Rob Reiner was 20 minutes into a video podcast promoting his new film \u2014 a semi-autobiographical tale of a famous dad and his drug-addicted son \u2014 when the interviewer asked what his son Nick, who co-wrote the movie, learned from it.<\/p>\n
Reiner pointed just off-screen. Nick, then 22, had been there the whole time. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s right here. You can ask him,\u201d Reiner said in the 2016 interview with comedian Paul Mecurio about the film, \u201cBeing Charlie.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cOh, that\u2019s your son!\u201d a surprised Mecurio said, inviting the lean young man with thick black glasses to join the discussion about \u201cBeing Charlie,\u201d which is based on Nick\u2019s experiences bouncing in and out of drug rehab as a teenager.<\/p>\n
At times quiet and seemingly uncomfortable, Nick let his father do most of the talking. But when asked why he started using drugs in the first place, he blamed the fame of his dad and his grandfather, the acclaimed director and comedian Carl Reiner.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had no identity, and I had no passions,\u201d Nick said. \u201cAnd I think the reason I had no identity was because I have a famous dad and a famous grandpa, and that fame sort of informs who you are. So, I wanted to edge out my own identity with a more rebellious, angry, drug-addicted sort of persona.\u201d <\/p>\n
On Sunday night, Los Angeles police officers arrested Nick Reiner, 32, on suspicion of murdering his 78-year-old father and his mother, Michele Singer Reiner, a 70-year-old photographer and producer. The couple werer found dead at their Brentwood home Sunday afternoon. <\/p>\n
Family friends told The Times that Nick had been living in a guesthouse on his parents\u2019 property and that his mother had become increasingly concerned about his mental health in recent weeks. <\/p>\n
Friends also said that Rob Reiner and his son got into an argument Saturday evening at a party at Conan O\u2019Brien\u2019s home and that people there noticed Nick acting strangely. The family friends, who asked not to be identified, said the Reiners\u2019 daughter, Romy, found her parents Sunday afternoon at their home on Chadbourne Avenue. <\/p>\n
Law enforcement sources told The Times that there was no sign of forced entry and that the Reiners had injuries consistent with being stabbed. Nick Reiner was being held without bail at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility, according to Los Angeles County sheriff\u2019s inmate records. <\/p>\n
Nick Reiner, born in 1993, is the second of three children Rob Reiner had with Michele, whom he married in 1989 after meeting her on the set of the beloved romantic comedy \u201cWhen Harry Met Sally,\u201d which he directed. <\/p>\n
When Rob Reiner was interviewed over lunch in 1998 by a Times columnist, Nick, then 5, tumbled around the table, prompting his father to quip: \u201cHe\u2019s floppy. He\u2019s always moving around. He was born like that. When he came out, the doctor said, \u2018This is a squirmy one.\u2019 \u201d <\/p>\n
Soon, the columnist noted, \u201cNick\u2019s photographer mom, Michele … arrived to scoop him up.\u201d <\/p>\n
In interviews, Nick has said that he and his dad \u2014 who was quieter at home than he was in his public role \u2014 did not bond much when he was younger. <\/p>\n
In the 2016 interview with Mecurio, Nick said that he was listless and that \u201cI had nothing to fill my time. I had nothing to look forward to.\u201d <\/p>\n
As a teenager, Nick struggled with heroin addiction, cycling in and out of rehabilitation centers and experiencing bouts of homelessness. <\/p>\n
He had gotten clean by 2015, when he co-wrote \u201cBeing Charlie,\u201d about a drug-addicted young man whose father is a cold, former movie star running for governor of California. His father directed the film, which was co-written with Matt Elisofon. <\/p>\n
During the film\u2019s press tour, Nick \u2014 who often sat quietly as his father spoke \u2014 said many aspects of the movie were inspired by their relationship, including a line that the father character tells his son: \u201cI\u2019d rather you hate me and you be alive.\u201d <\/p>\n
After putting himself out there with the film, he said in the interview with Mercurio, it was hard to see the public bash him as \u201ca spoiled white rich kid.\u201d <\/p>\n
At that point, Rob interjected, saying: \u201cListen, I had to talk to him about this. Listen, I know what it\u2019s like to be \u2018the son of,\u2019 and to have people assume certain things about you, and it\u2019s very, very difficult.\u201d <\/p>\n
In public, Nick praised his parents for helping him find sobriety. But he also said he felt guilty disappointing them and was trying to figure out his own path. <\/p>\n
Rob said that making the movie with his son was therapeutic, allowing them to work through past trauma and develop a closer relationship. <\/p>\n
During a 2015 interview with The Times at the Toronto International Film Festival, where the film premiered, Rob said he regretted valuing the advice of counselors over the voice of his son as he and his wife tried to keep Nick in rehab. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Nick would tell us that it wasn\u2019t working for him, we wouldn\u2019t listen,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were desperate, and because the people had diplomas on their wall, we listened to them when we should have been listening to our son.\u201d <\/p>\n
Michele added: \u201cWe were so influenced by these people. They would tell us he\u2019s a liar, that he was trying to manipulate us. And we believed them.\u201d <\/p>\n
After the couple\u2019s deaths, one family friend said Rob and Michele \u201cdid everything for Nick. Every treatment program, therapy sessions and put aside their lives to save Nick\u2019s repeatedly.\u201d The friend said that they had \u201cnever known a family so dedicated to a child\u201d and that \u201cto have it end this way is awful.\u201d <\/p>\n
In the pivotal 1970s sitcom \u201cAll in the Family,\u201d Rob Reiner, in the role of Michael \u201cMeathead\u201d Stivic, played a liberal young man who often butted heads with his staunchly conservative, bigoted father-in-law, Archie Bunker, played by Carroll O\u2019Connor. <\/p>\n
One 1977 episode, \u201cArchie\u2019s Bitter Pill,\u201d touches on addiction, with Archie getting hooked on pills as he copes with depression triggered by his new bar not getting much business. <\/p>\n
When Archie starts acting irritable and erratic, stuffing pancakes into his pocket before storming off to work one morning, Michael solemnly declares: \u201cThat man is on something.\u201d <\/p>\n
Little is publicly known about Nick\u2019s life in the decade since \u201cBeing Charlie\u201d premiered. According to IMDb, he has not been listed in other movie credits. <\/p>\n
Nick appeared with his family in September at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood for the premiere of \u201cSpinal Tap II: The End Continues,\u201d which his dad directed. <\/p>\n