Later this year, Dennis Quaid will bring Former President Ronald Reagan to life in the film Reagan. However, he almost turned it down. The actor was on the fence about portraying the 40th president and didn't know if he wanted to step into the role.
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Speaking with Fox News, Quaid said he was afraid to portray Reagan because the president was such a well-known figure. Quaid said that many people recognized the president's features and tone.
"I didn't say no, and I didn't say yes because, really, fear," Quaid told the outlet. "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 didn't want people to think he did a bad job in the role. He said, "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."
However, Quaid decided to visit Reagan's California ranch. The actor got to see through the veil and see the man beyond the public figure. He realized that Reagan was a really "humble man."
Dennis Quaid On Ronald Reagan
"He was not a rich man, and there was a humility about him that was kind of the bedrock of who he was," Quaid said. "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."
Quaid started to understand who Reagan really was, and that lit a desire in him to bring the president's humanity to life. "I talked to people who were close to him, you know, who knew him really well," Quaid said. "They all said there was a part of Ronald Reagan that was unknowable, that was very private, that you just couldn't penetrate. I think even Nancy felt that to a certain extent. You know, this is the great communicator."
The actor said that faith played a large role in driving the president.
He said, "I think that part of him had to do with his faith, that to go to a place where he had that personal relationship with his maker. And I think that was his guiding light. He was a man who, he governed as president - and also governor of California - on principle, not on the winds of change, you know, or what was popular at the time or trending."
