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Part of legendary nights. From backyard jams to sold out arenas, there's a song in every toast. Please drink responsibly.
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Hey folks, welcome to the show. Our Black Friday deal, it's here. It's come right now. Daily Wire + annual memberships are 50% off. Be one of the first to watch the Pendragon cycle, Rise of the Merlin. Join today@dailywire.com subscribe all right, folks, a little bit earlier this year we had the opportunity to sit down with Dennis Quaid about Ronald Reagan, about the movie Reagan. Here's what it sounded like.
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B
Republicans and Democrats need each other. That's what we're, that's what we don't admit because we keep each other from going too far one way or the other. You know, the fringe is taking over. I myself, I'm an independent. I mean, I've voted both ways all my life. So I'm not a registered Republican. But once the judicial system was used on him, to me that was messing with our Constitution and that's not America. And that's what, you know, got me back the other way that I, I'm definitely voting for him.
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A
This week on the Sunday Special, Dennis Quaid joins us ahead of the premiere of the upcoming biopic Reagan coming to theaters nationwide Friday, August 30th. Quaid is quite the Renaissance man. He's a two time Golden Globe nominated actor, musician, self proclaimed golf addict and licensed pilot. As after over 40 years in Hollywood, Quaid recently moved to Nashville, where he founded his own production company, Bonnie Dale Films. Quaid is known for his roles in Breaking Away, the Right Stuff, Big Easy and the Parent Trap. But his career has spanned nearly every genre of film from dramas to thrillers, rom coms and action roles. In today's episode, Quaid discusses how he prepared to portray Ronald Reagan, including his visit to the Reagan ranch and his observations about Reagan's psyche. Quaid also reflects on the parallels between our current political moment and President Reagan's era, offers a few predictions about the future of Hollywood, and shares a few of his favorite all time films. You don't want to miss Dennis Quaid in Reagan coming out in theaters nationwide August 30th. From Hollywood to the Oval Office, Quaid brings one of our country's greatest presidents back to life on the silver screen. Welcome back to another episode of the Sunday Special, Dennis Quaid. Thank you so much for stopping by.
- [03:31]
B
Thank you, Ben. Thanks for having me.
- [03:33]
A
Absolutely. So let's jump right into it about the film. So obviously it's the first biopic of Reagan which is in and of itself totally insane. He's one of the most historic president in American history. He left office when I was 4 years old, I'm now 40. So why don't we start with what do you think took so long? Why didn't Hollywood do this earlier? He was a Hollywood guy. You would imagine it's a pretty good Hollywood story. What took Hollywood so long to make this film?
- [03:55]
B
Yeah, no kidding. That's a really good question and I don't know if I could really answer it. But I do know that this script, Mark Joseph, who was like the producer who really champion this thing, he's had this script since 2008. I think that's when it began. And then it was a question of financing and everything. And I don't think the studios really wanted to make it. There wasn't much interest around for it. And so he basically independent financing, which I'm really glad that we had to tell you the truth because we had control over the story. And I was first asked to do it in it was 2017 that Mark came to me and it took me a while to say yes to tell you the truth because Reagan was my favorite president. I mean I lived through all this. I voted for Jimmy Carter in 76. That was my first time I could vote. But then I voted for Reagan in 80. And I went back home there in California. My roommate said, who'd you vote for? I said, reagan. He said, you're kicked out of the hippies. So I turned in my card and that was it.
- [05:07]
A
So you get the script and you're thinking about it. What were sort of the considerations as to why you at first didn't want to do it? Obviously you said your favorite president, but were there career considerations also given the fact that Hollywood is pretty famously not super receptive to warmth toward even mildly right of center ideas?
- [05:25]
B
Well, as far as all that politics of it went, no, that didn't really come into my thinking about it. A shiver of fear went up my spine when they asked me to do it because Reagan's like Muhammad Ali. Everybody in the world knows what he looks like, walks like, talks like everybody's got a story. Everybody, you know, they all have an opinion, I mean, negative or positive about it. But at the same time he looms large and in anybody's life that's over like 45, 50 years old. And so that I didn't want to do an impersonation. I guess I was a little afraid of being judged and I didn't really think I really looked like him or could get there. So it took me a while. But mainly it was about putting all the out exterior stuff aside. For me, acting is about what makes people tick, you know, and you have the public Persona, but you have to be able to get behind that as an actor in order to make someone come alive and not just be an impression.
- [06:40]
A
So let's talk about that.
- [06:42]
B
Took a while. So I didn't say yes and I didn't say no.
- [06:45]
A
So how do you get into Ronald Reagan's head? Obviously you have writings by Ronald Reagan, you have biographies of Ronald Reagan.
- [06:50]
B
Right.
- [06:51]
A
How do you go about doing the research into playing a real life gigantic figure like that?
- [06:55]
B
Well, before I said yes, I read a couple of biographies about him. Besides having lived through all everything I lived through, you know, and. But then I went, I got invited to the Reagan ranch, which was the Western White House back then. It's. Reagan bought it after he was governor of California and it's not open to the public. A group of friends bought it after his death and kept it exactly as it was when he and Nancy were there. I mean, their clothes are in the closet. Still expect him to come back anytime. But I went up the worst road in California, five miles of it to the top of that mountain and came out through the gate. And that's when I made up my mind, basically, because I felt like I got him. I could feel him there at that place. And it was very obvious that Reagan was actually a Very humble man. He really did do all the work around there. You can feel that. And the house itself, the Western White House back then, it's maybe 1100 square feet and, you know, very modest. The bed was a king sized bed, but it was two single beds that were zip tied together. You know, it was. You could just feel both of them, he and Nancy in that place. And that's where I made up my mind to do it.
