Dennis Quaid Set to Play Ronald Reagan in New Movie. Here's What He Said About Playing the Role
One of the most beloved presidents in American history by folks on both sides of the aisle is Ronald Reagan, a man who accomplished some amazing feats during his time in office. You know, like ending the Cold War without firing a single shot.
Well, a new film is being produced about the Gipper and Dennis Quaid has been tapped to play the conservative legend on the big screen. However, it’s not a role he’s taking lightly. In fact, he says he’s nervous.
“[I’m] really, really nervous,” Quaid told Fox News. “When I got offered the role about four months ago, I couldn’t give them an answer. I had a shiver of fear go up my spine. I don’t really feel that I look like Ronald Reagan. But usually, that shiver of fear is a sign to me that I should do something because it takes me out of my comfort zone.”
Advertisement - story continues below“I’m fascinated by Ronald Reagan,” said Quaid. “And we do share a couple of traits. He had an optimistic, sunny disposition way of looking at life. And we’re both actors. He has an incredible life story. A story that I think most people really don’t know. They think they know the man, but they don’t.”
Quaid also insisted Reagan’s remarkable life and legacy is one that audiences, whether Democrat or Republican, will want to explore.
“The movie is not political,” he explained. “The script is not political. Reagan was a Democrat who turned Republican. And that’s what I like about it. It’s just the story of the man who was Ronald Reagan.”
The film will explore Reagan’s term as governor of California, his role in the fall of the Berlin Wall and his final days when he suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. “It will also delve a bit into John Hinckley Jr., whose obsession with actress Jodie Foster led to his attempted assassination of the Republican president in 1981,” The Hollywood Reporter said.
Quaid says he’s been preparing for the role by spending a lot of time at the Reagan ranch, stating that he’s read most of the books on the former president’s bookshelf.
This is an exciting project and the fact that it’s not political and is just focusing on the man’s life is an excellent approach to his story. His politics were just one small sliver of who he was a human being. Why define someone simply by their ideology, when the reality is, we’re all more complex than that?
Source: Daily Wire
