Colin Hanks Explores John Candy’s Life in New Documentary

HARI SREENIVASAN: Christiane, thanks. Colin Hanks, thanks so much for joining us. You just did a documentary on John Candy, a beloved comedian across North America — Canada, and the United States. And, you know, one of the first things that you start out with is a line from Bill Murray, a friend of his, and he says, “I wish I had some more bad things to say about him. But that’s the problem. When you talk about John.” You know, in all the research that you did, I guess, what kind of man was John Candy?

 

COLIN HANKS: Well, he was everything you expected him to be for sure. You know, there is so much about John that we celebrate, the kind of person he was. He was very, very genuine, gregarious, outgoing, caring, all of those things, all of those elements that you wish John was, he was. He was the genuine article. But at the same time, when you’re telling, you know, a story and you’re trying to do a film about the guy, yeah, you gotta find some dirt, per se, you know, in, in, in, in a way. And that was, you know, sort of one of the challenges for us, you know, as, as you know, as the people making the film, is, you know, what is the story that we’re, we’re telling — that inside story that was, you know, John’s struggles. 

 

SREENIVASAN: You know, what was that inside story? What did you discover?

 

HANKS: Well, I was really shocked to find out about his childhood. You know, his father died on his fifth birthday. And the amount of effect that that had on his life, I think can’t be understated. And, and, you know, I, I don’t necessarily mean in, in, in horribly dramatic ways. I’m talking about just essential life trauma, which everybody has, you know, “big T” or “little t” —  doesn’t matter. But all of the coping mechanisms that John had — that kept him alive, that kept him, you know, that turned him into who he was — those were all very special and very unique and, and is what made John so, you know, kind of perfect in a way. But, it also was the thing that was starting to not work for him, you know, as he got more and more famous and as he sort of progressed in his career and he had just started to do that work when he passed away. So that all of that just seemed to be just so relatable. And that was the thing that I really wanted to explore.

 

SREENIVASAN: We are not of the age where that was the — they were our contemporaries by a long shot. You and your producer, Ryan Reynolds. I mean, what made you guys such super fans? What made you want to be part of this, this kind of storytelling in the first place?

 

HANKS: Well, Ryan is just a massive John Candy fan for sure. And, and he kind of has willed this into existence, and he is been very vocal about it for years. And, and for me, you know, look, that’s kind of just a generational, you know, comedy icon kind of situation, you know? I mean, I grew up watching them in, in in movies. You know, I’ve seen so many movies with Catherine O’Hara, John Candy, Martin Short, Eugene Levy, I mean, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, the list goes on and on and on. They, they’re, I always kind of equate it as like special high school classes, right? For, for me being fortunate enough to become an actor, a working actor who’s been in movies, they are the ones that proceeded. They are the class from a couple of decades before that you look up to and you admire. And I know that, you know, Ryan was absolutely tickled by the fact that we were able to essentially speak with, you know, our idols, you know? And, and he got to, he got to, he, he even got in on the interviews yeah, because he, you know, he was just so, so tickled at the chance to be able to, you know, talk with Bill Murray.

 

SREENIVASAN: He, he got a start in — he’s a Canadian, he was working on SCTV, he was working in Toronto at Second City, and, you know, what were those kind of early years like? Because when you look at the alumni, so to speak, of — his cohort, the people that were working with him — they all, most of them, turned out to be enormous stars in their own right.

 

HANKS: It is a special, special time and a special place, Toronto in the early seventies, without a doubt. There is just, there was something in the air. I, I don’t know what it is. I’m sure Malcolm Gladwell could probably write a book about it if he hasn’t already <laugh>. But there was just something about Toronto at that time. And it was a supportive environment, you know Andrea Martin speaks to it beautifully in the movie. It was a time and a place where everyone came together and was supportive. And I think that also, you know, sort of stems from this sort of ethos of, of improv and Second City. You know, it’s not an individual achievement. It’s a, it’s a team achievement, you know? “Yes, and?” you know? So the fact that there were as many people, you know, in Second City and SCTV and, you know, the infamous Godspell production there in Toronto as well. I mean, it was just a, a a, an Allstar team. 

 

But they became the Allstar team that, I mean, that’s the thing, like, you gotta keep in mind, I — for me, I’m always thinking about, those are just young adults. They’re all friends. Like, there’s no guarantee that even one of them is going to become successful. And yet they all did. I mean, it’s just, it’s such, such a special time and special place.