- [08:34]
A
One of the things that's fascinating when you read biographies of Reagan is that pretty much everybody who knew him, maybe except for Nancy, talks about him having this sort of inner reserve, how he would, you know, he would be in the room with you and obviously he would interact with you. But there was a part of him that he sort of kept behind a wall. What do you think that was?
- [08:51]
B
That's the thing between impersonation and getting to the person. But what makes them tick. I've played several real people in my life and I feel like I have a responsibility to those people to, you know, whether it be Doc Holliday, who's not even alive anymore, or, you know, or Jimmy Morris and the Rookie, to do it from their point of view, because that's the way we live our lives, from our point of view. And there was that thing of Reagan. I heard from everyone that knew him that there's this impenetrable space that he always had. This is the great communicator, quite jovial of a person. But there was this place that you couldn't get past as well, a very private place. And I think that was always there with him from childhood, really. And I think it had something to do with people, you know, a lot of people coming at him. As far as being so public, he had to have that even in a crowd to be able to have his privacy, in a sense. And I think that also was kind of a place where he. That was really where he would go in prayer or meditation or whatever you want to call it. But that place was reserved. And I think he really needed something like a place like that because the world was always coming to his door.
- [10:47]
A
We have some more with Dennis Quaid in just one moment. First, I've been with PeerTalk for a very long time now, and honestly, I've never seen them do anything quite like this before. So here is the deal. They are offering unlimited talk, unlimited text, unlimited data, plus a 30 gig hotspot, all for, for just 29.95amonth. That price, it is locked in for life. And this is normally the premium plan that goes for 65 bucks a month, but if you switch before December 7th, you get it for 29.95 every single month from here on out. That's more than half off permanently. And yeah, it's on their 5G network so you're not sacrificing speeder coverage. Look, I know these kind of offers don't really stick around for very long. If you've been thinking about switching carriers, now would be an excellent time. Head on over to PureTalk.com Appura to grab the deal. And honestly, it's worth telling your friends or family about it as well. If you have kids and you're thinking about getting any of them a first phone this Christmas or just looking to cut back some unnecessary costs, this Pure Talk deal is truly worth checking out. I rely on them for all my phone calls. Best price, great coverage, company that likes me. What do you have to lose? Make the switch in as little as 10 minutes. Keep your phone, keep your number. Start saving with unlimited for Life for just 29.95amonth. Again, that's PureTalk.com Shapiro to switch to my wireless company PureTalk. Taxes and fees not included. Some restrictions apply. See Pure Talk.com for details. Offer ends 1272025 Also, sleep is your secret weapon during cold and flu season. It is literally when your immune system does its work. But here's the thing, you can't get that deep restorative sleep if you're tossing and turning on the wrong mattress. Whether you're fighting off germs or trying not to catch them in the first place, having a mattress that actually supports your body and keeps you comfortable all night isn't just nice to have it's an essential thing to have. Nobody wants to be tired and run down during the holiday season. Helix knows how to make sure you're waking up your best self. Finding the right mattress doesn't have to be guesswork. Helix makes it simple with their Sleep quiz. It asks about your preferences and sleep style and then matches you with the mattress that's actually right for you. They're not just making promises. Helix is the most awarded mattress brand out there, with glowing reviews from Forbes, Wired and other trusted experts. The best part? They deliver straight to your door with free shipping, so no hauling anything yourself. Plus. But they're happy with Helix guarantee you get 120 nights to try it out and a limited lifetime warranty. So if it's not working for you, returns and exchanges are totally seamless. It's basically a risk free way to finally get the sleep you deserve, especially when you need it most. I have my personalized Helix sleep mattress for years. Firm but breathable. That's what I need to sleep on. But that might be different for you, which is why they make a different mattress for you. Go to helixsleep.com ben for 27% off site wide. That's helixsleep.com Ben for 27% off site wide. Make sure you enter our show name into that post purchase survey so they know we sent you. That's helixsleep.com Ben. And that goes all the way back to his childhood. I mean, obviously he had an incredibly rough childhood. His father was not around when he was. Wasn't good. He grew up not wealthy at all. He's a true American legend in terms of his success story and in terms of the trajectory. But you carry that with you. I'd imagine that sort of damage you carry with you your whole life.
- [13:32]
B
Right? I mean, having an alcoholic father like that, that you're having to take care of. He dragged him, Dragged him. He was passed out on the porch a couple of times, had to drag him inside. And, you know, I just, that kind of puts a protective coat on you, I think, as a child, because you feel, in a way, responsible for the parents, in a sense. And his mother certainly had a big effect on him. You know, his mother, like my mom, really was the rock in his life. And so in some ways I could really relate with Reagan because my dad was an alcoholic. You know, there's certain degrees of it that, that are around, but he was an alcoholic and my mom was kind of that rock for me as well.
- [14:28]
A
So as you say, you know, you don't want to do an impersonation, but you're saying some of the most iconic lines in the history of politics and American life. So how do you, how do you do that balance? How do you, how do you be Reagan without being a Saturday Night Live performer who's just doing a weak version of the Reagan act kind of.
