Actor who starred in Nick Reiner’s biographical movie directed by dad Rob breaks silence after stunning homicide

Nick Robinson, who played a version of Nick Reiner in the semi-autobiographical movie Being Charlie, has broken his silence following Rob and Michele Reiner’s murder.

‘RIP Rob Reiner. He showed me so much kindness and grace as a young actor,’ Robinson, 30, wrote on his Instagram Stories on Monday, as per Us Weekly.

‘An incredible artist with such a capacity for empathy and warmth,’ he added. 

Robinson included several photos of Rob within his tribute post. 

On Monday, LAPD confirmed Nick, 32, was ‘responsible’ for the death of his father Rob, 78, and mother Michele Singer, 70.

Hollywood actor and director Rob and his wife Michele were found dead in their $13.5 million home with fatal knife wounds, including slashes to their throats, according to sources. 

Nick, who is known to have a history of drug addiction and volatile mental health, was booked on a federal murder charge on Monday morning, LA Sheriff’s Office records show.

And back in 2015 a journalist for the LA Times named Steven Zeitchik met with Rob, his wife Michele and Nick for dinner amid the Toronto International Film Festival when they were promoting their joint project called Being Charlie.

Rob directed his son’s semi-autobiographical drama which was based on Nick’s experience with heroin addiction and homelessness.

Journalist Steven met with the family to speak about the project and says the encounter shed some light on the dark dynamics between Nick and his parents.

Following the tragic deaths he writes in The Hollywood Reporter that the encounter with them was ‘jarring’ and that Nick seemed uncomfortable at promoting the film, while Rob gushed that he was ‘so proud’ of his son.

At one point during the dinner talk turned to one particular line in the film that Rob had really wanted to be included but Nick was less sure about.

The project saw Robinson cast to play Charlie (based on Nick), while Carey Elwes played David (based on Reiner).

In the film – which received mixed reviews – Charlie resents the harsh way his parents treat his addiction – enforcing mandatory stints in rehab.

The line from the film Rob really wanted including was from the dad character David to his son Charlie saying: ‘I’d rather have you alive and hating me than dead on the streets.’

Journalist Steven describes the conversation about the line being included saying Nick ‘didn’t seem so happy’ that Rob had insisted on it.

He writes of the moment they spoke about the particular line: ‘Rob really, really wanted it in. It explained how he felt, even justified it, even though he was now apologizing for thinking that way, for being so hard on his son.

‘I looked over at Nick. He didn’t seem so happy to have the line in the film. It was, perhaps, too excusing of the kind of parental pushing he didn’t want to excuse.’

During the dinner Steven writes that Nick seemed unsure in general about the film being released as it was based on his real life struggles.

Steven wrote of Rob: ‘At the dinner I saw a man who wanted so badly for resolution to be true, for reconciliation to find its way to them, that maybe he was pushing harder than things should be pushed – that maybe he was trying to will his son into someone he couldn’t be.’

Nick is now being held in jail without bail after police determined he was ‘responsible’ for his parents’ deaths.

His struggles with addiction began in childhood, with Nick entering rehab for the first time at the age of 15.

By the time he was 19 he had been to rehab 17 times, having been caught in a continual cycle of seeking treatment then relapsing.

Yet amid his addiction battle, Nick turned to writing, eventually penning the screenplay for Being Charlie, which was loosely based on his struggles.

Discussing the film with PEOPLE, Nick previously shared: ‘It’s not my life but I went to a lot of these places, so I had a lot of these stories.’

On how his experiences tallied up with the screen, Nick continued: ‘I was homeless in Maine. I was homeless in New Jersey. I was homeless in Texas.

‘I spent nights on the street. I spent weeks on the street. It was not fun.’

He explained that he was on the streets when he refused to go back to rehab, stating: ‘If I wanted to do it my way and not go to the programs they were suggesting, then I had to be homeless…

‘When I was out there, I could’ve died. It’s all luck. You roll the dice and you hope you make it.

‘I met crazy great people there, so out of my element. Now, I’ve been home for a really long time, and I’ve sort of gotten acclimated back to being in L.A. and being around my family. But there was a lot of dark years there.’

The film ends with Charlie’s father apologizing to him for the way in which he treated him during his addiction battle – which Reiner revealed was based on a real experience.

He told L.A. Times: ‘When Nick would tell us that it wasn’t working for him, we wouldn’t listen. We were desperate and because the people had diplomas on their wall, we listened to them when we should have been listening to our son.’

Michele added: ‘We were so influenced by these people. They would tell us he’s a liar, that he was trying to manipulate us. And we believed them.’

In a post-screening Q&A amid the film’s release, the pair were asked about their relationship now.

While Nick did not answer, Reiner said that ‘we didn’t set out for it to be cathartic or for it to be therapeutic, but it turned out to be that’.

He added ‘there were disagreements’ and ‘at times it was really rough’ when the pair were trying to figure out how to depict the reality of their relationship in the movie.

To which Nick confessed: ‘Sometimes it would get overwhelming for me.’

Yet Reiner noted that their relationship had changed for the better.

‘To be honest, by the time we got to the point of making the movie it didn’t matter if we actually did,’ he mused. ‘Because our relationship had gotten so much closer.’

When the film was released in 2015 Nick said his priority was remaining sober so that he would never return to the streets again.

He also reflected on the lack of ‘bond’ he had with his father growing up, citing their very different interests.

Nick recalled: ‘He really like baseball. I like basketball. When I saw him do [direct Being Charlie] and it was something that I’m interested in, I was like, ‘Wow, he really knows a lot.’ It made me feel closer to him.’

For his part, Reiner praised his son for being ‘the heart and soul of the film’, noting it was the ‘most personal’ project he’d ever worked on.

Reiner made many of the best-known movies of the 1980s and 1990s, including Stand By Me in 1987, legal thriller A Few Good Men in 1992 and romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally in 1989.

On Sunday, a Reiner family spokesperson confirmed the deaths of the director and his wife, saying: ‘It is with profound sorrow that we announce the tragic passing of Michele and Rob Reiner.

‘We are heartbroken by this sudden loss, and we ask for privacy during this unbelievably difficult time.’

The couple’s daughter Romy – who lives across the street – is said to have made the grim discovery when she visited their sprawling six-bedroom estate.

Nick had moved back in with his parents in recent weeks, Deadline reported. The young man, who had since a teenager struggled with drug addiction and homelessness, was once again spiraling.

One family source told TMZ that Rob and Michele were ‘at their wits’ end’ about their troubled son, and at some point on Saturday night he had a blazing row with his father at comedian Conan O’Brien’s holiday party.

Other guests overheard the commotion, but brushed it off.

Romy is one of Reiner’s four children. The director also had sons Jake and Nick with Michele, while he adopted daughter Tracy with his ex-wife Penny Marshall.