HBO’s ‘Pee-Wee As Himself’ Reveals The Real Paul Reubens

“I wanted kids to learn [that] not only is being different okay, let’s celebrate it.”

Goosebumps writer R.L. Stine aside, I can’t think of an artist who so drastically influenced the flavor, tone and trajectory of my creative life more than the late great Paul Reubens. I grew up in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and during this time, I religiously watched Pee-wee’s Playhouse and Pee-wee’s Big Adventure—'entranced’ might be the appropriate descriptive word.

As a relatively strange kid, these surreal pieces of media made me feel like I’d found a place where I could actually be me, and watching the new trailer for HBO’s upcoming two-part documentary Pee-wee as Himself has reminded me just how much Paul’s work meant (and still means) to me. It airs May 23 on streaming service Max, and the footage shown below looks really promising.

According to early info, the film was compiled using over 40 hours of revealing interviews with Reubens himself, which took place over the course of ten days. The chats were conducted by series’ director Matt Wolf, who apparently had a challenging time earning Reubens’ trust. The Groundlings alum was notoriously private.

Unbeknownst to Wolf, Reubens was battling cancer during the making of Pee-wee as Himself, and subsequently passed away in 2023 before the documentary was completed. The posthumous profundity here can’t be ignored, nor should it, I suppose. In fact, Reubens directly addresses this dark specter in the trailer: “Death is just so…final. To be able to get your message in at the last minute is incredible.”

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The film seeks to cover Reubens’ childhood, the birth of his manic alter-ego Pee-wee and the character’s subsequent rise to fame, as well as the controversial actor’s reputation-destroying brush with the law back in 1991. If you know, you know. There’s also interviews with friends and collaborators like Tim Burton, Laurence Fishburne and Judd Apatow.

It should be noted that Reubens served as executive producer on the documentary and was heavily involved in its creation, so I’m not expecting a totally unbiased account of Pee-wee’s history. But what we can hope for is a relatively honest glimpse into what might have been the real Paul Reubens, or as close as we can get to whatever that is.

I’ve always wanted to know more about the man behind the distilled insanity that was Pee-wee Herman, so I’ve got my calendar clearly marked for May 23. It will be a sort of homecoming for me, and in a way, a return to the source of my creativity. I can’t wait.