- [14:48]
B
Right, yeah, that was the fear that Saturday night version comes up. But like I said, that had to get down to playing the emotions of the scenes and what they were and really getting down to the person that, that's the person that has like insecurities, like all of us have varying degrees of self esteem. And to find a way into that, like, I'm an actor myself, and Reagan as an actor, I don't think he ever got to the place that he wanted to be as an actor. I think he kind of felt not A failure, but he just never really got there, you know, whether it was because Jack Warner never gave him the parts, but, you know, John Wayne really had his slot, so he was kind of relegated to B movies. And he was also married to Jane Wyman. When his career was really going down at the end, hers was skywalking. She won an Academy Award, you know, and, you know, say what you want, but I think that, you know, that kind of does something to your own sense of self. Self esteem or whatever. I related it in my life. I was married to Meg Ryan, you know, and, you know, my career was kind of going like that and hers was, you know, going like that. And you want to say, well, I'm above all that and stuff, but you're a human being, you know, you question yourself and. But also out of that, you know, his career going down, he became vice president and then president of the Screen Actors Guild, which is a job you don't really aspire to when you're starting out as an actor, you know, but it's amazing how God works. You know, he. I think that's where Reagan found his purpose.
- [16:41]
A
And, you know, he becomes president of the Screen Actors Guild, he's fighting the communists from within while protecting the actors who may be ideologically diverse inside the Screen Actors Guild, which is not an easy balance.
- [16:51]
B
No, it's not. In fact, a little tidbit. You know, we have great health insurance actors. The screen actors go. I mean, like the best. It was Reagan who got us that fought for it for nine years, and he got it. And he did fight communist. And, you know, that's. It was kind of like people took that as a wives tale or something, a communist infiltrating, you know, the unions and everything. But, you know, when the Soviet Union fell, you know, all those papers came flooding out. Lo and behold, they actually were trying to take over the unions in Hollywood.
- [17:27]
A
And Reagan takes charge of that. And then, of course, he runs for governor of California. But before he does that, he goes on this GE tour where he's going all over the United States and he's talking about politics frequently, like every week doing these speeches and really getting himself familiar with the material. I think one of the great rips that his critics have is they pretend that he was an idiot or that he was uneducated or he didn't know anything about politics, that he was a dilettante. He read widely and broadly.
- [17:54]
B
He educated himself. He really did. He really did. The GE was. That's a. That's a great point, because this is not something he had to do. But he took it upon himself to go around to every factory, every GE factory, and go out on the floor and talk to all the workers, you know, on their lunch breaks or, you know, coming or leaving at the end of the end of the day and talk to them. And that was the beginnings of his political base, was right there. And he also got out into the country and really found out what was on their minds, what were the issues, you know, in their lives. And that, I think more just about more than anything else had a lot to do with, but with him becoming president. I know my dad was one of those people. In fact, you know, my dad was an electrician. And I remember we're going to Galveston. This is like 1964. And the speech was on the radio. There was during an election year. He was out for Goldwater, I think, and it's a very famous speech. My dad was pounding the dashboard and, and, you know, go, Ronnie and stuff like that. And that was my first inklings of him as a political figure. Before he was just the guy on TV who sold Barraxo soap.
- [19:24]
A
What's fascinating about Reagan is that he really is a combination of all of these different, really diverse factors. So he's somebody who spends time in Hollywood, which of course is a very left wing place politically, so he knows how to talk to people on that side.
- [19:34]
B
And he was a Democrat back then, by the way.
- [19:36]
A
Yeah, he was. And then he shifts to the right, but still knows how to speak that language. He's somebody who becomes very hard on communism, but at the same time is almost innocent about the nature of human beings and how human beings can operate. And very famously, during his presidency, he wrote probably his worst speech actually during his presidency, there's part where he writes about how maybe one day a child from the Soviet Union and a child from America, they'll get together and they'll play in the park. And it's this very sort of innocent take. And a lot of his foreign policy team was like, this is. You shouldn't be saying, oh, that was.
- [20:11]
B
The couple who met, the very nice couple who happened to be Soviets and we got together. Exactly.
- [20:16]
A
It's a very. He's this very strange combination of somebody who's incredibly hard nosed in the use of American power and the threat of use of American power. I mean, he builds up the military, he walks away at Reykjavik, he says no to the Soviets, but at the same time he. He holds out the prospect.
- [20:30]
B
But nobody had ever said no to the Soviets, right?
- [20:35]
A
That's what makes him such a sort of mystery and a fascinating character is all these internal contradictions.
- [20:41]
B
Right. And I think when he was elected president, he was called a warmonger. He was definitely going to get us into a nuclear conflict with the Soviet Union, there was. But it took a cold warrior like that to win the Cold War. Before that, we'd had Carter, who was. This is not against Carter. What he did in the Middle east with peace with Egypt and Israel, I mean, that was quite an accomplishment and everything. But with the Soviets, we had given away the B1 bomber. We had appeased them. And America is sort of like that speech that Reagan you were talking about. Reagan has that innocence that we just want to be friends with everybody. That's a natural thing for us to do. We don't see why it couldn't be that way and appeal with reason. But the people in the Soviet Union and Iran, you go through it. Most of the world didn't grow up like we did. You know, it's a very brutal world out there and a very brutal reality. And when America is like that or, you know, they. I think they sort of laugh at us a little bit or they take advantage of it, for sure. Cause they see it as weakness.
