John Candy’s Son Was Shocked and Heartbroken When He Learned How Interviewers Fat-Shamed His Dad

The timeless brilliance of John Candy has nothing to do with his size or shape, so why did every entertainment reporter on the planet keep asking him about it?

Last weekend, American comedy fans finally got to take a look at the biographical documentary John Candy: I Like Me that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last month. Canada’s late and greatest-ever cultural export still has countless admirers south of the border, most of whom are dismayed and enraged at how casually interviewers of Candy’s time would make cracks about the SCTV star’s weight while speaking to the film and TV icon on camera. Sadly, Candy lived during a period when plus-sized people were expected to grin and bear it as others made appallingly rude comments about their weight, and his son, actor and writer Chris Candy, wishes he could just give his dad a hug and a sandwich.

Following a special screening of John Candy: I Like Me late last week, the younger Candy participated in a talk-back with director Colin Hanks, producer Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, who asked Chris to identify “one piece of the puzzle” from his father’s life that the movie taught him. 

“I was kind of shocked to see how interviewers treat him,” replied Chris. “That was just kind of heart-wrenching. And I also could see how he got more frustrated and he found ways to deal with that.” 

“I learned through the process of this that he was so nervous about eating in front of people because of paparazzi,” Chris said during the Q&A session, noting how the way the media scrutinized his father’s diet led to an unhealthy relationship with food. “He developed a poor eating habit where he’d be like, ‘Alright, well I’m not going to eat all day. I’m going to eat at night.’” 

Chris said that the revelations about the media’s treatment of the Uncle Buck and Planes, Trains and Automobiles star makes him wish he could go back and change how his father felt about his own body. “When I hear stories like that I just felt so bad for him because it’s like, ‘How cornered are you?’” Chris explained. “And you really want in those moments, as his son or as his friend, to be able to grab him by his shoulders and say, ‘Why the fuck do you have to do this? Just who cares? Have a sandwich and get mad about it.’” 

Sadly, Candy passed away when his son was just 9 years old, so the two actors never got the chance to have an honest and empathetic talk about how the casual bullying of the media can destroy the mental health of a person. However, the media as a whole can certainly start to have some conversations about how we treat celebrities like zoo animals and view their bodies as fodder for dehumanizing commentary — preferably with some of those surviving interviewers, and possibly over a sandwich.