When actor Paul Reubens died of cancer in 2023 at the age of 70, it came as a shock to filmmaker Matt Wolf, director of Pee-wee as Himself . They had spent many, many hours together in interviews for the HBO documentary, yet Reubens never told Wolf about his cancer diagnosis.

What Reubens kept from people – his sexuality, after he became famous, or much of anything about his personal life – became a central theme of Wolf’s exploration of the gifted comedic performer. Pee-wee as Himself scored five Emmy nominations , tied for the most of any nonfiction film or series this year.

Wolf joins the new edition of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast to discuss his film, shedding light on a project that became a power struggle between filmmaker and subject over control of the narrative. He

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