Rob Reiner's Final PEOPLE Interview: The Late Star on His Legacy, Lifelong AList Friendships 4 Months Before Shocking Death Scott HuverDecember 16, 2025 at 12:12 AM 0 Chelsea Lauren/Shutterstock Rob Reiner at the 'Spinal Tap 2: The End Continues' premiere on Sept. 9, 2025. Four months prior to Rob Reiner's death at 78 alongside his wife Michele Singer Reiner, 68, on Dec.
- - Rob Reiner's Final PEOPLE Interview: The Late Star on His Legacy, Lifelong A-List Friendships 4 Months Before Shocking Death
Scott HuverDecember 16, 2025 at 12:12 AM
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Chelsea Lauren/Shutterstock
Rob Reiner at the 'Spinal Tap 2: The End Continues' premiere on Sept. 9, 2025.
Four months prior to Rob Reiner's death at 78 alongside his wife Michele Singer Reiner, 68, on Dec. 14, the prolific Oscar-nominated director, producer and actor released a sequel to his iconic directorial debut 1984 heavy metal mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap, bringing original stars Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer back together after 41 years.
Reiner, who first became famous for his role as Mike on the Norman Lear TV sitcom All in the Family, paved his own way in Hollywood following his father, the legendary comedian Carl Reiner and his mother, actress and singer Estelle Lebost. In September 2025, he opened up about the impact of many of his films, including When Harry Met Sally, A Few Good Men, The Princess Bride, and Misery, and how his lasting friendships had shaped his life. Revisit that conversation with PEOPLE below.
PEOPLE: Tell me about the moment you knew Spinal Tap II: The End Continues was going to be fun in the way that the first one was for you.
Rob Reiner: Well, it is interesting because we never intended to do a sequel. I mean, people over the years have come up to us and say, "Yeah, you can do a sequel." We said, "No, we did it. It's done. We've done it." Eventually the Library of Congress puts it in the National Film Registry, and "This goes to 11" is in the Oxford Dictionary. But Harry Shearer realized we had never gotten any money for it. I mean, we're talking about DVDs and videos and foreign sales and all of the permutations of Spinal Tap and the four of us...I'm not exaggerating, it sounds like a joke, we made 82 cents apiece. Harry said, "This isn't right." He sued these various companies who owned the rights and hadn't done anything with it to get the rights back.
Kevin Winter/GA/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty
Harry Shearer, Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Rob Reiner
After about three or four years, he finally gets the rights back. We go, what do we do with it? Should we do a sequel? The bar is high because it's become kind of this classic. It wasn't until we had an idea that we thought, 'Oh, this can stand on its own.' Even if you haven't seen the first one, this film will stand on its own. It's about an aging rock band who has to do one more concert and what happens.
PEOPLE: In the same way that you guys captured the magic of what was going on in the real rock scene, this really captures the aging rocker, the baby boomer generation that is still out there trying to fill arenas and stuff. Tell me about coming up with those ideas from real life, and from your own interests still in music, that you wanted to kind of tweak and make fun of.
Reiner: I mean, you are looking at the Rolling Stones are still touring. You're looking at Paul McCartney is still out there. You're looking at the Eagles, even though Glenn Frey is gone, his son has taken over and they're touring. Oasis is back together again. I mean, bands are touring at that age. We thought, let's take a look at this again. Even AC/DC and Judas Priest, I mean, they go out and they still perform. The thing is they love the music, they love to play, and this is what they do. We thought, okay, we can take a look at this and what happens to these people. I made a joke, but I said, "You look at Spinal Tap, they haven't grown emotionally, they haven't grown musically, they have only grown a couple of skin tags or whatever, but they're still doing it and they still love doing it. Let's explore what that is."
PEOPLE: This was the beginning of a phenomenal run for you as a director. Tell me about that whole period, starting with Spinal Tap and your almost instant classics, When Harry Met Sally, Misery, Princess Bride, Stand By Me...
Reiner: Well, for me, it just about the work. I just like doing it. You don't think about what something's going to turn into. Something will either last or it won't. You put things in perspective because I was in the television show that most young people have never heard of: I mean, All in the Family was No. 1 in America for five years straight every week. We were a country of 200 million people, and 40 to 45 million people watched that show having a shared experience. You had to watch it when it was on, there was no DVR, no TV. Now, young people don't even know it. You better like what you're doing and enjoy the process because even if something you've made stands the test of time for a while, it's never going to stand the test of forever.