- [22:12]
A
So, you know, when you look at Reagan, obviously you've identified as a political independent for a long time in Hollywood this election, you've said that you plan on supporting President Trump in the election. What are the sort of similarities that you see between President Trump and Reagan? Obviously very different in a lot of ways, but there are some similarities too.
- [22:29]
B
Well, I think it's more the circumstances of the world right now. I mean, you go back to 1980, 1979, we had the hostages, which nobody talks about, but we have hostages right now in the Middle East. I don't know why nobody talks about him. The economy was in a bad place at the time, with gas, oil being a big thing, inflation was high, and a lot of the very same circumstances. I think, in fact, Carter had even made his famous malaise speech that America was in. And Reagan came along and said, no, we're not a nation in decline. We are going up a shiny city on a hill and we're going to get back to that. And people believed him. He inspired people, and that's why he won the presidency.
- [23:36]
A
I think one of the things that's amazing about Reagan is that you look at his first term and he has a rough first couple of years in the economy. Obviously he's trying to quash inflation, and that means that he has to radically increase the interest rates using sort of Volcker's plans. And by 1982, his popularity is waning a little bit. And then he sort of kind of roars back in 83, 84. He wins this enormous victory in 1984. And you look at the way that America is now, and one of the things that you wonder is, no matter how successful any president is, is there a possibility of anything like that sort of American unity again? And it feels like sort of not. And maybe that can just be chalked up to the fact that it used to be that Ronald Reagan and Tip o' Neill would battle it out and then they kind of liked each other and have conversations.
- [24:18]
B
Yeah, they would. They would get together like after 5 o'.
- [24:22]
A
Clock.
- [24:22]
B
That's why they said we're going to be enemies until after, like five o'. Clock. And there were just a couple Irishmen having a beer and Tip o' Neill would be at the White House and they, you know, at least they had a conversation with each other back and forth. And, you know, the. Also Reagan was elected in 1980. You know, the hostages, the Iran hostages were freed like 20 minutes after he took office, because I think Iran knew that he wasn't going to take anything from them. But it was also special in the economy. You know, interest rates were 20% at one time. I remember that because I was starting to buy a house. And I think he really won on. Are you better off than you were four years ago? And. That question is very similar to what it is now. And it took a couple of years for, I think changes to happen. You see progress in something. It's not going to change overnight as far as inflation and the economic policy that was put into effect. And then I think he had an extended honeymoon period because of the assassination attempt, which we've just had as well. But once things got going, I think you saw a lot of activists from the 60s who had grown up and were now on Wall Street, I guess the Reagan Democrats, you could call them that. Things started to change.
- [26:12]
A
We'll get to more on this in a moment. First, look, I'm on the road constantly covering the news, political events, you name it. Between flights and hotel rooms, sometimes getting a proper nutritional meal is the first thing that goes right out that window. Here's the thing. I have a wife and kids and they're at home counting on me to stay healthy, which is why I started taking Balance of Nature's fruits and Veggies supplements. These are the original whole food supplement, 16 fruits 15 veggies freeze dried into capsules. As someone who keeps kosher, I do appreciate there are no binders, fillers, flow agents. Just 100% whole food ingredients. That's the whole thing. Nothing added in there that shouldn't be there in the first place. When I'm rushing through the airport, I can take them with water. If I'm in the car between interviews, I can down them. Sometimes I'll even open the capsules, mix that powder into my smoothies. Like the protein smoothies, it's great. Balance of Nature delivers the natural goodness of fruits, veggies, spices, fibers, just as nature intended. Which means Even when I'm 2,000 miles from home, I'm still taking care of myself. Who in my family actually needs me to. And they're very convenient. They make it easy for me to stay healthy. Plus they're launching fantastic new products. Balance of nature's freeze dried snacks 100% real fruit. Bananas, mangoes, pineapples, strawberries, freeze dried to lock in that flavor and give that perfect crunch. On Black Friday weekend only, head on over to balanceofnature.com get a free variety snack pack plus a free preferred customer membership with your first set of balance of Nature supplements. Head on over to balanceofnature.com to claim this limited time offer before it ends on Cyber Monday. Also, Legacy Box's Black Friday sale it is here. Better Homes and Gardens called it the most sentimental gift of the season for excellent reason. There's something special about bringing old family memories back to life. Seeing yourself as a kid with your parents. Right now they're offering 65% off so more families can finally digitize those priceless home videos and photos. And their biggest discount ever. Kits start at just 27 bucks. If you've been thinking about preserving those old memories, now would be the time. Legacy Box makes it super easy to bring your old memories back to life. Just pack up those VHS tapes, camcorder tapes, old photos sitting in the closet and then send them in. Their team digitizes everything by hand right here in the us. They've done this for over a million families, including my family, and then sends it all back on a thumb drive or the cloud plus your originals. Here's the best part. Imagine gathering the family this holiday season. One Watching all those old Christmas mornings on your tv. The grainy home videos of your kids unwrapping presents your parents looking decades younger. All of it protected forever from time mold, whatever else life throws at it. Again, I've done this for my parents. It's amazing Watching my parents respond to seeing themselves as kids on video with their parents. Legacy Box's Black Friday event is here. They're giving our listeners their best deal of the year. Legacybox.com Shapiro to save an unreal 65%. With the limited quantities ready to ship, this deal will go fast. That's legacybox.com Shapiro for, for 65% off. Legacybox.com Shapiro have you felt a lot of blowback from sort of your social circle? I know that you don't live in Hollywood anymore, but coming out and saying that you're planning on voting for President Trump is not necessarily the most popular sentiment in Hollywood, for sure.