 

SREENIVASAN: There was a period in Hollywood in the eighties and nineties where John Candy was in kind of every other movie. We had comedic hits like Stripes; Splash; Planes, Trains and Automobiles; Space Balls; Uncle Buck, just to name a few. 

 

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SREENIVASAN: Give us a sense of what that period was like, how big John was.

 

HANKS: There was a period there where comedies just were king. And there were every — and they were everywhere, and they were being made nonstop. It was a boom you know,. And so John sort of found himself in the right place, the right time with the right attitude. And, and he took advantage of that. Not only, you know, because, you know, he was savvy guy, but he was also a funny, talented guy. And people wanted that in, in, you know, in their films. 

 

So John found himself, you know, in demand and, you know, being the person that he was, he said yes to everything, and it didn’t matter what the size was. You know, that’s the other really amazing thing about John is, you know, he could be Uncle Buck, you know, he could be that lead actor, the, the name of the film, but he could also be the security guard in National Lampoon’s Vacation, you know or he could be the polka king in  Home Alone. He just found a way to, you know, always be ready to work. And, you know, people, people loved him for it. 

 

SREENIVASAN: You know, one of the interviews that you do is your father who worked with John Candy on Volunteers and Splash. And I wonder, did you ever hear descriptions of who this guy was? Did your dad ever talk about what’s happening at the office, so to speak? And did that, did that match what you learned in the documentary?

 

HANKS: It, he — not so much talk about it. I mean, I was there. I mean, I have memories of going on the set of Splash and, and of Volunteers. And so John was around. I didn’t know him as, you know, John Candy, the actor, he was just John. But he was — he, he made me feel special even as, you know, a 7-year-old kid. He made me feel seen, he made me feel heard, like there’s just something about John and the way that he carried himself, he made everyone feel that way, regardless of what they did, regardless of how old they were, you know? 

 

SREENIVASAN: You know, Catherine O’Hara said something in there, that he “had such a good sense of others and what they needed.” And, you know, there’s this throughline that you see ever since kind of from his father’s death at an early age, all the way through later in his life, that he really was the guy who took care of everyone around him, almost to his fault.

 

HANKS: Yeah. And that was actually one of the very first things I spoke about with with Chris Candy and, and Jennifer Candy, his, his two kids. They, they, they spoke with us for the film, and they were really instrumental in, in sort of helping me understand exactly who John was and, and what it was that he was, what he was struggling with. And, and one of the things that Chris said very, very early on was, he took care of everyone but himself. And that really struck a chord with me. You know, that feeling of putting everyone else first and sort of putting himself at risk. You know, look, this is just small personality stuff, right? This is, but this is also humanity and, and that’s the kind of stuff that I really like exploring. 

And that’s the really — to me that, that’s the meat of, of documentaries… is, you know, let me try and give you an essence of who these people are or were, so that you feel like you can understand them as humans a little bit better. And when, when Chris said that about John, I was just like, “Wow, okay. There’s a lot, there’s a lot here to explore.” And it, it really, you know, made me incredibly grateful to be able to be the one to, to tell that story.

 

SREENIVASAN: Yeah. And you have a ton of archival footage in there, and you have these sort of candid these, these home videos and I wonder, I mean, there, there were these moments where you just saw this character that we’ve seen John Candy, but then you see this human being behind him that is actually visibly going through these struggles, whether they’re on interviews where people are kind of asking him very rude questions about his weight, or about his success, et cetera. And did you kind of feel for the guy that’s there, not the actor anymore?

 

HANKS: Yeah. And, and again, that’s that humanity that, that, that I, I always wanna try and present, you know, I, I don’t know exactly why. I just assumed that John would be the happy-go-lucky, gregarious John Candy mined for all, you know, his interviews. Like, I, you just sort of assumed that he was like that. But I was shocked to see how uncomfortable he was in interviews, how, you know ill at ease he was. And I think ultimately it was because deep down, he knew eventually they’re going to be asking me about my weight. Eventually they’re gonna be asking me to talk about something that he didn’t wanna talk about. You know, not because you know, for, for the only reason why it wasn’t that like important to him. It was so important to everyone else. And so I think deep down, he was just always waiting for that, that next question.

 

And to be honest, I was incredibly shocked at how those questions were asked. And that to me, really said a lot about the kind of things that John was struggling with at the time. Because it’s not just that they’re picking him apart, you know, and saying, you know, “You’re big and you’re heavy and you’re fat,” or any of those things, but the manner in which they did it, it’s soul crushing really, when you think about it. And, and, and it is stuff that wouldn’t fly these days. I mean, people just wouldn’t ask questions like that in that manner anymore.

