Martin Scorsese has published a tribute mourning his friend and colleague Rob Reiner, who was killed alongside his wife Michele Singer Reiner, earlier this month.
In an essay for The New York Times, Scorsese began: “Rob Reiner was my friend, and so was Michele. From now on, I’ll have to use the past tense, and that fills me with such profound sadness. But there’s no other choice.”
Reiner and his wife were found dead at their home by their daughter Romy Reiner. The couple’s youngest son, Nick Reiner, was arrested hours later and charged with two counts of first-degree murder.
Scorsese recalled meeting Reiner in the 1970s and attending get-togethers at the home of George Memmoli, a founding member of the improv troupe Ace Trucking Company.
“Right away, I loved hanging out with Rob. We had a natural affinity for each other. He was hilarious and sometimes bitingly funny, but he was never the kind of guy who would take over the room. He had a beautiful sense of uninhibited freedom, fully enjoying the life of the moment, and he had a great barrelling laugh,” the director wrote.
The Killers of the Flower Moon director talked about his favourite Reiner film, Misery, which he described as “a very special film, beautifully acted by Kathy Bates and James Caan”.
He described the 1984 mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap as “in a class of its own”. “It’s a kind of immaculate creation. And a big part of the greatness of that film is Rob himself, as director and as actor.”
Scorsese explained why he cast Reiner to play Max Belfort, the father of Leonardo DiCaprio’s Jordan Belfort, in his 2013 film The Wolf of Wall Street.
“He could improvise with the best, he was a master at comedy, he worked beautifully with Leo and the rest of the guys, and he understood the human predicament of his character: The man loved his son, he was happy with his success, but he knew that he was destined for a fall.” he wrote.
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“There’s that wonderful moment where Rob watches as Jon Favreau explains to Leo that he can get out relatively unscathed if he just walks away from his company before the SEC has a chance to charge him with violations. The look on Rob’s face, as he realizes that Leo is hesitating and that he ultimately won’t stop, is so eloquent.”
Scorsese described the Reiners’ death as “an obscenity, an abyss in lived reality” and ended his tribute hoping he could accept their loss in time.
“So, like all of their loved ones and their friends – and these were people with many, many friends – I have to be allowed to imagine them alive and well,” he said, “and that one day, I’ll be at a dinner or a party and find myself seated next to Rob, and I’ll hear his laugh and see his beatific face and laugh at his stories and relish his natural comic timing, and feel lucky all over again to have him as a friend.”
Tributes to the Reiners have flooded in from Hollywood after their death. Last week, Princess Bride star Mandy Patinkin reflected on filming the movie, describing the late director’s friendship with actors Billy Crystal and Christopher Guest as “the glue of their lives”.
