Colin Hanks Was Hesitant to Direct a John Candy Documentary, Until He Learned One Thing

Colin Hanks remembers the exact moment he met John Candy. He was just a child when his father, Tom (you may have heard of him before), starred in Splash with Candy, yet the Canadian comedian talked to Colin as if he weren’t a six-year-old with zero business walking around a film set. “Even as a kid, he connected with me,” Hanks tells me. “He made me feel heard, and that’s rare for an adult to make that kind of impression on a kid. Not many adults do.”

Some 40 years later, Hanks received a cold call from Ryan Reynolds. They had exchanged messages here and there over the years. The two actors were both young stars coming up in Hollywood around the same time, though they had never worked together before. Still, Reynolds was a massive John Candy fan, according to Hanks, so the Deadpool star pitched him an idea. “He said, ‘Look, I don’t know what it is, but I just think a John Candy documentary should exist.’ ”

Hanks responded, saying, “I don’t disagree with that statement at all, but I also don’t know what that would look like.” The now-47-year-old actor and filmmaker was no novice documentary filmmaker. Hanks directed 2015’s All Things Must Pass, a film about the rise and fall of Tower Records. He also made a 2017 film on the California rock band Eagles of Death Metal. Although he wasn’t actively searching for his next documentary subject at the time, he knew that he could do John Candy’s story justice only if he found the right angle. He told Reynolds, “If you’re willing to really take the time and figure that out, I’d be happy to see if there’s something there.”

Hanks found the spark after talking with Candy’s family, which led to John Candy: I Like Me—a new documentary directed by Hanks that premieres today on Amazon Prime Video. The key to unlocking John Candy? The actor’s father died when he was just five years old.

“That was a big, big moment for me,” Hanks says. Though the documentary chronicles all the love and warmth that Candy brought to the world through films including Uncle Buck, Home Alone, and Planes, Trains and Automobiles, the film also touches on the grief that Candy carried throughout his entire life. He was a people pleaser, fearful to ever let a friend or business partner down. According to his son, Chris, John had just started processing his father’s death in therapy when he himself died of a heart attack in 1994 at 43 years old.

“We are celebrating a really great guy who was genuine, generous, funny, kind, and all of the things that you wanted him to be,” says Hanks. “I noticed, because I’m also a performer, what that’s like to feel drawn to do something and feel like that’s your calling, but all of that stemmed from coping mechanisms that helped keep him alive and functioning. So the fact that John was just beginning to explore that for himself [before his death], that really spoke to me.”

Then Hanks called Reynolds with his idea—and the rest is history. Below, Hanks shares more about what interested him in John Candy’s story, exploring the gloomier side of Candy’s life, and Macaulay Culkin’s “holy shit” moment during their interview for the film.

“We watch Home Alone every year in this house,” Hanks says. “My wife and kids are obsessed with it.”

ESQUIRE: John Candy’s films are filled with this amazingly warm brand of comedy. And as I watched your documentary, I couldn’t help but feel a bit sad that Hollywood seems to have forgotten how to make films like Home Alone and Uncle Buck.

COLIN HANKS: I remember when we first started shooting in Toronto, and we were waiting at a restaurant. The hostess, she was trying to kill time because the table wasn’t ready. So she was like, “What are you guys doing in town?” We’re like, “Oh, we’re making a film about John Candy.” And she said, “Who’s that?” We all just went like, Oh, that’s right. There are people that have no clue who he is. I said, “Well, he’s a really funny actor. You ever see Home Alone? Remember the polka guy that picks up Catherine O’Hara? That’s John Candy.” She goes, “Oh, I love him!”

I knew early on that part of the film was going to be about showing a side of John that no one really knew about. We were going to have to remind people why they fell in love with John and why he was important, and at the same time introduce him to an entire new generation of people. Hopefully we’ve been able to accomplish all those things.

Do you have a favorite John Candy film?

I’ve seen The Great Outdoors a bajillion times. There was a period where I watched Who’s Harry Crumb a lot. And we watch Home Alone every year in this house. My wife and kids are obsessed with it.

Did you learn anything new about your father when you interviewed him for the documentary?

