Who Was Ronald Reagan? ft. Dennis Quaid
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Hey, everybody. It's the Charlie Kirk Show. Dennis Quaid talks about the new Reagan movie. Amazing conversation. You guys are going to love it. Email us, as always, freedom at charliekirk.com and become a member at members.charliekirk.com. That is members.charliekirk.com. Buckle up, everybody. Here we go. Charlie, what you've done is incredible here. Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus. I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk. Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.

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Joining us now is Dennis Quaid, who is the star of the upcoming Reagan film. Dennis, welcome to the program. Honored to have you here and amazing movie. Congratulations. Oh, thanks. Thanks for having me, Charlie. And thanks for the review. Thank you very much. Thank you. I'm a huge fan of yours, have been for many years and honored to have you here on the program. So why did you decide to be part of Reagan? What about Reagan's story captured your imagination and wanted to be part of this great work?

He was my favorite president, number one. And I voted for him back in 1980. I voted for him, went home. I had a roommate at the time. He said, who'd you vote for? I said, Reagan. He said, you are kicked out of the hippies. So I turned in my card. That was it. I was offered the role 2018. And at the time, I didn't say yes, but I didn't say no.

Because the shiver of fear would have my spine. Reagan is one of those figures in history, like Muhammad Ali, everybody in the world seems to know what he looks like, sounds like, walks like, and has an opinion. And I didn't want to do a impersonation of him, you know, and I really wanted to get down to

uh, finding out what really, what made him tick. I mean, that's, that's what acting is really all about. It's the things that make us human. And, uh,

But I went up to the Reagan Ranch, was invited up there, which is not open to the public. It's friends bought it after his passing. And they even he and Nancy, it was the Western White House back then. And their clothes are in the closet. It's like they're going to come back any second. They didn't change a thing. And driving up the five miles of the worst road in California to get to the top of the mountain and coming out into that pasture was

I could feel Reagan there. It was a humble man. And the house was 1100 square feet. They had a king sized bed. It was two single beds that were zip tied together. This is the Western White House that he had. But I could feel him there in that place. And that's what I said, yes, it's and his story is uniquely American one. I want to play just a little bit from the movie here, which I encourage everyone to go watch.

to go watch and to go to the film, to go check it out on August 21st. Let's go to here. This is cut 114, the famous tear down this wall speech. Play cut 114. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek liberalization and change, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate.

Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.

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Yeah, and to put it in context, it's a nice swelling of a moment in a movie. But if you live through those times, it was monumental.

Really say that the Berlin Wall, I mean, I was there myself when they were taking it down. I got a couple of chips from it, went over there, got to take a sledgehammer to it. But my generation, we grew up with drills out of the blue at school to get under our desk, you know, an atomic attack drill.

you know, and lived in fear. And it was very real that there was going to be a nuclear confrontation between the USSR and the United States. And Reagan not only ended the Cold War, he won the Cold War. And he also, as a nation, gave us a confidence

We were a nation in decline back in the late 70s. So they said and Reagan said, no, we're going that way. And that's what great leaders are all about. The courage that he had to give that speech. And it was really a defining moment of the West versus communist totalitarianism still echoes in today's time. The story of Reagan, though, is one where he has he always was up against some sort of odds.

They called him a cowboy that couldn't win his presidential elections. You know, he wasn't always successful. He ran multiple times. We have a clip here from his speech in 1964. But before I play this though, talk about your parents and the backstory of this 1964 speech. Uh, this, I was in a, I was in a, my dad's truck. We were going from Houston to Galveston. I'm from Houston. And, uh,

Reagan was giving what they call the speech rendezvous with destiny. That's what we're about to hear at the time. My dad was like pounding the dash like you go, Ronnie. And for me, you know, at the time, that was the first time I was aware of Reagan as a political figure. Before that, you know, he sold Barakso soap on Death Valley Day. Bedtime for Bonzo. Yeah, bedtime.

So that was the beginning of my awareness of Reagan. And the speech was he was outstomping for Goldwater. Everybody knew that Goldwater wasn't going to win, but it was his entrance into national politics. And he made quite an impression.

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of Reagan getting shot and any... Yes. Okay, so obviously that is kind of in play given recent events, unfortunately. Very relevant. The movie opens with that, you know, the assassination attempt on him, which really changed him as well. You know, he said, my life is no longer mine. It's, you know, it's working for the man upstairs because he was saved by that. But...

Reagan was, besides getting assassinated, what made Reagan great is that he governed and lived his life by principles. And those are not, the principles don't have anything to do with political party. But they do have a lot to do with leadership as a president and us as a nation to live by and govern.

governed by principles. Because sometimes if you go by those principles, you will make an unpopular decision, but it might be the right decision because of those principles. And in the long run, that is what we'll see you through.

This movie is a way, you mentioned at the top about your amateur historianism. I'm sure you know a lot about history. But if you're under 35, if you were born after 1985, this will be a

this movie is a great way to see what this country used to be like and feel what this country used to be like really. And what it still can be. If it's about us uniting as people, not under a political party, but just uniting as people, what we can do. And if you're born before 1985, it's,

It's a reminder, really. And a great look back because the movie's besides big about Reagan, it's about all of us. And I'd like to get all of those us baby boomers to go back to the movies again for this. That's right. This is one that I think everybody will enjoy. Movies are meant to entertain people.

