Celebs
“I surprised the hell out of myself by giving him a hug.”
Mainer Stephen King wrote this week that he’s only written one “nakedly autobiographical story … about my reality as I had lived it on the dirt roads of southern Maine.”
That was his 1982 novella “The Body,” originally published in the collection “Different Seasons.”
In Rob Reiner’s hands, it became the 1986 film “Stand by Me” — now a classic coming-of-age movie.
Director/actor Reiner, 78, and his wife Michelle were found dead Sunday at their home in Los Angeles. Investigators believe they suffered stab wounds, according to the AP. Their son Nick, 32, has been charged with two counts of murder in connection to the deaths.
In an op-ed for New York Times, published Tuesday, King wrote he felt a “combination of sadness and disbelief” when he heard the news.
The New Englander/ bestselling author recalled: “I think I saw ‘Stand by Me’ in the fall of 1985…I think he showed it to me in a room at the Beverly Hills Hotel.”
Reiner left the room.
“Later he told me he couldn’t bear to see my reaction if I didn’t like it.” King watched the film alone, he says, reliving pieces of his Maine childhood.
“I was surprised by how deeply affected I was by its 89 minutes,” King recalled.
“When the movie was over, I thanked Rob and surprised the hell out of myself by giving him a hug. I’m not ordinarily a hugging man, and I don’t think he was used to getting them. He stiffened, muttered something about being glad I liked it, and we both stepped away.”
King then found “the nearest men’s bathroom and sat in a stall until I got myself under control.”
While there were some differences — the movie takes place in Oregon, for instance— in Reiner’s hands, King wrote, “it all rang true.”
“Those kids were my friends … There really was a kid who went swimming and came out covered with leeches in surprising areas, but it wasn’t Gordie Lachance; it was me.”
For the uninitiated, in the movie, Gordie (Wil Wheaton) is the sensitive kid who wants to be a writer. Like many young artists, he feels like an outsider. He feels his parents don’t get him.
“I had felt just that torn between the writing life and the lives of my friends, who were living for the moment,” King wrote.
There’s a gut-wrenching scene when Chris Chambers (River Phoenix) says to a weeping Gordie: “You’re gonna be a great writer someday, Gordie. You might even write about us guys if you ever get hard-up for material.”
“That weeping boy was me,” King wrote. “It was Rob Reiner who put it on the screen.”
The remaining three stars of the film, Wheaton, Jerry O’Connell, Corey Feldman—Phoenix died in 1993 — kicked off a 40th anniversary tour “Stand By Me” tour, with a stop in Lynn Dec. 6.
The movie, meanwhile, is now streaming on Netflix. (More King movies streaming here.)
Reiner also directed the now-classic 1900 chiller adaption of King’s 1987 novel “Misery.” The plot of each: a writer (James Caan) held captive by an obsessed fan (the brilliant Kathy Bates.)
King mentioned both movies in a Dec. 15 tweet, adding, “Rest in peace, Rob. You always stood by me.”
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