NEED TO KNOW
John Candy’s son, Chris, wasn’t sure if the new documentary about his dad’s life, John Candy: I Like Me, was on the right path. That is, until he got a “cosmic greeting” from the late actor.
Chris, 40, opened up about making the documentary, which he executive produced, in an essay published by the Toronto Star on Sept. 3. The film premiered on Sept. 4 at the Toronto International Film Festival and will available to stream on Prime Video in October.
In the essay, Chris remembered driving on Highway 11 in Ontario with his friend, George, in October 2023. “We had just finished interviewing some dear family friends at their beautiful cottage on Skeleton Lake — the first of many for a feature-length documentary about my dad, John Candy,” he wrote.
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The movie was untitled at the time. “The only name floating around was ‘I Like Me,’ and I wasn’t sure if it felt right. Did my dad like himself the way his character, the affable Del Griffith from Planes, Trains and Automobiles, liked himself?” wrote Chris, who was 8 years old when John died from a heart attack in 1994 while filming Wagons East in Durango, Mexico.
Chris wrote that there was “so much” he didn’t know, but he knew he was beginning “a long, emotional journey” into his dad’s life.
And then it happened. On the highway, Chris spotted a “familiar-looking station wagon” in the flatbed of a tow truck. “It was an almost perfect replica of the Wagon Queen Family Truckster, the iconic fictional automobile from the 1983 film National Lampoon’s Vacation, complete with Ontario license plate reading ‘C GRSWLD,” Chris wrote.
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That movie was written by John Hughes, a close friend of John’s. The actor also appeared in the comedy as Russ Lasky, a security guard at Walley World. The license plate is a reference to Clark Griswald, the name of Chevy Chase’s character.
“I knew in that moment that it was a cosmic greeting from my dad — a nod, a simple thank you to his family for helping him finish his story,” Chris wrote.
John Candy: I Like Me was directed by Colin Hanks. Chris’ sister, Jennifer, is also an executive producer. Colin met John when he appeared in 1984’s Splash with his dad, Tom Hanks.
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“He just really made you feel unique,” Colin, 47, told PEOPLE of John at the Sept. 4 premiere of his memories of the star. “He made you feel heard and that’s a special thing for a little kid to feel like you actually matter and your opinion matters.”
“So really more than anything else is the way John made me feel and he made everybody feel that way, pretty much everyone he interacted with,” he said.
Candy rose to fame on Canada’s SCTV comedy series. He then went on to a thriving comedy film career, with movies including Uncle Buck, Cool Runnings and Summer Rental, among many more. Chris and Jennifer’s mom, Rose, also appears in the documentary, as well as John’s colleagues and friends, like Catherine O’Hara and Martin Short.
Chris wrote in his essay, “As the movie took shape, I watched my dad’s life being reconstructed before my eyes.” He called it a “strange, unique experience” that taught him he had not only a “genetic inheritance” from his dad but also a “psychological one.”
He added, “In my dad’s absence, I had always longed for his guidance; in a way, I felt I was granted my wish.”
John Candy: I Like Me streams Oct. 10 on Prime Video.
