Martin Short is having quite a unique Emmy season, and he knows it. His name is all over this year’s nominations, via three very distinct projects: As an actor, he’s nominated for outstanding comedy lead via Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building.” (He also has a comedy series nom for the show as an executive producer.) As a game show host, he landed a nod for ABC’s “Match Game.” And then he’s the subject of director Lawrence Kasdan’s Netflix documentary “Marty, Life Is Short,” which scored three noms this year.
Short isn’t actually a part of the production team on “Marty, Life Is Short,” so he won’t get an Emmy if it wins for outstanding documentary or nonfiction special. But he gave the film, and Kasdan — whom he’s known for 40 years — his full support.
“[Kasdan] phoned and said that he and Ron Howard and Imagine would love to do this documentary on me, and I kind of went, ‘I don’t know, I’ve written a book, I’m Canadian, we’re a little more reserved, let me think about it,’” Short says. Kasdan then left an eight-minute message explaining why Short’s story — about celebrating life, using humor to work through grief and more — was an important one to share.
Kasdan also knew Short had a ton of material to mine: “Through all these years, I’ve always had a camcorder,” Short says. “With all my kids, I would just film. And I’d have them transferred to DVD. Because of my relationship and trust with him, I was able to take these shelves of movies and just say, ‘here you go.’”
Not only that, but Steven Spielberg also sent over a ton of home movies he had made with Short in them. “So Larry had a great little treasure trove of stuff,” Short says.
When Short’s daughter Katherine died in February, Kasdan told the star that Netflix could hold back the documentary’s release if the star wasn’t comfortable with it at that moment. But Short told them that they should proceed.
“We met at his home a few weeks after, and he said, ‘Netflix will do whatever you want and I will do whatever you want,’” Short says. “And I thought, this really could be called ‘Love, Loss and Survival.’ As I’ve said in the past, my daughter had mental health struggles. And it’s a disease. Some diseases are terminal, whether they’re cancer or mental health. And so, I said, ‘I think we should proceed.’ And he said, ‘I think we should too.’”
And since the film premiered globally in May, Short says he’s heard from many folks on how they appreciated seeing how he navigated through such tremendous loss in his life.
Coincidentally, Short is also seen quite a bit in the Amazon doc “John Candy: I Like Me,” about his pal and “SCTV” co-star, which is competing against “Marty, Life Is Short” in this year’s Emmys documentary or nonfiction special category. Short says it was Candy who inspired him to start his home video habit. “In 1981, I got a VHS machine, and I went, ‘what am I doing? John has Betamax. We can’t exchange movies! So I went back and traded my VHS for Beta. You don’t even want to know my LaserDisc collection.”
As for “Match Game,” Short says there are no future seasons in the works for him, but “never say never.” And he’s tightlipped on what to expect for next season’s “Only Murders” other than its move to London and a new batch of A-list guest stars.
But he’ll be back in L.A. next month for sure, given his tremendous showing as an Emmy nominee. “Let’s do the cliché, it’s a tremendous honor to be recognized by your peers,” he says. Then he adds with a smile, “I am Mr. Emmy this year!”