How Paul Reubens almost stopped the HBO documentary


PEE-Wee as herself“Offers a refreshing contrast to celebrity documentaries shaped by Good -minded image control. Director Matt Wolf approached the film as a gay man influenced by “”PEE-Wee’s Playhouse“And its message about deviation — and as someone who is keen to unpack the complexity Paul ReubensA brilliant artist who reintroduced the wardrobe and disappeared behind his iconic person to thrive in Hollywood.

However, Wolf did not expect the project to almost break him. It changed him personally and professionally – but it also earned five Emmy nominationsIncluding best director. On this week’s filmmaker Toolkit PodcastHe reflected on the toll to make a movie about his idol.

Wolf’s introduction to Reubens came through Josh and Benny Safdie, who would later come on board as producers.

“Paul had met other directors that he either did not join in artistically or who were not open to his level of commitment,” Wolf said. “And I think I had a cocky attitude,” I’m good with complicated people. “And I am, but it was on another level.

Reubens and Wolf had long, personal conversations. Both were gay Jewish creative with supportive families and uncompromising visions, and Wolf hoped that their connection would build trust. He also believed that Reubens estimated that he was not focused on the arrest of 1991 or the latter, discredited child pornography grant – which Wolf saw as a homophobic witch hunt.

Archive photo of Paul Reubens from ‘PEE-Wee as herself

To reveal the artist behind his pee-wee alter-ego, Reuben’s 1,000-hour personal archive was the key-but while Reuben’s accused he was ready, he struggled to let go.

“I had to do with someone who had huge problems with control,” Wolf said. “I think he would say it about himself then. But so many artists. The difference with Paul was that he had lost control of his personal story in the media.”

The public first saw the man behind PEE-Wee in the Reubens called his “Charlie Manson” mug shot, long hair, free stares-when he was arrested on a Sarasota, Florida Porn Theater in 1991. It was a picture that would change his life forever. Private, he let Wolf in, but getting him on the camera took time. When he finally agreed that his need for control was obvious.

“It was a real power struggle that had been brewed and played out on the camera,” Wolf said. “I realized pretty quickly that this is part of who this person is, and he puts it on full screen in front of the camera.”

Reubens was particularly complex: an open gay Calarts artist who reintroduced the wardrobe, gave up love and felt fame and artistic independence as a character that preached deviation. It was a story about someone who practiced the ultimate control over his image and then experienced its complete loss in the tabloids.

Trying to reveal it on the camera led to real breakthrough, but the camera also captured how quickly Reubens could be triggered to distrust that documentary process without being the one who directed it. Wolf had no interest in being a character in his own film, but the director’s dichotomy that played on the camera would be the key to understanding Reuben’s complexity.

Paul Reubens in Chairman from ‘Pee-Wee’s Playhouse’

Wolf would make concessions, including letting the PEE-Wee creator, who once possessed by his “playhouse” sets, guides the documentary’s production design for interviews.

“I was also transparent that there is no script,” he said. “I would construct that story in post -production. It was informative and worrying for Paul because he wanted to be in the editing room every day, and there is no way I could do what I do that way.”

On the podcast, Wolf described a great struggle for the director who maintained the Final Cut. “I remember going with him after we had this struggle, and he (said),” we are afraid of the same thing. You want to check the movie you make and I want control over my life. ”

Wolf had always planned to divide his interviews with Reubens into three chronological blocks, separated by editing breaks. The second block covered Reuben’s life up to the end of “PEE-Wee’s Playhouse.” It was immediately after packing his child’s show in 1991 that Reubens visited his parents in Florida, during which his notorious arrest took place. Both director and subject were well aware that the effects of that event would be inevitable in the third and final block of interviews, which never took place. After the second block of interviews was completed, Wolf and editor Damian Rodriguez cut the first 45 minutes of the documentary and showed it to Reubens in the hope of completing the deal.

“We had a basic agreement, but negotiating an involved and long -shaped contract with the subject before you start can be a toxic process. It can really fool people,” Wolf said. “It’s a dance to make people feel comfortable, but also protect yourself while we made a movie. And we rode that line hard. So we were still in the process of closing a deal with Paul when we were filming. And it had been determined that I would have finally and he would have meaningful consultation, but the neat cruel of it was not.”

Reubens left the show several times and struggled to gather his thoughts. Then he disappeared. He stopped responding to Wolf, refused to sign the agreement and would not book the final interviews. HBO and the production assumed that the film was dead. The post team was dismissed and all work ceased.

“It was horrible. It was horrible for him too, I’m sure,” Wolf said. “It was just so devastating, mostly because everyone knew how good the material was and what a good movie we had on our hands … I continued to tell him that this movie would reintroduce him to a modern audience, would let him set the record straight after years of harmful and unfair gates … It just felt so devastating that people may not.” Don’t make it so devastating. heritage. “

By that time, Wolf had just turned 40. Having their biggest and most expensive project falls apart so late in the process was a threat to his career. His personal life suffered; Strider with his partner in two decades often became.

“It changed me like a human being,” he said. “I will never make a movie in the same way again. And I worry in some way that I somehow think the big struggle leads to the best art because I don’t think it must be true.”

Then, after almost a year without communication with Wolf, Reubens all shocked by signing the business. His lawyers asked how fast the third interview block could begin.

‘PEE-Wee as himself’

“I had a conversation with (Reubens) and his voice sounded weird,” Wolf said, describing their first – and last – conversation in a year. “He said that some intense things that for me indicated that he might be thinking about his mortality, that maybe (he) had a health diagnosis … He was not specific, but he said,” I will not be as involved as I had hoped, and I am sorry that I have been so emotionally in recent years. “And I said,” I’m sorry if I did things that upset you. “And he said,” You didn’t do anything wrong “, and then,” I trust you. ”

Just as he prepared to fly to LA and resume filming, the next shock came.

“I had no knowledge that he had ever had health -related questions, and I get a text from my executive at HBO with a screenshot from Instagram that says Paul is dead,” Wolf said. “And then I got a call from Paul’s publicist and long friend Kelly Bush Novak. She encouraged Paul to record a final message for the documentary. She was told that he had not had the opportunity to deal with his arrests, and it was important for him to deal with it – and he did so the day before he died.”

After hearing the last sound, Wolf began to put together the pieces. “I immediately knew what was happening here was part of the story of this movie,” he said. “And I went to work the next day.”

Seven months after the Emmy-nominated “Pee-wee as himself” premiered at Sundance, Wolf said he would never make another documentary in the same way again. He could not imagine having done this another way.

“I try to completely address the intensity that people react to this movie emotionally. I knew I felt so (to do it),” Wolf said. “But I also feel that there is nothing to do differently. He was an intense person. We had an intense relationship. What happened to him during his lifetime was intense. How he died was intense. It is intensity after intensity and brilliance and genius at full show – and so my job was to make it come over so you could experience it.

“PEE-Wee as itself” is nominated for outstanding documentary or nonfiction special, and outstanding direction, image editing, audio editing and audio mix for a documentary/nonfiction program.

To hear Matt Wolfwhole interview, subscribe to Filmmaker tolkit podcast on AppleThe SpotifyOr your favorite podcast platform. To look at the entire interview, subscribe to Indiegees Youtube page.



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