Former “Dancing with the Stars” competitor Corey Feldman took to Twitter on December 14 to share his raw feelings about the sudden and unexpected loss of Rob Reiner, who directed him in the 1986 classic coming of age film “Stand By Me.” Feldman starred in the film alongside “Star Trek” icon Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Kiefer Sutherland, and Jerry O’Connell.
Feldman competed on DWTS in 2025. He was partnered with Jenna Johnson, and went home in week 2 in a double elimination that also saw NBA great Baron Davis and his partner Britt Stewart voted off.
In his heartbroken post about Reiner’s death, 54-year-old Feldman poured out his heart as he shared what the talent meant to him.
Corey Feldman’s Statement on Rob Reiner
Feldman’s message about Reiner‘s death was short and heartfelt. Using mostly all-caps, he wrote, “Omg, this is horrible news! I’m so sorry for Rob and his wife, and their children, and the whole Reiner family! All I can say is I’m shocked and saddened, but I love you Rob! You will be forever missed!”
Corey Feldman Previously Recalled His ‘Stand By Me’ Audition
Far Out Magazine says Feldman looked back on what made his “Stand By Me” audition successful in a 2023 interview, and one of those things was channeling his inner rage in a positive manner. He told the outlet, “I’d just finished doing ‘The Goonies’ with Richard Donner and had to go in the middle of looping to read for ‘Stand By Me’, which was at that time called ‘The Body’. And my credits before this were ‘Gremlins’ and ‘Goonies‘ and ‘Friday the 13th’. So you know, I was kind of on a roll.”
He went on, “I was sitting in the waiting room, and I don’t remember who it was, but one of the kids who was up against me was talking with their mothers.” Feldman said he heard another kid call the “Friday the 13th” franchise “trashy,” before another chimed in, “Yeah, they’re terrible, you know, all the people in that, you never end up seeing them again. They never do anything; their careers just go right down the drain.”
Feldman then explained the remarks made him “so ambitious just to get this role.” He said he recalls seeing an later interview in which Reiner explained why he picked Feldman for the part. The director revealed, “He had said that the reason he chose me was that when I walked in the room, he saw so much hurt and so much anger in my eyes that he knew that I was the only person who could play that role.”