And, you know, Reagan was called a warmonger as well. And he was, you know, a cowboy was going to get us into problems. And, you know, it wasn't it was an actor who wasn't smart enough to, you know, handle the economy and all that. And, you know.

You know, he got us through it. So, Dennis, you kind of mentioned this. We have a primarily younger audience that don't know this, that doesn't know the story of Reagan. Can you mention this? But I'm sure because you are one of the best in your craft and just looking at watching parts of the movie and seeing it and working my way through it. You did an amazing job of embodying him and really.

um portraying him as he was not as how you wished he was can you talk about the research and the study that you did in preparation for effectively doing the first reagan movie ever i mean there were other small ones but this is the this is the big one yeah it is uh you know it was and the blessing of uh

Some of his family, let's put it that way. And the cooperation of... We shot it at the Reagan Ranch, for instance, which was incredibly cool. We were doing these scenes that happened in history, and you're standing right there. And the Reagan Library, he was in Air Force One. But it's... I did not want to do a love letter about him. And I'd lived through all these times. And there were times when I was...

mad at Reagan, you know, when it came to negotiations or talks with the Russians, especially at Reykjavik, when he said no and got up and walked out of Gorbachev. And but, you know, I thought, well, he's turned into an old conjurer. Why did he do that? But that was really the impetus, which really did where the Soviets collapsed and ended the Cold War.

Thank you.

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The applicability to today's time is remarkable. And I want to just encourage the audience here is you guys tickets are available now at Reagan dot movie. And this is not a political thing. This is a historical just accomplishment. All right, Dennis, tell us about Ronald Reagan's whistle stop tour with General Electric. Well, this was before he was even in politics. Uh,

He had a job as a spokesman for GE, General Electric. And he took in doing that, he went around the country to all the factories and not into just the business offices of the higher ups. But he went out on the floor and he talked to people.

the men and women who worked for GE on that. And that really was the beginnings of his political base. And, you know, Reagan was a Republican. He used to be a Democrat, by the way, and he switched over in 64. But he had that common touch. Regular people, you know, all classes really communicated with him, the great communicator. And that was...

that are the beginnings of his political base. In this process of the study that you did with Reagan, what is one or two things you learned about him that you want the audience to know about when they see the film and they dive deeper into the life of Ronald Reagan? Number one, he was not a perfect man. He was a human like all of us with, you know, flaws, maybe not so obvious as some of the flaws that we see in other politicians these days or whatever, or ourselves. But, um,

There was also, Reagan was called a great communicator, yet everyone I talked to in my research about him said there was a place in him that was impenetrable, that you could get so far and then it was tough to get any further, a very private place in him, which I think was, for one thing, with so many people around you and having that

place of privacy in there where, and I think that place is also where he communicated with God, which is yawning prayer minute in meditation. And I'm not trying to set it up that, you know, he was like having a telephone call with God, but he was, you know, as part of it is the bedrock of, of him as a person. And it's that was what was very interesting.

That's what I wanted to get to, where he came from. And also, you know, his insecurities. I'm an actor myself, and I know that Reagan...

did not get to the place where he wanted to get to as an actor. You know, I think he had feelings of less than, actually, with that. Insecurity. He was married to Jane Wyman towards the end of his career when his was going down and Jane's was coming up and she won an Academy Award, in fact, which in relief to that, that's when he became...

vice president and then president of the Screen Actors Guild. That's not a job that any actor wants to have. That's what you have when acting is not really working out, you know, or you're kind of at the end of your career, which was, in a way, I think, him finding God's purpose for himself. You know, we're all in a search for that. And, yeah,

It's not so obvious to us all the times. And it's very surprising how God's purpose for us comes into our lives. I know with myself, I say, you know, I got to be careful about what I ask God for because he just might give it to me. That's right. But he's going to give it to me in a way that I'm going to go, wait, wait, wait a minute. That's not what I meant at all. And it's how we respond to that.

Uh, which is, which is a test of their lives. And, uh,

I think that's what you see in Reagan. Dennis, thank you for doing this and spending time with us. I think this is one of the most important films to come out in the last decade. I've been wondering, when is the Reagan story going to be told? I grew up just loving Reagan, still do, and admiring him. People can check it out at reagan.movie. I'd like to say, too, if you don't mind, this is not like going into a classroom because I hate movies like that. This is a story of a person who,

that it's inspiring, I think, and the relationship that he and Nancy had in a person's life. But it's also about the American people, about all of us. Yes. Where we are today and yesterday.

I love it. Dennis, thank you so much. I want our entire audience available exclusively in theaters August 30th. General public, groups of 50 more can see it August 21st, Reagan.movie. Dennis, thanks so much. Thank you. Thank you, Charlie. Thanks for having me. God bless you. Thanks so much for listening, everybody. Email us as always, freedom at charliekirk.com. Thanks so much for listening, and God bless. For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to charliekirk.com.