Welcome to Life Lessons. This week, we’re honoring the late great actor, activist, and director Rob Reiner by revisiting his September ’25 feature. The story was pegged to the release of Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, but the director’s conversation with Seth Rogen spans over 50 years in Hollywood, from Reiner’s beginnings as an actor on All in the Family, to the lessons he learned making When Harry Met Sally, one of the most iconic romantic comedies of all time. Below, we pulled some of Reiner’s most epic quotes. Rest in peace, legend.
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“Movie people were royalty, television people were peons. So I knew what it felt like to be held down by that. That’s what motivated me to do Misery.”
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” I was single for 10 years after being married for 10 years, and I was making a mess of every relationship. I couldn’t figure it out. Can you have sex with somebody and then if you’re not friends with them, how does that work? So that became the fodder for [When Harry Met Sally].”
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“When I did All in the Family in front of a live audience, I was always aware of where the cameras were, what the audience was doing, and the other actors.”
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“The first Spinal Tap took me nine months to edit.”
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“The directors that I liked the most were the ones who also acted. If you look at Orson Welles or Sydney Pollack, they’re all people who know what it’s like to be in front of the camera. I’m not the best actor in the world, but I’d never ask another actor to do something I couldn’t do.”
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“I’m going to be shooting something in August. I had this idea I’ve had for over 50 years, and I’ve tried a number of times with different writers with different scripts. I’ve never been able to get a good one. I’m going to try one more time and see if I can pull it off.”
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“Scorsese would let you improvise. Jonah and I had a really good moment [in The Wolf of Wall Street], which was completely improvised, where I’m questioning their expense account. I said, ‘What is this? $26,000 for these meals?’ He says, ‘Well, we ordered sides.’ Then I said, ‘What kind of sides were these? Did they cure cancer?’ He said, ‘Oddly enough, they did.’”
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“When I was like 13, I’d go to The Dick Van Dyke Show where [my father] was the head writer and producer. I went up to his office one time when he wasn’t there, and I sat behind his desk and went, ‘I can’t do this. How do you do this?’ I was totally intimidated by what he was able to do.”
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“Streaming has taken over how movies are made,and what movies get to be in the theaters. It couldn’t be more different than when I started out.”
