Inside Maria Shriver’s Relationship With Her Four Brothers

Robert Shriver, fondly known as Bobby, is the family cinephile. Not only does he run two nonprofits, but he also produced the 2023 Amazon Prime film “The Burial,” a true-life courtroom drama starring Jamie Foxx and Tommy Lee Jones. Intrigued by the unlikely protagonists, Bobby shared with Amazon that he’d read a New York Times article about the story of a white man from Mississippi flying to Florida to hire a Black lawyer to represent him in a case against a funeral home, inspiring the film. He also produced “True Lies” with Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1994 and two other films in the 1990s, including “Black Cat Run.”

Maria Shriver produced two thought-provoking Netflix documentaries on psychiatric medication with her daughter Christina Schwarzenegger. “Take Your Pills,” about Adderall, which is based on Christina Schwarzenegger’s personal experience with the drug, and “Take Your Pills: Xanax.” The films look at the proliferation of prescribed stimulants, cognition-enhancing drugs, and anti-anxiety medications in the U.S. since the 1980s and their little-publicized adverse side effects. 

Maria had been in media for decades when the opportunity to work with her daughter aligned. “Part of my mission is to use media to inform, ignite, and inspire,” she said in an interview with her publication, Maria Shriver’s Sunday Paper. “Christina’s desire was to educate and entertain people … I think [the film] hits the sweet spot of educating, entertaining, and being thought-provoking.”