- [28:54]
B
Well, I have my friends have my friends, and our relationship is quite solid with that. And I don't know, there's gotta be a conversation. A lot of actors been told to, like, you know, shut up in Hollywood. Just don't say anything because it's gonna affect you getting a job or this. And why is it okay for, say, Michael Douglas to go on talk shows and talk about Biden? And yet you can't be, you can't be for Trump. That's not a way America works. We've got to have a conversation about this. It used to be, even back in Reagan's day, you would have liberal Republicans, you had conservative Democrats, so the lines weren't so blurred as they. Today. It's just black and white. And we've got to get, more than anything, we've got to get back to being able to interact with each other. Republicans and Democrats need each other. That's what we're, that's what we don't admit because we keep each other from going too far one way or the other. You know, the fringes taking over. I myself, I'm an independent. I mean, I've voted both ways all my life, so I'm not a registered Republican. But what I saw with, I wasn't going to vote for Trump either, because I thought things needed to really settle down in this country. And there were a lot of other candidates that I thought would be good. But once the judicial system was used on him, to me, that was messing with our Constitution. And that's not America. And that's what got me back the other way, that I'm definitely voting for him because I believe in America and I believe in the Constitution.
- [31:07]
A
So one of the things that you mentioned very early on here is that this film was independently funded, that it didn't come through the Hollywood studio system. Do you think that that's going to be the future of where Hollywood goes, that you're going to see a lot more independently funded films. Whether it is through people like Mark, whether it is through angel studios or through all of the. Through your production house. That sort of. The studio system has been essentially broken because the theater model has largely been broken. And somehow so has the streaming models.
- [31:34]
B
Yeah, by Covid. And even before COVID they were having trouble with that. When I first came to LA, back in those days, each studio, say five would be producing at least 40 movies a year. That's a lot of movies. That's like 200 studio movies that are coming out. And there would be all places on the spectrum of genres. And today I think there might be eight maybe. And those have all gotta be big tent poles. Cause the only way to make money for them is to spend $200 million. And so they. That's really changed. But more than that, I think that Hollywood has sort of lost its relevancy with an audience to a certain extent, very similar to what was going on in the late 60s. That they kind of lost track of their audience, who they were. And it took like a film like Bonnie and Clyde, that French new wave thing that set off a whole new thing in the 70s to a new golden age. But it was a different kind of filmmaking that hit the audience and actually hit a nerve to what was going on underneath the surface in the country. You started having like anti heroes and the rebel hero came back and all that. And we're in a very similar place now that I think Hollywood has lost contact with its audience. But now that void can be filled from anywhere. Cause you could make a. You could finance a movie from different places and there's different centers going on now. What Taylor Sheridan is doing in. In Texas and what's going on in Georgia. There's a whole. If I was a young actor today, I wouldn't go to la, I would go to Atlanta. Because they're casting the smaller roles there. They're not gonna fly people from la. And that's where I'd start. But that's the start of an industry. There's. Cause people are gonna wind up living there and moving there. And they're doing quite well on a.
- [34:08]
A
Sort of narrative level. It's sort of fascinating just the history of Hollywood, how it went from heroes to anti heroes in the 70s. And then it was kind of stuck in anti hero land until now. I mean you have superheroes, but those are the only kind of heroes that you can depict on screen. That's one of the things that Makes Reagan different is that Reagan's an actual heroic figure that put on screen and that feels almost like a throwback. Just because you have a biopic where the person isn't being treated like crap. The person isn't being treated as some sort of evil person.
- [34:36]
B
You're the rise, the boop.
- [34:37]
A
Right, Exactly. Or it's J. Edgar Hoover and secretly it's about how he cross dresses. And the real sultry stuff is the stuff. It's a different sort of throwback feel to biopics of, say, the 30s, 40s.
- [34:49]
B
And 50s, where you're such a good person. It reflects Reagan. It reflects the eras in which he lived and thrived. Well, for instance, the love story of he and he and Nancy is very central to the movie. Reagan probably wouldn't have been president if it wasn't for Nancy. It was just the strength of their relationship was very rare.
- [35:14]
A
So there are a lot of amazing scenes in the film. Which one of them was sort of your favorite? When you think of the most interesting and fun to film, which one comes to mind?
- [35:22]
B
Well, the debate between he and Mondale, which I thought was just. It was a piece of theater to begin with. They'd already had. He and Mondale already had the first debate where Reagan had been kind of loose on the facts and whatever. He just didn't perform well in the first debate. And so they were talking about he was too old and this. I think he was, what, 74 at the time or something? And so the second debate, he did the famous. He was asked the question. It was a great setup. And he just said, I will not, for political purposes, take advantage of my opponent's youth and inexperience, which was fantastic. And even Mondale laughs. Okay, he knows he's lost the election with that. But Reagan did something even better, is that he said that. And then I call it the Jack Benny. He reached over and took his water and took a sip of it just to, like, let it breathe. You let it breathe, and it was beautiful.
