Martin Scorsese is mourning the devastating loss of his close friends Rob and Michele Reiner, and shares a deeply personal reflection on their lives and the impact they had on him.
In a candid guest essay for The New York TimesThe legendary filmmaker spoke about his grief following the tragic death of the couple, who were found dead in their Los Angeles home on December 14.
His son, Nick Reiner, has since been arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder.
“What happened to Rob and Michele is an obscenity, a chasm in lived reality,” Scorsese wrote, expressing the shock and sadness that followed the news.
“From now on I will have to use the past tense and that fills me with such deep sadness.”
Scorsese reflected on his long friendship with Rob Reiner, noting that the two bonded from the beginning through their shared love of storytelling and film.
He recalled meeting Rob and his then-wife Penny Marshall in the early 1970s and immediately feeling a connection.
“I immediately loved hanging out with Rob,” she wrote. “He was hilarious, warm, and had a kind of joy that filled the room.”
The director praised Reiner’s creative legacy and called This is lumbar puncture “one of a kind” and highlighting his work in Misery as especially powerful.
He also reflected on his work with Reiner in The Wolf of Wall Streetdescribing as deeply moving a scene in which Reiner played Leonardo DiCaprio’s father.
“I was surprised by the tenderness he brought to it,” Scorsese shared, adding that revisiting that performance now is particularly painful.
In closing, Scorsese expressed a longing that feels both personal and universal, the hope of once again sharing laughter and conversation with his late friend.
“I will always wish I could sit next to him again,” he wrote, “and hear that laugh and feel lucky to be in his presence.”
