More than two hours of Nick Reiner discussing his heavy drug use and difficult relationship with his parents have been collected in an episode of the addiction and recovery podcast Dopey.
The show, hosted by Dave Manheim, has previously interviewed notable guests including Jamie Lee Curtis, Marc Maron and more. Reiner appeared on the show several times and, in the wake of Rob and Michele Reiner’s death, an episode was released titled “Dopey Emergency Episode: The Reiner Family Tragedy.” After Nick’s arrest for the murder of his parents, the episode paints a grim portrait of his addiction, as well as his often fraught relationship with his parents.
In one discussion, Reiner talks about going “10 rounds with my guest house,” destroying his parents’ property while high, around the time he had a drug-related heart attack.
“I got totally spun out on uppers, I think it was coke and something else, and I was up for days on end,” he said. “I started punching out different things in my guest house. I think I started with a TV, and then went over to a lamp, and then progressive…everything in the guest house got wrecked.”
When asked why he did it, Reiner said that under the influence, “You’re crazy! No logic.”
Reiner said he began the destruction when his parents told him he needed to leave the guest house because of his drug use, and he got upset.
Reiner also details the time at 14 years old when he stole $200 from his parents to pay a sex worker to take his virginity while he was “extremely blazed” on edibles.
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“Some kid that I met at outpatient rehab told me you could do this,” Reiner said. “That’s how I knew how to do it. I think I was watching ‘Tom and Jerry’ or something, and I went over to my computer, got this woman’s number. I called her up.” He then went on to describe the sexual encounter in graphic detail.
Reiner also described how he wasn’t sober on the press tour for the 2015 film “Being Charlie,” which he co-wrote inspired by his addiction, and his father directed. He said that while he wasn’t on hard drugs during appearances on programs like “The Howard Stern Show,” he wasn’t clean.
“I said to them, ‘Listen, I’m not in the position to do this. I’m not a quote-unquote sober guy,’” Reiner said. “I’m going to have to go on to these talk shows. They say, ‘You gotta do what they want, the whole father-son angle.’ It just shows you how disgusting … I just went out there, and I just realized, ‘Look, I have a voice to some degree. I’m going to say what I’ve got to say while I’m here.’”
Reiner said that at the end of the day on the promotional circuit, he would “smoke a joint on the roof of my apartment.”
Listen to all of Reiner’s conversations on “Dopey” in the episode below.
From Variety US