Reiner on why Jews are funny: \u201cYou have Cossacks. You have Hitler. You have to have a sense of humor or you can\u2019t survive.\u201d (Electric Entertainment)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Also interesting was Reiner\u2019s choice for the actor to play the lead: Woody Harrelson, best known as the slow-witted Woody on \u201cCheers\u201d and for drawing comic roles in \u201cWhite Men Can\u2019t Jump\u201d and \u201cZombieland.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen people heard about the film, they\u2019d ask me who I\u2019d cast for the lead, and when I told them Woody Harrelson, they\u2019d say \u2018get out of here,’\u201d he recalled. \u201cI\u2019d say, \u2018wait until you see what he does.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The prosthetics change Harrelson into a close approximation of LBJ, but it is Harrelson\u2019s subtle yet powerful performance that is transformative.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told him don\u2019t try to imitate Lyndon,\u201d Reiner said. \u201cJust give me his essence and that relaxed [Woody].\u201d<\/p>\n
The film delves into a trove of compelling anecdotal info with which most non-political science majors (and majors who may have gotten D\u2019s) are likely unfamiliar. For instance, JFK (played here very competently by Jeffrey Donovan of \u201cBurn Notice\u201d) took Lyndon as his running mate at the suggestion of his father and over the objections of brother Robert (played by Michael Stahl-David).<\/p>\n
\u201cLBJ\u201d is infused, in part, with the director\u2019s personal experiences as a political activist. Nearly two decades ago, he spearheaded a successful effort to raise cigarette taxes in California and use the money to fund early childhood development programs. Subsequently, Reiner was appointed chair of the commission to oversee the project, a post he held for seven years.<\/p>\n
Around that time, he briefly considered running for office. Reiner asked his wife and three children for their opinions and the results were \u2014 how to put this? \u2014 discouraging.<\/p>\n
\u201cI only polled 40 percent in my own family,\u201d he recalled. \u201cIf I couldn\u2019t carry my own family, I didn\u2019t think I should run.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Reiner on why Jews are funny: \u201cYou have Cossacks. You have Hitler. You have to have a sense of humor or you can\u2019t survive.\u201d (Electric Entertainment)
Reiner is not a fan of the current administration, to put it mildly. As he describes it, \u201cwithout changing a single frame,\u201d his film changed between the time it was first screened, when Obama was president, to its release this week with Trump in the White House \u2014 meaning a film about a troubled presidency transformed into one about how best to govern.<\/p>\n
And, yes, his activism \u201cabsolutely\u201d has hurt his career, Reiner said.<\/p>\n
Even in liberal Hollywood, Reiner\u2019s outspokenness has earned him ridicule \u2014 not unlike the incessant ribbing he took on \u201cAll in the Family\u201d playing the liberal Mike \u201cMeathead\u201d Stivic opposite his arch-conservative father-in-law Archie Bunker.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no question that people have turned away from me,\u201d he said. \u201cYou should see what some people call me on Twitter. But I have to live on this planet and be who I am.\u201d<\/p>\n
And who he is, of course, is the scion of Carl Reiner and the late Estelle Reiner from the Bronx, New York. Dad, of course, is the author\/producer\/actor\/director of such hits as TV\u2019s \u201cThe Dick Van Dyke Show\u201d and the films \u201cOh God!,\u201d \u201cWhere\u2019s Poppa?\u201d and a string of Steve Martin comedies. Mom famously ordered whatever Meg Ryan was having in the legendary \u201cWhen Harry Met Sally\u201d scene filmed at New York\u2019s Katz\u2019s Deli.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy grandmother spoke Yiddish in the house, and my mother and father spoke a little Yiddish, too,\u201d said Reiner, who was a bar mitzvah. \u201cThey decided to bring a teacher in to teach me Yiddish, too. I learned a little, but he also taught the history of the Jews and it was like having a little shul at home.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was home shuling,\u201d he quipped.<\/p>\n
Reiner\u2019s sister-in-law is a rabbi, \u201cand we\u2019ll have Passover,\u201d he said. \u201cMy wife\u2019s mother lost her entire family in the Holocaust and my aunt \u2014 my father\u2019s brother\u2019s wife \u2014 did also, something we always think about.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, all this is reflected in my work. It\u2019s my sensibility. I\u2019m a Jew. I was raised a Jew. I value honesty and integrity and knowledge and education and all those values I was raised with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, Reiner was raised with another \u201cJewish value\u201d as well: comedy.<\/p>\n
\u201cJews are funny,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd there\u2019s a reason we\u2019re funny. You have Cossacks. You have Hitler. You have a lot of things weighing down on you. You have to have a sense of humor or you can\u2019t survive.\u201d<\/p>\n
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