- [36:34]
A
So let's talk about sort of your journey both in terms of life and in terms of acting. Because, you know, on a personal level, I first saw you in film with Breaking Away.
- [36:46]
B
So.
- [36:46]
A
So I grew up on what would now be considered older movies. My parents and I would go over to Eddie Brand's Saturday Matinee, which was like the big kind of video rental place in North Hollywood, and we picked up all these movies.
- [36:58]
B
So you saw it in vhs, of course, or Beta?
- [37:01]
A
No, no, no. Vhs. I'm not of the Beta. Generation. But yes, the VHS and wore out the tape on breaking away. So how did you actually break into the industry? What got you interested in acting in the first place?
- [37:10]
B
Well, my dad was a frustrated actor of things. And uh. And my brother got it into it first and you know, he did the Last detail. We were both. I was in high school drama and stuff like that. He did the last detail and it kind of made me, wow, you can actually do that, you know, you could actually go there and get a job doing that. And I really fell in love with acting in college. There was a particular teacher that was also my brother's teacher. Cecil Pickett was his name. And he taught great thing about him. It was exactly what I said. It was about what makes people tick and what's on the outside, the way they walk, the way they talk, mannerisms, what causes that. What's the psychological reason that they do that that leads you to the inside of somebody. So I went out there when I was 20, 21 almost and sent my picture around every agent and got rejected. So I just started calling up casting directors. There'd be this thing in the back of the Hollywood Reporter films in the future and it would list the producer and the director and stuff and the casting director. So I just started calling them up and I got turned down like 8 of 10 times, but two of them would see me, then went in to see them. And then I'd stare at my shoes for our first couple of interviews until I got used to talking and then one of them got me an agent and then I got a job a couple of months after that. But Breaking Away was really the first movie that made things a lot easier for me and that really, I think, connected with audiences. I really love that movie. It was such a great experience to do it. Peter Yates. It was written by a first generation Czech, directed by an Englishman. And I think that's what gave the movie its charm because it was, you know, they saw America better than we did, I think, in that middle part of America. And it really had a charm to it. And it still holds up. I saw it about four months ago. It really.
- [39:33]
A
Oh, it's great. Still holds up. I mean, the script is terrific, you're great in it, but everybody's great. I mean really all the way top to bottom. And it's. It is such a pro America film. It really is a pro America. It really is.
- [39:43]
B
Peter Yates, who directed it, he directed Bullet, right? And he taught all four of us guys film acting. You know, he was very fatherly and Mentorish with, with us. And I mean, all throughout. And I remember the night of the opening, you know, it was kind of like the first film of the 80s too, I think, in a way of youth going to the theater and there was a line around the block and audiences smell movies, or they used to, because that was back in the day. They didn't have any social media, just being advertisement in the newspaper. There was no television ads or anything like that. I don't know how that happened, but it was kind of magic the way it used to happen, how an audience could smell a good movie.
- [40:36]
A
We'll get to more in a moment. First, it's very simple. Left wants your money and your compliance. You don't have to give them either of those things. Black Friday deals are live right now at Jeremy's Razors and we are taking up to 50% off. You want a full year of shaving? That's 49.99. That's it. No games, no virtue signaling, just a razor that works. And if you're ordering over 100 bucks, free shipping. These razors are built for dudes who don't back down. The guys who show up, work hard, and refuse to cave in to the nonsense head on over to Jeremy's razors.com right now. Don't wait. Black Friday doesn't last forever, but your commitment to not funding woke corporations. That's permanent. Jeremy's razors.com youm started off doing acting in college, and you mentioned there the difference between stage acting and film acting. I have, unfortunately for the audience, cameoed in a couple of movies that we've made. And I'm a terrible actor.
- [41:22]
B
Oh, really? I've got to see this.
- [41:24]
A
You should not. For your own sake and for mine, please do not. I mean, you can watch the movies, but you should fast forward the scenes that I am in. And the question that I have after acting, after my vast and extensive acting experience, which of course is similar to your own, how do you bring it every take? I mean, that's a hard thing to do. And how do you maintain a character across an entire span? Like in Reagan, you're spanning decades. How do you extend that? Especially because, you know, for those who have never had the experience of being in a film or watching a film get made, it's all filmed out of sequence. It's not as though you're filming it chronologically through time. How do you maintain a character through that when you have to be at point C in a character development in this scene, and then the next day you have to be at point A.
- [42:06]
B
In that same character's development, or in the afternoon. Well, I mean, for one thing, you have the luxury of take two, which we don't have here, or do we? But it's. I don't know, it's something. First time the camera came in on me, I remember in the first film, it was just quite intimidating. But it's about just really learning to just be. Be in the scene. You know, I do all the research I can and character development. With Reagan, I had a couple of. Wound up having a couple of years, really, before we even started filming, which was great. But, like, the voice, you know, the early part of his life, like, you see him at the. In Hollywood at the House of Un American Activities. You know, his voice is way up there, and it's very, very. Talks a lot faster. And it's. You know, I believe our system can take it. You know, that. That's a long way from, you know, getting to the later years where he speaks a little slower but wiser. So it's just all those nuances and little things, like he had a crooked smile, which had something to do with maybe nerve damage from childhood or whatever, or a psychology to it. And he kind of either knowingly, it may have been unknowingly, because they taught you how to walk in Hollywood. You know, when you became an actor in the studio system, then you had to have a certain walk. And his was very similar to John Wayne in a way. And so little things like that, you know, that all add up. And then you just have to, in the end, just trust it and just go dive in.
