To many people of a certain age, Paul Reubens – or rather Pee-Wee Herman – was part of their upbringing. Thanks to his children’s show and films like Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, the fictional character became part of the pop culture lexicon. In the shadows was the man behind the character, Paul Reubens, someone we never really got to know. Until now.
Prior to his passing in 2023, Reubens had opened up for the first time as part of an HBO documentary. While he participated in over 40 hours of interviews for it, there was one last interview that the director Matt Wolf never got. The plan was to shoot the interview in the first week of August. Reubens died the week before of cancer, which he battled for 6 years without telling anyone, including Wolf.
Completed after he was gone, the documentary premiered this past Friday. For the first time, we’re getting to learn about the man behind the iconic red bow tie, and what he was really like.
The documentary showcases Reubens work ethic, which was to be in control of the narrative. Many times in the two-episode series, you get to see Reubens almost at odds with Wolf for control. It was not your typical documentarian and subject relationship, and Wolf wisely made sure to include that in the finished product, so we can understand all of the different sides that made up Reubens.
His most famous creation actually didn’t start off in the world of children’s programming. It was born in The Groundlings improv troupe in the last 1970s in LA. The character got so successful there that they moved to the nearby Roxy. Herman’s show was initially less family-friend as the series would later become. Surprisingly, the character was treated more like an experimental art piece. That alternative world was the world Reubens stemmed from, after all. It was significantly more subversive and featured more double-entendres. This helped Herman fit in nicely with the punk crowd of the early 80s.
The line between Reubens and Herman are blurred purposely. In the documentary, Reubens opens up for the first time about his sexuality and being a gay man. Once he saw Herman gaining traction, he wound up going back into the closet, as he knew it would impact his career. As a result, Reubens was diligent to keep himself hidden in the shadows, determined not to have any images of him – sporting his trademark long hair and a beard – leak anywhere. He just wanted everyone to know him as Pee-Wee.
This worked well until his 1991 arrest after he was caught in an adult movie theater in Sarasota, Florida. All of a sudden, people were seeing Reubens for the first time, associated with a mug shot and in a less than family friendly light. The story was in the headlines for months and definitely impacted his career. As reclusive as Reubens was before, he now retreated even further. He was forced to be Paul Reubens in the public now, however.
The documentary is a chance for Reubens to take the narrative back, which perhaps explains why he was so protective of his story which led to disagreements with the director. This is literally his last words, as the night before he died, he recorded a message in the hospital to set the record straight, once and for all.
The film is a touching, revealing, and yes occasionally even sad look at one of the most creative minds of the last 50 years. And now we finally know who he really was.
