The late actor Paul Reubens sat for more than 40 hours of interviews with documentarian Matt Wolf, whose two-part series Pee-wee as Himself is now showing on HBO. As viewers can see, getting at the man behind the beloved character was not always a walk in the park:
“Some conflicts between us were genuinely interpersonal,” says Wolf. “But I would say most of it wasn't about me, and I included these barbed exchanges between us in the film because I felt like those really reflected Paul wrestling with himself; debating how much he was willing to show and share his authentic self with the world.”
Wolf explains how his interest in overlooked artists and forgotten stories led to his portrait of the man behind Pee-wee Herman. He also talks about Reubens’ struggle with his sexuality, and reveals why HBO pushed for a two-part series to tell the late actor’s story.