Reiser and Falk on The Thing About My Folks

Posted by: Daniel

Paul Reiser's new film THE THING ABOUT MY FOLKS is a deeply personal venture for the actor/writer. The story came from the inspiration of his father and was always intended to star actor Peter Falk. Reiser says, "I grew up just adoring Peter Falk' he was the only movie star I ever fell in love with... I didn't care about Sophia Loren, I didn't care about Natalie Wood. But Peter Falk - I loved this guy... I think I got my appreciation of Peter from my dad."

Returning home for a visit with his parents in 1983, Reiser found out just how much his father liked the "Colombo" star. "My dad was watching a Peter Falk movie on TV - I think it was THE CHEAP DETECTIVE by Neil Simon - and he was just belly-laughing. And he never really belly-laughed,.. I said, 'Huh. Peter Falk's the only guy that always makes my dad laugh.' The next morning I woke up and thought, 'Okay I've gotta make up a movie or something with Peter Falk as my father.' I just had those two people in mind and they merged."

Staying on the same semi-biographical train, Reiser based much of the on screen dynamics of the relationship between Falk (Sam Kleinman) and Olympia Dukakis (Muriel Kleinman) with elements of his own parents' marriage. As with his own parents, Mr. and Mrs. Kleinman meet when, fresh out of college, she interviews with him for a job. She's hired, and takes care of the business when her husband is away during World War II.

Working on the story for about 20 years, Reiser says that the tones and themes have changed to reflect his own progression into fatherhood. It wasn't until he was married and a father of two children of his own that he could sit down and write the screenplay and be able to approach the story from the perspective of a father and a son.

Peter Falk warmly received the screenplay from Reiser when it was completed, and says "I instantly fell in love with my character... There's something about somebody who can be so wrong and who never makes any apologies for it, and who you know loves all the other people that consider him a pain in the ass. That's irresistible to me. I just identified with that man because he was like my father. And then I found out it was based on Paul's father."

Dubbed a funny, generous comedy about the things that matter most in life, THE THING ABOUT MY FOLKS hits screens nationwide October 15th.

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