NEED TO KNOW
Ryan Reynolds and Colin Hanks are ready for the world to learn more about John Candy.
John Candy: I Like Me — which Hanks, 47, directed, and Reynolds, 48, produced — premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on Thursday, Sept. 4.
On Friday while visiting the PEOPLE/EW and Shutterstock studio at TIFF, Reynolds said he had known Candy had been coping with anxiety prior to his death, but “I didn’t need anyone to tell me that he did,” he said sitting next Colin Hanks, who directed the film.
“You can tell. You can just just tell,” said the star. “Sometimes you can identify it really quickly, like, ‘Oh, there’s a guy whose skills are, to a certain degree, cultivated through a coping mechanism.’ That he’s funny — it’s all of these things that protect him.”
“So yeah, I would’ve guessed that. I would’ve bet a lot of money on that. I would be happy to be wrong, thrilled to be wrong, but he’s also a people-pleaser,” Reynolds adds of the late comedian, whose good deeds and affable personality are chronicled in the film.
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“I know I have some of those traits, and people-pleasing and mental health, they don’t coexist very well together at all, because you never want to burden anybody else with anything. You never want to be a problem for anybody else,” Reynolds says.
“So mental health, the only way to kind of push back at it is to talk about it — is to sort of take the stage or take the space and own it and hold it and go, ‘Hey, I’m having a tough time and I need help,’ ” he continues. “And that’s tough for a people-pleaser to do. It’s really, really hard actually. So I feel for that guy struggling through that for so long at a period where it was just starting to be acceptable to talk about it a little bit more.”
Colin, whose father, Tom Hanks, appeared with Candy in 1983’s Splash and 1985’s Volunteers, says that he can relate to the idea of putting up healthy boundaries but calls it “an ongoing process.”
“I definitely spent a lot more time thinking about my own mental health throughout the course of making this because it was so obvious, because the subject matter was that,” Colin adds.
He continues: “It’s not [about John] fighting some horrible addiction because he was [in] some dark nefarious aspect of his life. He’s incredibly humane. How do we deal with our trauma? Big T or little T? It doesn’t matter. We’ve all got it. So I definitely took a look at mine while making this, and will continue to.”
Candy’s daughter, Jennifer Candy-Sullivan, is also among the film’s co-producers, as is her brother, Christopher Candy, and their mother, Rosemary Margaret Hobor.
Prime Video
Jennifer tells PEOPLE that the idea of boundaries is “always something that we’re working on,” referring to her and her brother. “I myself am a people-pleaser, always have been. I think it’s also a Canadian trait of us wanting to make sure that everyone [is okay]; we apologize for everything,” she says. Her father, she added, tried to set boundaries by taking control financially.
“He would pay for things,” she says, or give quiet donations. “That was him, that was his boundary. Because if he can control the situation, he can control how everything goes.”
And now, she has learned that individuals have to “take care of mental health, physical health, everything” for themselves. As Colin describes it, “You got to put your oxygen mask on first before assisting the child.”
Reynolds notes parenting his four children has helped him in the same area. “Talking about boundaries with them [and] equipping them with the skills to go out and maintain those. It’s important. It helped me too. It’s like a practice for me too,” he says.
The trailer for I Like Me, which was released just hours before the film’s TIFF premiere on Thursday, shows glimpses of fellow comedy titans who worked with and admired Candy during his life, which was tragically cut short in 1994 at age 43.
“I can’t tell you what was right about John Candy, or what was wrong. But he was my friend,” Candy’s Stripes (1981) costar, Bill Murray, says at the start of the preview. “And… I don’t wanna cry, but when you see him, when you see his face….” he trails off, tearing up.
In addition to Murray, Steve Martin, Catherine O’Hara, Dan Aykroyd, Tom Hanks, Martin Short and Mel Brooks are also featured in the documentary.
Per a synopsis, the film features “never-before-seen home videos, intimate access to his family, and candid recollections from collaborators to paint a bigger picture of one of the brightest stars of the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s.”
“It’s the story of a son, husband, father, friend and professional driven to bring joy to audiences and loved ones while battling personal ghosts and Hollywood pressures,” the synopsis adds.
Prime Video
After sharing his love for Candy over the years, including a 2019 tribute calling the late star a “Canadian hero,” fellow Great White North native Reynolds announced the doc in October 2022.
“With John Candy trending, I’ll just say I love him,” Reynolds wrote as the star started trending on Twitter, now known as X, ahead of the Planes, Trains and Automobiles 4K re-release. “So much so, @maximumeffort is working on a documentary on his life with @colinhanks. Expect tears.”
Candy’s children showed their support at the time, with Christopher quote-tweeting Reynolds and writing, “This is all true.” His sister added, “Boom! So looking forward to working on this with them and our family. This project is in great hands.”
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John Candy: I Like Me is available to stream Oct. 10 on Prime Video.
