Rob Reiner’s son Nick faked being 'crazy' to obtain medication years before his arrest

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Nick Reiner, the son of legendary filmmaker Rob Reiner, once resorted to extreme measures to secure medication during his stay at a New Jersey rehabilitation facility. 

This desperate act of pretending to be mentally unstable occurred years before his eventual arrest and served as the foundation of the experiences that inspired his film, 'Being Charlie'.

Nick Reiner admitted faking mental instability to get medication

In a resurfaced clip from the ‘Dopey’ podcast, Nick Reiner detailed his struggle with addiction at the Alina Lodge in New Jersey, where he found himself at odds with staffs that refused his requests for medication. 

He explained that he felt he had to "prove" his instability to the facility's staffs to get the help he felt he needed. 

In the 2015 episode, Nick recalled, “They refused to give me meds because they were like, you don’t need any meds. And I was freaking out.” 

Driven by a need to be taken seriously, he made a plan to show his distress through property damage. “I was like, ‘How do I show these motherf****s that I’m crazy?" he continued. “So, I was like, ‘I’ll throw a rock through a window."

Nick Reiner recalled throwing rocks through a meeting room window

The plan ended in a public display of rebellion as Nick targeted a meeting room on the facility's grounds. “I took a rock, and I started on the path, and I was going up this hill... and I went, and I threw the rock through the window," he shared. 

"Some woman saw me and she ratted on me and then they put me on an antidepressant called Wellbutrin." This moment was just one of many harrowing experiences during a decade of instability that saw Nick walk through 17 different treatment programs.

Nick Reiner shared how his struggles inspired 'Being Charlie'

These difficult years, which included stints of homelessness in Maine, New Jersey, and Texas after Nick refused his parents' specific treatment suggestions, became the foundation for the film 'Being Charlie.'

Directed by Rob Reiner, the project forced father and son to confront their broken relationship and the reality of Nick’s first rehab stint at age 15. 

“The whole process for me, I can just speak for myself, it did make me understand him a lot more, and I think it made me a better father," Rob said. 

However, the emotional weight remained heavy for Nick, who admitted that "sometimes it would get overwhelming for me" and expressed uncertainty about revisiting those memories.