NEED TO KNOW
John Candy’s son Chris is opening up about the new documentary about his late father
While speaking to PEOPLE on Oct. 2 at a special screening of John Candy: I Like Me, Chris revealed what he believes his father would have thought of the film
The documentary will be available to watch on Amazon Prime Video on Oct. 10
John Candy’s son Chris is opening up about the new documentary about his late father.
While speaking to PEOPLE exclusively on Oct. 2 at a special screening of John Candy: I Like Me at the Montalban Theater in Los Angeles, Chris revealed what he thinks his father — the actor and comedian who died of a heart attack in 1994 at the age of 43 — would have thought of the film.
“I think he would be uncomfortable, but this is a guy that didn’t like to go to his own movie premieres,” Chris, 41, tells PEOPLE.
“I would hope though, the John Candy of 2025, he would’ve worked on himself enough to be okay with himself, and then I know that he did love himself, but yeah, I think in that early phase, he probably would’ve felt a bit uncomfortable about the whole thing nowadays,” he adds.
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The documentary, which will be available to watch on Amazon Prime Video on Oct. 10, weaves together archival footage of John with interviews from some of Hollywood’s biggest names, including Tom Hanks, Steve Martin, Bill Murray, Martin Short, Mel Brooks, Catherine O’Hara, Eugene Levy and Dan Aykroyd.
Produced by Ryan Reynolds, the film premiered at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 4. It traces Candy’s upbringing in Toronto, his earliest screen roles, and his rise to fame with 1980s hits like Stripes, National Lampoon’s Vacation(1983), Spaceballs (1987) and Planes, Trains and Automobiles, (1987) — the latter inspiring the documentary’s title.
Reflecting on the project, Chris says he learned a lot about his late father throughout the filmmaking process.
“I think the thing that stood out the most to me was the influence that his comedy had on comedians that I grew up [watching],” Chris says. “I loved Conan O’Brien, Mr. Show with Bob and David, Kids in the Hall. To hear Conan O’Brien talk about how he was such a direct influence, my dad onto him, and then for me to be such a fan of his — to kind of see the connective tissue that my dad had within the realm of comedy was really an overwhelming feeling.”
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But beyond his father’s professional impact, Chris said the film also highlighted the more personal ways John lives on in his family.
“It was great to see the connective tissue between the two of us, and it was also really great to, I guess, see… what I’ve noticed is he’s been gone for 31 years, and there’s so much of him that I relate to,” he says. “He wasn’t there to tell me to do that. The behavior, the way we get up and make noises in the morning, all of these human things, he very much had that. And so, that was a real treat to see within the documentary through him onto me, my sister.”
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Chris hopes audiences can find a similar connection.
“I really hope that people relate to him as, I’ve heard this many times, ‘He was my TV uncle. He was there for me,’ and he kind of had people’s backs and saw people,” Chris says.
“But I hope for people who might be grappling with anxiety or these kinds of deeper issues we talk about in the movie, can watch him and say like, ‘Ah, you know what? I can relate to that too, and it’s okay to seek help, talk to a friend,’ or whatever it needs to be, because we came from a time that was so compacted, and we didn’t go there. And I think we’re telling a story that it’s okay to go there,” he adds.
John Candy: I Like Me is on Prime Video Oct. 10.