- [44:00]
A
So in terms of acting methodologies, obviously they talked about method acting. My favorite sort of method acting story is the old story about. From Marathon man, where Olivier is with Hoffman and Hoffman is acting like his character. For the entire time coming out of character, he's just living in the character. And then Olivia looks at him and said, it's called acting, young man.
- [44:23]
B
So too much work.
- [44:26]
A
How do you address a part? I mean, obviously there are people like Daniel Day Lewis who live in the forest with a bow and arrow for three months to prepare for Last of the Mohicans or whatever.
- [44:34]
B
Does he still.
- [44:35]
A
He might. I don't know.
- [44:37]
B
Yeah, I know he doesn't want to work. He says he doesn't want to work. But anymore, you know, it really kind of comes down to. That's kind of like. I guess when you get asked these questions and stuff like that, you kind of give responses like that. Try to put it Into a method or a way of work. But I find that most people I work with, and myself, too, it's just, you come to work and you've been hired because they think you're right for the part. And you do your work, do it, and then you just do it. I guess I used to think a lot about when I was younger. I used to angst about technique and this and that and the other. But I think it's part of just like learning it, then forgetting it, and then you just go do it. Like you do your show every day. You know what I mean? Sure. You do your show differently than when you first started doing your show, when you got out of the business. Right. You don't angst about as much stuff as you used to, because it's become very natural to you. And great things. It's a really great job to have. If you get it, it's great work. If you can get it, being an actor. Cause it beats working for a living.
- [45:50]
A
So you entered Hollywood, as you say, really, really young. I mean, 20 years old, and you're already starting to get movies. And you'd be breaking away. And then, I mean, you talk openly about this, you get sucked into sort of the celebrity culture. So you develop an addiction. You overcome that addiction. What is the. What is it like being a young star in Hollywood and how hard is it to.
- [46:13]
B
Back in the 70s, man, it was fun. It was really fun. That's what. You know, like cocaine back then was, like, in movie budgets and stuff. And, you know, there was this. I remember there was a cover story in People magazine about cocaine, about how it wasn't addictive and, you know, it was party drug and, you know, harmless. Then John Belushi died, and that kind of really changed everything for everybody. But my personal experience was that it was fun. Then it was fun with problems. Then it was just problems and affected my sleep. I think it affected my work. I really do think so. And it affects your life. When your life kind of becomes unmanageable about it. That's when it's. You have to do something or. But I had one of those white light experiences. I had a band at that time, and we were the Eclectics. The night we got our record deal at the Palace Theater over on vine street, we got a record deal performing that night. And we broke up in the dressing room right after. Because of me. Because, you know, I was just. I was a little out of control, I think. You know, I just wasn't reliable. And I had a white light experience. And I put myself in rehab the next day. And I was lucky I got it the first time. Although it was like, about. It was about three years of, like, grinding my teeth. And, you know, what it does to your nervous system, you know, pretty much grinds those synapses down and. But to stay away from it, it's kind of like grinding my teeth. And it went, you know, meetings and stuff, meetings every day. And I. Because they say, you know, it's a spiritual problem is really what it is. You're trying to fill a hole there that it's a spiritual hole, really. And that's what drugs are. You know, they make you feel like everything's great, but you take away the drug and that's gone. But it's a spiritual problem. And so that's when I've read the Bible, like, about five times in my life over different periods. And then I started to get back into that. And before that, I'd rather go back as far as my history on that is. I grew up Baptist, Southern Baptist, and I became disillusioned with churchianity, I think around 12, 13, which I think a lot of teenagers start to question their life anyway. And I read a book called Siddhartha Herman Hess, which really turned me towards Eastern philosophy, because it's a very new thing. And Eastern religion, Buddhism, Hinduism. I read the Dhammapada, I read the Bhagavad Gita. I read the Quran as well as the Bible. But after rehab, I went back and this is after about three years, and I read the Bible again. And really what stood out were the red words of Jesus to me. And that's what started a. For the first time for me, a personal relationship with God, which continued to nurture and grow and ebb and flow. But, you know, that's. That's. That was the thing that I think that really got me through it.
- [50:23]
A
So you now you. You've left la, you don't live in LA anymore. You moved over to Tennessee. Yeah. How's that transition been for you?
- [50:30]
B
I love it. I just love it there. You know, I grew up in Texas, and so it feels like home at the same time. In fact, my grandfather was 10 miles from Tennessee as an infant, and they went to Texas covered wagon in 1902. So I have a lot of cousins there to begin with. And of course, music, which has always been a part of my life. I have great friends there, and I just love the way of life.
- [50:57]
A
I didn't even know about the music. So you're a guitarist or What?
- [51:00]
B
I play guitar. I've always played guitar and piano. I mean, it was. I did Great Balls of Fire, Jerry Lee Lewis. That's another great thing about being an actor is you get to go into all these doors that say authorized personnel only. Yeah. Jerry Lee Lewis was like one of my teachers, one of my piano teachers. So you get to do a lot of really fun things when you're an actor.
- [51:23]
A
So what are your favorite? I mean, you have a huge. IMDb obviously. What are the favorite films that you've been in?
