Rob Reiner and son Nick would 'kiss on the lips' and fight furiously

For legendary director Rob Reiner, 78, and his troubled son Nick, working together on their 2015 film Being Charlie served as a last-ditch effort to repair their apparently 'hostile' relationship.

Nine years later, the famed Hollywood filmmaker and his producer wife, Michele Singer Reiner, 68, were found dead inside their Brentwood mansion on Sunday.

Nick, 32, was taken into custody that night and booked for felony murder on Monday.

Reiner and his son had collaborated on Being Charlie, a coming-of-age story about an 18-year-old with substance abuse addiction. 

The screenplay – co-written by Nick and Matt Elisofon, whom he met in a treatment facility – was inspired by Nick's numerous visits to rehab, the first of which occurred when he was 15 years old. The semi-autobiographical drama is said to have been Reiner's attempt at understanding his son's battle with drug abuse.

Insiders who worked on the 2015 project, however, have revealed to the Daily Mail that Reiner and his son were constantly 'butting heads' and 'bickering' on set, despite the film's initial intent to bring the pair closer together.

Erik Aude, 45, was an actor in the coming-of-age film but his scene was cut from the movie. 

When he learned that Reiner and his wife were found dead in their home, his shock over the news was immediately followed by one very grim prediction.

'I said, "I bet you anything it was his son,"' he claimed to the Daily Mail.

The stunt double recalled Reiner's unconventional dynamic with his son on Being Charlie.

'They were fighting and arguing with each other while they were on set. They were kissing each other on the lips, which was weird,' Aude said.

'They were bickering and going off on each other on set. It wasn't comfortable. There was definitely hostility there.'

Reiner and Nick did not shy away from 'showing their dirty laundry' in front of cast and crew members, Aude said.

He detailed one alleged incident where Nick was 'sitting on a couch' and Reiner was 'standing over the couch, and they were just bickering back and forth.'

Aude explained, 'The way couples would fight in front of people, they just don't care anymore about showing their dirty laundry, if that makes sense. That's the way the dad and the son worked.'

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Nathan Stevens, also an actor from Being Charlie, was equally as shocked by the tragic passing of the director and his wife.

A self-described 'huge fan' of Reiner, Nathan told the Daily Mail it was his 'dream role' to be able to work with the Oscar nominee.

He acknowledged that Reiner 'had his own way of doing things' on set compared to his son, considering Reiner's decades of experience in Hollywood.

'I'm sure he probably had some frustrations,' Nathan suggested about Nick's working relationship with his father.

'There may have been some miscommunications – just his dad being the boss, Nick being his son and of course it is Nick's movie. There were probably some issues with that. I'd see Rob acting like he was frustrated with Nick.'

However, Nathan said that Nick 'was always kind' on set and noted that 'he didn't seem like he was on drugs at that point.'

Nathan's brother David Stevens, who also was an actor in the film, agreed that Nick was 'happy' to be working with Reiner.

'He was really proud of himself. He was really proud to be his dad's son. He was just a lovely, joyful filmmaker,' David told the Daily Mail.

'[Being Charlie] was an attempt to continue repairing the relationship by doing something together.'

He continued: 'When a family has their demons – which a lot of families do, some more than others – but when a father and a son get the chance to, I don't know, exorcise those demons, not just in the story of Being Charlie but that a father and son could reconcile as well by doing something special like that.'

In interviews and Q&A panels for Being Charlie that year, Reiner and Nick would speak openly about how their up-and-down relationship was impacted by Nick's drug use.

The screenwriter admitted in a joint 2016 appearance on AOL's BUILD program that he 'didn't bond' well with his father when he was younger, but working together on Being Charlie 'made me feel closer to him.'

Meanwhile, Reiner said the experience helped strengthen his relationship with his son.

'It forced me to have to see more clearly, and understand more deeply, what Nick had gone through,' he said. 'It definitely brought us closer together.'

Both Reiner and his wife Michele also expressed regret at how they had dealt with their son's addiction issues during a 2015 interview with the Los Angeles Times.

'When Nick would tell us that [rehab] wasn't working for him, we wouldn't listen. We were desperate and because the people had diplomas on their wall, we listened to them when we should have been listening to our son,' Reiner said of his son, who the family said had achieved sobriety at the time.

Michele added: 'We were so influenced by these people. They would tell us he's a liar, that he was trying to manipulate us. And we believed them.'

Nick, who said he had gone to rehab 17 more times as of 2016, also claimed to have lived on the streets after he refused to go back to a rehab program.

'I was homeless in Maine. I was homeless in New Jersey. I was homeless in Texas,' Nick recalled while speaking about the film in a 2016 interview with People. 'I spent nights on the street. I spent weeks on the street. It was not fun.'

He said at the time of Being Charlie's release that he hoped to stay off drugs so that he would never be homeless again.

'When I was out there, I could've died. It's all luck. You roll the dice and you hope you make it,' he told People.

But much has changed since the days when the father and son hoped their rollercoaster relationship had finally turned a corner.

Signs of tension began brewing in September, when the family was photographed together for the last time at the premiere of Reiner's latest film, Spinal Tap II: The End Continues.

Nick, who was unsmiling at the camera, appeared alongside his parents and his two siblings – sister Romy, 28, and brother Jake, 34 – on the red carpet.

Behind the scenes, however, Reiner and Michele were 'at their wits' end' about their troubled son, a source told TMZ, and the Daily Mail has now learned of a blazing row that occurred on Thanksgiving weekend.

A family friend, who has known Reiner for over 50 years, told the Daily Mail of 'some sort of fight on Thanksgiving weekend' that was 'really bad between Rob and Nick.'

Nick, who had reportedly moved back in with his parents, was also spotted with Reiner and Michele at comedian Conan O'Brien's holiday party on Saturday night, where Nick got into a 'very loud argument' with his parents, according to People.

Just hours later, the couple's daughter Romy, who discovered their bodies, reportedly told police that a family member 'should be a suspect' because they are 'dangerous.'

Following questioning, Nick was taken into custody on Sunday night and was later booked for felony murder Monday morning. 

Los Angeles Sheriff's records initially showed he was being held on a $4 million bail, but he is now being held without bail.

A spokesperson for the Reiner family confirmed the deaths, saying, 'It is with profound sorrow that we announce the tragic passing of Michele and Rob Reiner.

'We are heartbroken by this sudden loss, and we ask for privacy during this unbelievably difficult time.'