Director/Producer Collin Hanks and John Candy's kids, Jennifer Candy-Sullivan and Chris Candy, reminisce on their film 'John Candy: I Like Me' at THR's TIFF lounge at the 1 Hotel Toronto. Hanks and the Candy kids reflect on having a celebrity parent and how they were able to portray their experiences through the documentary.
00:00Our dad was this huge celebrity figure to so many people, but yet there were so many people that, you know, were his equals or fans of his that, you know, I get nervous talking to and I'm just like, hi, you know, and they're like, oh, I loved your dad.
00:14And, you know, they were fans of our dad.
00:17And it's just this great kind of like connecting the dots and all the circles coming together.
00:23How are you guys all feeling after last night, opening the fest and everything?
00:33Good.
00:33How did it go?
00:34I'm tired.
00:35Trying to process it all.
00:38Yeah, it was overwhelming.
00:39It was really beautiful, though.
00:40Fun night.
00:41Speaking for myself, I wasn't really quite prepared for the size of the event.
00:46You know, I mean, it's a great honor to be the opening night film for sure, but it just didn't really land until I went on that carpet and was just like, oh, my God.
00:59Like, what an absolute huge red carpet for John, you know, that was the thing.
01:07And I just tried to spend as much time as I could during all of that just thinking, wow, I think John would have really been blown away by the showing of love and support.
01:17And it's a rare occasion when the prime minister of the country introduces your film.
01:22His intro was fabulous and so detailed.
01:24And I love that he was an SCTV fan and just all the callbacks.
01:28It was fabulous.
01:29The fact that I actually had met John and had interactions with John, I actually looked at that as a hindrance at first because I don't know exactly how I can remove myself in that way.
01:44And the irony was is that I remember almost every exchange that I had with him.
01:51And I think that really informed, you know, for me, like what made John so special so that I knew what everyone was talking about.
02:03Everyone that, you know, had such nice things to say about John, I knew I can confirm that that is exactly what John was like.
02:11And historically, especially growing up in the position that we did, there's all of these people that come forward and want to do an A&E biography or any true Hollywood story.
02:22And as you're living with him, not around anymore, you go, OK, let's do that or we'll do this.
02:28And then you feel like you've fulfilled your job.
02:33OK, we helped him out and, you know, let's continue to live our life.
02:36But documentary changed and we didn't really realize that there was just this huge world of new storytelling going on in the doc space.
02:45And slowly people started coming out of the woodworks and presenting themselves.
02:49Oh, we'd like to do this. We'd like to do this.
02:50But it really wasn't for me personally till I started realizing that people were passing away.
02:57These stories that are really interesting need to be told by some of these people.
03:02And it was at that point there was this kind of crossroads between our family and Ryan Reynolds and then Colin was the person to do it.
03:11And he had a history already in documentary with Tower Records.
03:15It helps also with age for Chris and I to grow up and, you know, move more into adulthood and more into the closer of what our age and our dad's age and just understanding life more that we can kind of understand what we want, the story we want to tell and our family wants to tell.
03:36And then, like Chris said, and knowing with Colin and Ryan and just all the stars aligned and we were like, OK, wait, I think this is it.
03:44Are we doing this? We're doing this. We're going to do it. OK, let's do it. And we did it. Now we're here.
03:48The truth of the matter is there's no way that this film should be made without, you know, like we can't make a film about John without their involvement.
03:58It's just that that shouldn't exist if that wasn't the case.
04:03Colin was the perfect director for this because he had an understanding of what it's like to be in the position of having a, you know, a celebrity parent.
04:13And one of the things that has always stood out to me about you, Colin, is that you're very much your own person through and through.
04:20And I just to say that because it was very important for us to have someone who kind of understood the difference of where they came from and who they were.
04:30And so, yeah, it was a perfect film.
04:31Finding your own identity and your own path, but being very family oriented.
04:36Yeah. Did that come easily to you, finding your own identity in Bath or Bath?
04:40Does it come easily to anyone? I don't think so.
04:43No, no, no, no. We're still trying to figure it out.
04:46No, no, no. It's not easy for anyone. And if they say it's easy, I'll show you a liar.
04:52Did any of the stories that John's friends told in the documentary, or maybe some that didn't make the cut, but did anything really surprise you?
05:01Did you learn anything like new?
05:02This is obviously just something small and silly for me, but the fact that he came in and just shot like 25 hours straight on that home alone scene, I was like.
05:11When Dave talks about our dad having a rough night and going home and the car ride home or the walk home, and I didn't know that happened.
05:19I didn't realize that they had that exchange.
05:21So it was also kind of comforting to know that he, at least he started to have conversations with his friends about it because I didn't think they did.
05:31I didn't know, you know, as a kid, you don't know what kind of relationship your parents have with their friends.
05:36You kind of just see them always laughing, having a good time.
05:38But it was nice to kind of hear that our dad could kind of be, like, comfortable to talk with his friends.
05:46And that was almost kind of the beginning of him starting his journey with just figuring out everything that was going on.
05:54The one that I was really tickled by is Conan's story.
05:59He had told me that when I was on his podcast, like, before we had even started making the movie, he, like, was very adamant about telling me a story about how important it was to have spent that one afternoon with John, you know, at the Lampoon at Harvard.
06:17I was so nervous when I first met him to tell him I had photos because I was the one that sent him those photos from Harvard.
06:25And we were going through my mom's stuff, and I was working at Lululemon at the time.
06:29And I was, like, he was looking for pants, and I had come up to him, and I'm like, excuse me, Mr. Brian.
06:34Really? I was wondering how he got those photos.
06:36I randomly, I just was so nervous.
06:38And I went up to him, and I was like, hi, I'm John Candy's daughter.
06:41Do you need any assistance with these pants?
06:43By the way, I have photos of you at Harvard with my dad.
06:48And he was like, oh, my gosh, please send them to my assistant.
06:51And I was like, that's how he sent them.
06:52And I was, like, scrambling.
06:54And I was like, where did I put them?
06:55And then I'm, like, finding what I found.
06:56You know, it was just, yeah, but to talk about, like, you know, our dad was this huge celebrity figure to so many people.
07:04But yet there were so many people that, you know, were his equals or fans of his that, you know, I get nervous talking to.
07:12And I'm just like, hi, you know.
07:14And they're like, oh, I loved your dad.
07:15And, you know, they were fans of our dad.
07:18And it's just this great kind of, like, connecting the dots and all the circles coming together.
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