever they ask me to do if I’m free I’ll do it
You mentioned your son earlier. A lot of stars will make movies and cite doing movies that they want their kids to see. You almost made this one together...
I don’t really think of that consciously, but certainly this is one parents can watch with their kids, and we’ve had screenings with parents and kids, and like I said the parents sometimes get more out of it than kids. But the parents feel great because it’s something they can take their kids to. I like doing that, because when I’m taking kids to movies, more often than not they’re just movies I’m taking my kids to, and I have to sit there and watch. That’s a reason I enjoyed making “The Princess Bride,” because that’s a movie the kids will love, but the parents will get more out of it. And I think parents love to see their kids enjoying something. So adults will love this for themselves, and will love that their kids are enjoying it.
Are there any of your films that you feel like didn’t get the respect they deserved, or by contrast films that you didn’t think would do well that people just love?
Um, you know I didn’t realize when I made “Stand By Me” it wouldn’t do as well as it did. At the time there were only the four boys, and no stars in the movie, and I didn’t know that was going to do all that well. “When Harry Met Sally” was a surprise to me, and when I make a picture like “North,” which got such terrible reviews, wasn’t THAT bad of a movie. To me it was kind of a stunner it was received as poorly as it was. But you never know, you make films, and you try to do what you think is good, and sometimes people love it and sometimes people don’t, and it’s just part of what you do.
If you’ll excuse my fanboy moment, for me “The American President” is that film. I constantly try to quote that film and people look at me cross-eyed. My favorite line in that movie is when Michael Douglas walks in behind Annette Bening while she’s badmouthing him, and he says “let’s drag him out back and beat the shit out of him!” It never fails to crack me up.
Thank you very much. Someone told me Keith Olbermann quoted “The American President” in some commentary he was doing. I love it. People tell me all the time, when it comes on television they get into it. It’s one of my favorite movies of the ones I’ve done, because it combines comedy and romance and also politics, which are a lot of the things I really like.
Well, speaking of politics, is there anything you’re actively involved with right now?
Well, I’ve been involved in children’s issues for a long time and I still am, and we’re involved in a lot of civil rights things right now. There’s a court case to try to overturn Proposition 8 here in California, which was said to be unconstitutional by the California Supreme Court, then was an initiative passed that changed the California constitution, so now we’re trying to overturn that. To me it’s the last piece in the civil rights puzzle, which is to allow every segment of the population to have equality. That’s what I’m working on right now, but I always look for my spots. It’s tough right now. The political atmosphere is really poisoned right now. People are really more interested in partisanship and trying to score political points than they are trying to get things done, and it’s really sad. I really understand why the Tea Party came to be, not that I agree with it or support it, but people are just really angry with the system, which is not really serving anybody right now.