- [51:30]
B
For me, Reagan is now actually has taken over as number one from the Right Stuff, which was my favorite movie before I did Reagan. And I have a different standard for myself. It's about the experience that I had when I was making it. The Right Stuff came out. I mean, it didn't do well at all, actually. It's become a classic. But at the time, it didn't do well at all. But it was about the time of. You know, I grew up in Houston. Space City.
- [52:01]
A
It was.
- [52:02]
B
Gordo Cooper was my favorite astronaut. Wound up. He lived three miles from me in la. I got my pilot's license on that. Chuck Yeager was on the set every day. You know, that's like fantastic time. But I would say the right stuff. Reagan, Breaking away. Frequency. The Rookie. Far from Heaven. You know, I have some I'm not so proud of, but those. You know, I have a good little family of there. I've been around long enough to have a few good ones. The Parent Trap. Parent Trap gave me a new whole second career.
- [52:46]
A
Yeah. No, my sisters grew up on that film.
- [52:48]
B
Yeah.
- [52:48]
A
I will admit I've watched it more than once. Yeah. Well, yeah, everyone. All my producers in the back are right now. I just showed it to my kids, like two weeks ago, maybe. We were on vacation and my daughter and her cousins wanted to watch it.
- [53:02]
B
Right. Well, I tell them, I say, I used to be your babysitter because your parents had put it on. You'd watched it 40 times while they were in the other room doing what they wanted to do.
- [53:13]
A
Exactly. How would you deal with. Obviously, we all deal with failure. And I think that's the side of American success that people don't often see is all the failures that lead to the successes or that are the after effects of a success. How do you deal with. You put enormous amount of sweat and toil into a movie, and it doesn't end up being what you want it to be, or it fails in the bottom.
- [53:32]
B
It's very disappointing, man. It goes right to Your self esteem and everything failure does. People don't like to talk about it or whatever, but you know, it's failure actually, that if you survive it, you know, you get up off the floor, it's actually gonna make you better. I think, you know, everybody's gotta have failure in their life. And it's about sticking with something. I think. I think that's half of the thing about even wanting to be an actor. I mean, you're kind of set up for failure just to try to become an actor. There's 40,000 actors in the Screen Actors Guild on only 1% are working on any given day. You just gotta figure you're gonna be one of those 1%. And no matter what, you gotta have a tough skin to a certain extent too, you know, but also acknowledge what was wrong with something.
- [54:41]
A
So you talked a little bit earlier about the fact that Hollywood needs to tell some different types of stories. Obviously, Reagan is the beginning, I think, of a lot of that. It's a huge movie. It's sprawling, it's awesome. People who don't know Reagan's legacy are gonna learn more about Reagan than probably they would through any other medium. The movie will reach more people than anybody will ever read a Reagan biography.
- [55:03]
B
Yeah, for sure. And, you know, that's very. That's very important. First off, the movie's meant to entertain. That's what it's supposed to be. You know, and it's for those who are like your age. You know, you get a glimpse into what this country used to be like. And for those like my age, you reminded what this country was and what it still can be too. It was a great time as a nation for us. And we went through the very similar times to push through and become a nation that believed in itself again. That's what I would like to see, is for the American people who have great faith in, we start believing in ourselves again and in each other.
- [56:01]
A
So what are some of the trunk projects that you've always thought would make great movies? Things that you wish somebody had made, but they've never made before. Because I know that anybody who even watches a lot of movies, they've thought, man, I wish they'd make a movie about X, Y or Z.
- [56:14]
B
All right, well, I have one right now that I really want to do about the Lakota Sioux, Crazy Horse. You know, that story has never been told from the Native point of view. And I have a book now that is the oral history of Crazy Horse's family as told to this writer. And the history goes back to the mid-1700s, there were three crazy horses. The first one was actually there when Lewis and Clark came through. The second, who was the father of Crazy Horse and the inter tribal wars and stuff. And then Crazy Horse and then his nephew, great nephew, was killed in World War I. And the family is there today. And it's a very interesting story told from their point of view.
- [57:15]
A
Okay, final question for you. I gotta find out what are your top five movies? Not the ones that you're in necessarily. It can be, but it doesn't have to be. You have to go to desert island, you bring five movies. What?
- [57:26]
B
Well, Lawrence of Arabia, it's a masterpiece. Godfather 1 and 2, that's one movie.
- [57:32]
A
Yes.
- [57:32]
B
Okay.
- [57:34]
A
I cheat the same way when asked this question.
- [57:35]
B
Yeah, you have to, man. You get me started on Scorsese. You know, the wizard of Oz is a beautiful film. You know what it means. And I really love that movie. Lion. Yeah, it was small, but it really was huge in my mind. And the Notebook took me a long time to watch that movie, but it gets me every time. I can't believe it.
- [58:09]
A
Well, the movie is wonderful. You're wonderful in it. And thank you so much for taking the time to stop by. I really appreciate it.
- [58:15]
B
Thank you. Ben. Really had a good time, man. Thank you.
- [58:17]
A
That was awesome. The world moves fast. Your workday even faster. Pitching products, drafting reports, analyzing data. Microsoft 365 Copilot is your AI assistant for work built into Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other Microsoft 365 apps you use, helping you quickly write, analyze, create and summarize so you can cut through clutter and clear a path to your best work. Learn more@Microsoft.com M365 copilot.