Pee-wee As Himself Director Learned Paul Reubens Died The Same Way The Rest Of Us Did

Perhaps the most shocking thing about Pee-wee as Himself – a new documentary tracing the life and career of Paul Reubens, now streaming with a Max subscription – is that the film got made in the first place. The actor and comedian, who passed away in 2023 at the age of 70, was a deeply private person who, as explained in the doc, purposely hid behind the world-famous man-child character he created for years.

Reubens even saved a few revelations about himself for the doc, such as his true sexuality and how involved Phil Hartman was in Pee-wee’s development. He also kept one major secret from the makers of the two-part 2025 movie as it was being made, which director Matt Wolf reflected on in a recent interview.

Matt Wolf Discovered Paul Reubens Died On Social Media

A caption at the beginning of Pee-wee as Himself indicates that the filmmakers were not aware during the making of the doc that Paul Reubens was being treated for myelogenous leukemia and metastatic lung cancer – a diagnosis he had kept private for years, according to People. In fact, Matt Wolf would only find out that the subject of his film had passed (which inspired an outpouring of tributes from celebrities and friends) in the same way much of the public did, as he revealed in the following quote from his recent interview with Gold Derby:

I can only imagine what it must have been like to learn that a person you spent hours with discussing the most intimate details of their life had been nearing their last moments the entire time. The fact that Wolf was planning to meet with Reubens once more before his passing is all the more heartbreaking. However, the actor was able to leave one final audio message that is used in the doc and brings the film to a poignant, if somber, conclusion.

Stream Paul Reubens' best as Pee-wee on Max for less by bundling

Stream Pee-wee as Himself is just one way to get your fill of Paul Reubens' iconic character with a Max subscription, which also includes the original The Pee-wee Herman Show special and Pee-wee's Big Adventure. While a standard plan for the platform normally costs $16.99 per month, you could bundle it with your Disney+ and Hulu account for $29.99 per month, which ends up saving you more than $20 on three great streaming services.

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Matt Wolf Struggled To Earn Paul Reubens' Trust While Making The Doc

The fact that Wolf was not informed about Reubens’ diagnosis and discovered he had passed through a social media post is actually not hard to believe when you consider how important the actor’s personal life was to him. In another snippet from his Gold Derby interview, the filmmaker explains how this aspect of Reubens’ personality created a rift in his relationship with him while making, in my opinion, one of the best documentaries on Max:

There are actually several moments throughout Pee-wee as Himself that shed light on Reubens’ reluctance to divulge details about himself. The film even opens with Reubens making up a story about growing up in 1930s Mississippi before showing him confront Wolf about his concerns over how his career highlights and lows will be portrayed in the documentary. Near the end, a caption explains that Reubens stopped cooperating with the production after a year of filming, followed by audio from a phone conversation between him and Wolf addressing their conflict.

Pee-wee as Himself may not have come together exactly as Matt Wolf intended, but, as far as I am concerned, he still achieved with it a wonderful tribute to one of the most unique and influential voices in the history of show business.