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‘Pee-wee as Himself’ Director on His Attempts to Gain Paul Reubens’ Trust: ‘There Was a Real Power Struggle Between Us’
Matt Wolf talks about his Sundance doc 'Pee-wee as Himself,' his attempts to gain Paul Reubens' trust and completing the doc after Reubens' death.
In the 1980s, he starred as his alter ego, Pee-wee, in multiple films and a Saturday morning TV series “Pee-wee’s Playhouse.” But Reubens’ image as a beloved childhood hero was severely tarnished in 1991 when he was arrested for indecent exposure at an adult movie theater, and then again in 2002 when he was charged with misdemeanor possession of obscene material. But as it became clearer that documentaries are made in post-production, that created a lot of anxiety for Paul and for me because I wanted to be able to do what I do with integrity. So yes, it was a challenge when crafting the edit to make sure that he felt present throughout, even though we weren’t able to shoot that final interview.
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