SREENIVASAN: You know, I was surprised when his son was talking about how his dad had sort of crippling self-doubt and anxiety, because again, like what he projects to the world is, oh, this gregarious, funny guy who so must be so confident, lights up a room, et cetera, and you kind of catch these glimpses of — and tell us — about these times that he was almost paralyzed.

 

HANKS: Yeah. And again, I think this speaks to one of the things that really attracted me to, to telling this story. John was the everyman, you know, there’s not a person on earth that says, “I don’t like John Candy.” <laugh> You know, I mean, I would tell people I’m doing a documentary, and they would instantly go, “I love John Candy.” There’s this, there’s this thing about him. But, you know, behind all of that, we all have our own struggles. And it turns out John’s everyman sort of quality, he had the same struggles that we all have. And I thought that that was just so incredibly touching that I wanted to sort of celebrate that, you know, and show that, you know, all of that stuff’s okay, you know, that, that we all struggle. Even the guys that, that look like they’re, they don’t have a care in the world.

 

SREENIVASAN: And it’s also kind of important to remember the context that, you know, at the time of his death or just before, I mean, the conversation about mental health just was not certainly what it is today, right?

 

HANKS: No. 

 

SREENIVASAN: And that, this idea of taking care of yourself or going to therapy, that that didn’t really — people didn’t talk about that.

 

HANKS: No, not at all. And, and that, that re — when I was able to sort of pinpoint that, that was when I got really excited about the possibility of making this movie. There was no doubt that John’s career and his personality was, you know, warranted a documentary. I, I understood that. But I needed something very, very specific to, to sort of get my interests, because, you know, I was gonna spend the next three years making the movie.But that idea, that very idea that, that, that you’re talking about, that, you know, mental health nowadays is open discussion. You know, every, the, the term mental health <laugh> In and of itself is very, very common. It’s understood now. The conversation is out in public, and it’s, it doesn’t have that same stigma. But, you know, in the nineties not so much, and definitely not in the sixties when, you know, he’s going through, you know, losing his father at a young age and all that stuff. It’s just not, not discussed. And so when we would say like, “Hey, did John ever talk with you about, you know, him going to therapy?” People of that generation, would go like, “No, we just don’t talk about that.” You know? And I just found that to be such an interesting sort of generational, you know, shift that it was — again, that that was something I was like, I really wanna work, you know, with, with that ’cause 

 

SREENIVASAN: Like most people my biggest introduction to him was the movie Plane, Trains and Automobiles. And while I thought that was a, you know, extraordinary acting on his part, it, after watching your film, and in the context of your film, the, the kind of monologue that he has in there – where he says the name of the movie that you have  “I Like Me” – it was just so touching and gripping. 

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SREENIVASAN: All of a sudden I was seeing like, how much of this is John Candy, the human being, and how much of it is now the actor speaking, because it was just, his performance was so sincere.

 

HANKS: Yeah. I couldn’t agree with you more. And, you know, I, I really you know — as someone who wears makeup and pretends to be other people as, as, as the other half of my job — to look at John’s performances, knowing what I know now about his life and how he was able to inject parts of him himself into every role, you know, not just in Planes, Trains and Automobiles, as silly as it may sound, I can see it in, you know, a lot of his even broader stuff as well. But, you know, just the little things that John was able to put into each one of his performances, there’s real soul there. There’s real humanity there. And when you look at Planes, Trains, and Automobiles now, I don’t think there’s any other actor on earth that could have given that performance.

 

SREENIVASAN: Mel Brooks, the phenomenal director and actor – he says of John – “Two generations passed and his memory is still as lovely as ever.” Why do you think it is that we are still able to remember and discuss John Candy — what, 31 years after his passing?

 

HANKS: Yeah. I mean, yeah. That, that’s the thing. I think it’s because of that connection that he made. I, I think there was something so genuine about John that it sort of, it, it, it surpassed any other kind of presentation, if you will. He was real. And people felt that, and I think regardless of whether they met him in person or they just saw him, you know, you know, on, on the movie screen, there was just this inherent sense in, in you is like, “That’s a good guy.” And that’s unique, man, that’s special.

You know, a lot of people, you know, like to call my dad the nicest guy in Hollywood. And I just go, well, clearly you, you never met John Candy ’cause John, John was really the John’s really the, the, the, the, the, the title, the champ on, on that.

 

SREENIVASAN: The film is called John Candy: I Like Me. Director Colin Hanks, thanks so much for joining us.

 

HANKS: Thank you so much for having me.