AND SO IT GOES with Rob Reiner

Rob Reiner, San Francisco, CA 6/20/14

I’ll admit it. There was something terrific about making Rob Reiner laugh. This is a man who grew up with Carl Reiner as his father, and Mel Brooks, one of the other funniest men who ever lived, as his father’s best friend. That I could make Rob laugh was not just surprising, it was delightful. I won’t spoil what did the trick, but it comes 15 minutes into our conversation, right after a discussion about Reiner’s attention to detail when making films, and the influence of his remarkable mother, Estelle, who like Diane Keaton’s character in AND SO IT GOES, became a lounge singer at age 65.

Reiner was in town not just to promote AND SO IT GOES, but also to attend San Francisco’s FRAMELINE festival, where his film for HBO, THE CASE AGAINST 8, was the opening night offering.  When we talked on June 20, 2014, we covered that, as well as why a man as busy as Rob Reiner has chosen to work tirelessly for social justice causes, such as marriage equality, which was the subject of CASE. We also covered why he thinks women are better at some things than men can ever be, how he helped Aaron Sorkin see a flaw in the stage version of A FEW GOOD MEN, and why Diane Keaton doesn’t have to act in order to be so great on screen. I also couldn’t resist bringing up Reiner’s mother, Estelle. In the film, Reiner plays an accompanist to Keaton’s lounge singer character. His memories of his mother, and her influence on him, are both sweet and revealing about how it took more than just a funny father to make Reiner the filmmaker he is today.

Click on the link to listen to the interview (26:01) AND SO IT GOES — Rob Reiner Interview.