I didn’t know about all the improv that they were doing within those scenes in Splash. I hadn’t seen Splash since it came out in the theaters. So to know where my dad was at that point in his career—and how important that movie was for him—to have someone that he really admired play with him, that was super fascinating.

Was there a point where you thought you might have included the story of when you met John as a kid around the filming of Splash?

No, I don’t ever want to be in one of my documentaries. I spend enough time in front of the camera with the other gig. [Laughs.]

Bill Murray jokes in the film about how difficult it is to say anything bad about John. Was it difficult to get John’s celebrity friends to open up and talk about the darker moments of his life?

Yes and no. This is part of the human condition. John is not an open book. No one is, really, so you never really know what the deep personal connection is between people until you ask. There were some people that loved John and worked closely with John, but it wasn’t deeply personal. So it was more about asking. But I will say that one of the things that I found was that from their perspective, they would say, “Well, John wasn’t morose. He wasn’t sad. He was a happy-go-lucky dude. Why are you asking these questions?” I mean, they didn’t say that, exactly, but the vibe was kind of like, “What are you talking about? I didn’t even know he did therapy.”

That’s when I would need to remind myself that I know more about John at that moment than maybe they do. I don’t mean that to say that I knew John better, but because of the nature of what I’m doing, I know a little bit more about where his head was at. Maybe they don’t know about John’s dad passing away when he was young, and maybe they don’t realize how much that affected him. Plus, I always say up front: I’m going to ask a million questions, and a majority of them are going to be wrong, but we can talk about whatever you want and then go from there.”

Colin Hanks, Ryan Reynolds, and Martin Short at a screening of the film at the Montalban in Hollywood.

A lot of comedians show up in the documentary, including Steve Martin, Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Mel Brooks, Bill Murray, Conan O’Brien, Macaulay Culkin, and Catherine O’Hara. Were you surprised how many people wanted to talk about John?

I remember having a conversation with Martin Short, very, very early in the process. I basically asked him, “Should I do this?” I’ve known Marty for a long time, and he said, “Your biggest problem is going to be no one’s going to say no. Everyone’s going to want to say yes.” And that was true. I remember having to write Questlove and Chris Cornell emails saying, “Thank you so much for speaking with us for our Tower Records documentary. Unfortunately, you are not in the finished film.” So I’m very cognizant of the fact that there’s only so many people we can talk to, but everyone said yes.

It felt like Macaulay Culkin had a real light-bulb moment during your interview about Uncle Buck, when he realizes that he’s just one year older now than John when he died.

I really connected with the fact that when you’re a kid, you think adults are so much older than you. I was a teenager when John passed away. He was an adult. It just seemed so far away and so removed from what my existence was. Now I’m 47. I’m older than John was when he passed away. Part of growing up is looking at the people that were adults when you were a kid and then realizing, Oh, I’m their age. Sometimes it can be really illuminating. When I heard that, I was like, Holy shit. Yeah, that makes sense.

John Candy and Steve Martin in Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

I was so taken aback by some of the old interview footage of reporters asking him about his weight or just openly sharing their negative opinions of his films.

Absolutely heartbreaking.

It’s just something that, as a journalist who does those interviews almost every day, is like seeing the worst version of your profession play out in real life.

I was not prepared for was how cruel some of those interviews were. They just talked like that to the man’s face and insulted his weight. Now it wouldn’t be allowed, and rightly so. It shouldn’t be. So I was really surprised. The first few interviews I saw were glowing, and he was still so uncomfortable. I was like, God, he’s not at all what I thought he would be like. Then I saw all the other interviews, and I went, Oh. He’s waiting for that other shoe to drop. As someone that knows someone is going to eventually ask a question about my dad, you’re always like, What’s it going to be? Is it going to be an interesting one, or is it going to be a lazy one? And to see how much John had to sit through and deal with, it pissed me off and broke my heart.

I’m glad that that actually resonated with you, because it’s important. That’s not a great way to get someone to talk, and definitely not when you have five minutes in a fucking press junket. That’s absolutely fucking absurd that they would treat him that way.

But the thing about John is that he had every right to tell those people off, and yet he didn’t. If they’re going to ask those questions, that’s on them. That was a very interesting way that he dealt with that. But again, all of that speaks to what the latter half of the film explores, those pressures. All those things add up.