‘John Candy: I Like Me’ Director Colin Hanks On His Documentary

Legendary actor John Candy has been gone for more than three decades, but his children Jennifer Candy-Sullivan and Chris Candy are celebrating his life and body of work in the new documentary John Candy: I Like Me, currently available to stream via Prime Video.

His daughter and son were joined by the film’s director Colin Hanks at the PMC Theater for a panel at Deadline’s Contenders Television: Documentary event. During a chat with Deadline’s Matt Carey, Hanks, son of Tom Hanks who starred with Candy in the 1984 hit film Splash, recalled what stood out to him about the late actor’s performances.

“A lot of people just remember him as being a comedian and a funny guy, but really, he was just a complete performer. There was always a little bit of John in each one of his performances. He brings a part of himself to each role,” Hanks said.

Using the example of a character Candy played on the sketch comedy series SCTV — he played a character named Johnny LaRue and his alter ego Johnny Toronto — Hanks said, “That’s all performance. That’s all a part of him having something inside of him that he needs to get out and perform. He had the ability, and the skill set to be able to tap into that, whether it was on stage, on film or just in person.”

Hanks recalls being about 8 years old when he met Candy in person and how the comedian made him feel.

“He was exactly the way you hoped he was. It’s a rare quality in a human being to have an 8-year-old feel like, ‘Oh, I know this person, I like this person, and I trust this person.’ I have these memories of John being around and being the nicest, kindest guy. I felt like it was my responsibility as a director to convey some of that for those that never got that opportunity to meet him.”

Candy’s children revealed now was the right time to make a documentary about their dad because it’s taken that long for them to better know who their dad was.

“We had a good understanding of him over time. I think it takes time to understand your parent or whoever. We were able to grow up and learn a bit more about who we were to then understand who he was,” said Chris Candy.

He continued, “So when we had more clarity, it was really obvious then for us to partner with a good group of people to be able to tell that story.”

Candy-Sullivan added, “I think it also had to do with the evolution of documentaries changing and we had done stuff before, and it felt like now was the time to tell his story the way that we had envisioned.”

Check back Monday for the panel video.