Martin Scorsese Pays Heartfelt Tribute to Rob Reiner: “We Had a Natural Affinity for Each Other”
The film world is still reeling after the tragic deaths of Rob Reiner and Michele Reiner, who died earlier this month under horrific circumstances. Among the many voices honoring their lives, one tribute in particular has landed with real emotional weight.
Martin Scorsese shared a personal and heartfelt remembrance in an essay published by The New York Times, reflecting on decades of friendship, creative admiration, and shared history.
Scorsese opens the piece acknowledging the pain of even having to write in the past tense. “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.”
The director then looks back to the early 1970s, when he first met Reiner. The connection was immediate and easy, built on humor and a shared sensibility.
“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 barreling laugh.”
Both men were New Yorkers finding their footing in Hollywood, and Scorsese recalls those early encounters. He even remembers the exact tone of their first meeting, which included Reiner cracking a joke to War’s “The Cisco Kid.”
Over the years, their friendship stayed strong as their careers exploded. They watched each other’s movies, crossed paths at industry events, and shared moments that stayed funny and meaningful decades later, including a memorable exchange during a Kennedy Center tribute.
Scorsese also celebrated Reiner’s work as a filmmaker, singling out the movies that meant the most to him. “We stayed in touch over the years and watched each other’s movies,” he wrote.
“My own favorite among his pictures is Misery, a very special film, beautifully acted by Kathy Bates and James Caan. But then, of course, there’s This Is Spinal Tap. Somehow, that picture is 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.”
Their collaboration even extended on screen when Scorsese cast Reiner in The Wolf of Wall Street. The essay closes on a note that’s devastating and strangely comforting at the same time.
Scorsese opened up about the horror of what happened, calling it impossible to fully comprehend. “What happened to Rob and Michele is an obscenity, an abyss in lived reality.
“The only thing that will help me to accept it is the passing of 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 … 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.”