Rob Reiner (‘Albert Brooks: Defending My Life’ director): ‘I wanted people who didn’t know about Albert’s genius to be introduced to him’ [Exclusive Video Interview]

It’s no secret that Rob Reiner and Albert Brooks had been lifelong pals dating back to their days attending Beverly Hills High School six decades ago, when they were mere lads of 16. Each went on to fame and fortune as performers and writer-producer-directors, Reiner co-starring as an Emmy-winning actor on “All in the Family” back in the 1970s and making such acclaimed films as “When Harry Met Sally,” “This is Spinal Tap” and “The Princess Bride.” Brooks, meanwhile, was nominated for an Oscar for his supporting acting work in “Broadcast News” while also writing and directing classic features including “Modern Romance,” “Lost in America” and “Defending Your Life.” But Reiner always believed that his buddy hadn’t received the acclaim due him, particularly for his early work as a groundbreaking conceptual comic performer.

“When ‘My Dinner with Andre’ came out many years ago (1981), I approached Albert and said, ‘Come on, let’s you and I do ‘My Lunch with Albert”,” Reiner recalls. “I said, ‘We’ll sit in a deli and talk and whatever comes out of it will be funny. And if you don’t like it, we can throw it away.’ But he never wanted to do it. He kept resisting. Finally, he said, ‘OK, OK, we’ll do it.’ I think what made it different and finally convinced him was that we wouldn’t just look at his work and career and all of that but would also focus on this friendship that we’ve had since we started high school. And the centerpiece would be sitting in this restaurant and talking to each other.” The result was “Albert Brooks: Defending My Life,” an HBO documentary that plays almost like a feature, covering all of Brooks’ career highlights framed as a warm reminiscence between old friends. Watch the exclusive video interview with Reiner above.

“It was great,” Reiner recalls, “because not only did we get into how brilliant he is as a comedian and his great body of work, but also the connection between the two of us. And Albert felt comfortable enough to share some more personal and intimate things about his life.” A primary reason for why Reiner has pushed Brooks to do it is the fact young people, and perhaps even middle-aged people, don’t much know who he is. “I wanted people who didn’t know about Albert’s genius and his brilliance to be introduced to him. But I also did it because I love him and respect him, and I’ve always looked up to him as somebody who was in a league by himself.”

Reiner had little problem convincing comedians to sing Brooks’ praises in the film. “Everybody kind of looked up to him,” he emphasizes. “That’s why in the documentary, you see Larry David and Chris Rock and Conan O’Brien and all of these very accomplished people. David Letterman even says he’d rather have Albert’s career than his own career. These are people who respect him deeply. Very often when they met him, they’d be thrilled if Albert liked something that they said.”

“Defending My Life” also gets into the fact that Brooks spent his early years being saddled with the birth name “Albert Einstein” and incorporates clips of him in his 20’s doing bits on “The Tonight Show” like a mime who never shuts up and The World’s Worst Ventriloquist. “We called it ‘Defending My Life’ not only to tie into his film ‘Defending Your Life’,” Reiner explains, “but because Albert has felt he was born too soon, out of his time. He was so brilliant that it took a long time for people to catch up to what he was doing and he was continually defending it.” Notably, Reiner’s famous father Carl Reiner (creator of “The Dick Van Dyke Show”) is seen telling Johnny Carson that this then-16-year-old kid named Albert Einstein was one of the most brilliant people he knew. “Albert could make my dad and seasoned professionals laugh,” Reiner notes. “He was a prodigy even then.”

Apart from the Brooks doc, Reiner expresses gratitude for having been raised by two such ingenious and down to earth men – his dad and the late “All in the Family” creator-producer Norman Lear, whom Reiner considered a second father. “I was very lucky that I had two men in my life who I could look up to that cared about me,” he says, “my father in my emotional development and Norman in my career…Norman always saw that I was funny and he gave me great opportunities. He always backed me.”

“Albert Brooks: Defending My Life” streams on Max.