Authorized Spinal Tap LLC/Shutterstock
Rob Reiner directing Christopher Guest in "Spinal Tap"
For me, I get a kick out of running into people. I did the other day, a kid who was eight years old just saw Stand by Me. His parents introduced him and he loved it, and that gives me a kick. Or people who saw Princess Bride when they were little now are showing it to their kids and then their grandkids. That gives me a kick. I'm not stupid enough to know that films will go away and things go on and move. Just enjoy the process and enjoy doing what you're doing.
PEOPLE: Did making a Spinal Tap sequel make you want to revisit anything else you've done? Would you do a When Harry Met Sally sequel?
Reiner: No, I never wanted to do sequels. I don't like them. To me, [Spinal Tap: The End Continues] is more of a, 'Let's see where they are now' than it is a sequel. I mean, listen, what kind of sequel do you have 41 years after the first? "Oh, we're trading on it." It's not that, like I said, it's got to be a standalone. I try to figure out where is my mind at that point, and can I find a way to push my own mind and sensibility into whatever it is I'm trying to do? If I can figure out how to do that, I'll make a film. I have one idea that I might try, but you have to enjoy the process.
Kevin Winter/GA/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty
Rob Reiner and Billy Crystal
PEOPLE: What has it been like to have your life so intertwined in the industry, in Hollywood, and to have these friendships that have endured and become creative collaborations? That must be really special.
Reiner: It's really nice. Listen, my father and Mel Brooks were best of friends, and when both of their wives passed away, and even before my mother passed away, Mel Brooks would come and visit my dad every day. At night they'd watch television after dinner, and that friendship kept them going for a long time. They really enjoyed each other. I'm lucky because I still see Albert [Brooks, who went to Beverly Hills High School with Reiner], I still see Billy [Crystal], I had breakfast with him two days ago. Christopher Guest is a dear friend. As you get older, you need them more than you ever thought. I'm lucky that I have people that I can hang out with that, as Chris used to say in the old days, you can schnadel with a little bit, that you can do schtick with.
PEOPLE: What's your favorite part of having been part of Hollywood for as long as you have? Is there a thing that still makes you giddy when you think about your place in everything?
Reiner: I don't think about that so much. I think about that 'be here now' thing. I only think about what it is I want to do now and what ideas I have. Listen, if I'm going to think about the way things were done in Hollywood, it can get pretty depressing because the movie business is tough. Television came in, that hurt the movie business. Then you've got DVDs and videos and now streaming. It's harder to get people to go in the theater. For me, for a storyteller, you want people to pay attention. I read this book years ago, it was an autobiography by Frank Capra, and he said, and I always take this to heart, "You are asking people to pay money to go into a darkened room with strangers for two hours. You better put something up there that engages them, that grips them, that tells a story."
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Wallace Shawn, Robin Wright, Andre The Giant in "The Princess Bride"
I always try to think that way. I don't always succeed, but I try to think in those terms. Now, there's no point to that because they're on their phones or they watch it at home and they put it on pause and they go to the bathroom. It's tough for storytellers to get an audience and get their attention for an hour and a half or two hours or whatever the time is.
The other thing is, I was just saying before we were a country of 200 million then, now we're a country of what, 340 million? If you can get 5 to 10 million people watching something, that's a big deal. They don't even watch it at the same time. You'll sit at dinner and you'll say, "Did you see the last episode of White Lotus?" "Don't tell me. I didn't see that episode. I'm only on Season 1." "Have you seen The Bear?" "No, no, no. I don't want to know." You can't even discuss the thing, it's so fragmented and fractured now. It's tough for storytellers to get a group of people, sit them down. Particularly with comedy or horror films, you want that shared experience because it intensifies things.
PEOPLE: When I got married, the day after the wedding we did a party at the theater that I grew up going to see movies in as a child. We played The Princess Bride, which was the movie my wife watched over and over again as a child. We thought people would watch the first five minutes and then they kind of mingle and get on their phones or whatever. People sat down and they watched that movie from beginning to end and were absolutely enchanted by it again.
Reiner: Wow. That's really cool because that's why you make the film, because you want to tell the story. There are certain films when they come on, I'm sucked in, I have to watch. I keep watching All the President's Men, there's a few of them that I get sucked in. It's great to hear something like that because that makes you feel good. It makes you feel okay, I'm a storyteller and the people actually listen to the story.
on People
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Source: Entertainment
Published: December 15, 2025 at 06:45PM on Source: RON MAG
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