Dennis Quaid Dives Into Importance of Ronald Reagan’s Presidency
By Movieguide® Contributor
Dennis Quaid is proud to portray Ronald Reagan, one of America’s greatest presidents, in the upcoming biopic REAGAN.
“He became president at the exact right moment in history,” Quaid said of our nation’s 40th president while on Mike Rowe’s podcast. “In this country, we’d been through Watergate, went through all that. Jimmy Carter came along, who I voted for by the way. He was honest. There was this kind of like this becoming a man thing.”
“It was also the times with oil and gas, and there was a malaise that took over this country,” Quaid added. “He [Reagan] even said so on television, about the malaise that had taken over and we were a country in decline. That started from the Vietnam era and Reagan came along and it was the perfect time. He told us, ‘There’s a light and America is a beacon on a hill.'”
However, Quaid was initially unsure about accepting the role.
“I didn’t say no, and I didn’t say yes because, really, fear,” he told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview. “Reagan was my favorite president personally, and he was also such a recognizable figure around the world, sort of like Muhammad Ali.
“Everybody knew what he looked like, sounded like, and so that was a pretty scary proposition,” Quaid continued. “It was about feeling like I was going to be judged and feeling unworthy. He was the great communicator and all that. But I didn’t want to do an impersonation of him. I wanted to really kind of get to the core of who he was as a person. So, I put off saying yes.”
But when Quaid visited Reagan’s ranch in Southern California, he got the sense that the former president was a “humble man.”
“He was not a rich man, and there was a humility about him that was kind of the bedrock of who he was,” the actor explained. “And I felt him. I felt this core there. They had the ‘Western White House.’ It was bought by a circle of friends after he passed to keep it as it was. And their clothes — he and Nancy’s clothes were in the closet still, just like they were.”
“Then, a note from Nancy, you know, on how to do it,” Quaid said of the remote controls in the room. “Also just the land itself. You could see that it was him that did all the work there. You could feel it. And that’s when, after that, I said ‘Yes, I’ll do this,’ because I found a way in.”
REAGAN will be in theaters beginning Aug. 30.
Movieguide® recently reported on Quaid’s hesitations to play the role:
Dennis Quaid wanted to properly honor one of his favorite presidents, and he explained how he prepared for his role as Ronald Reagan in a biopic releasing this summer.
“It was a very daunting role for me…I voted for him,” Quaid told Crosswalk Headlines. “But I didn’t want it to just be a love letter, either. You always want to try to get to who he was. It was a very interesting journey in playing that role. In a way, the great communicator was kind of unknowable, to even the people who knew him, who were in his world. I think Nancy was the only person who really knew him. There was a very private side to him.”
Quaid was given roughly a year to prepare after being offered the role. He spent that time going deep into the history of Reagan’s life, trying to get a feeling for the qualities that were not always seen by the public. Quaid also spent this period getting to know Reagan’s childhood and his time in Hollywood along with his political career.
