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| Reagan Stars Penelope Ann Miller and Dennis Quaid |
Last week, Eye For Film had the chance to sit down with stars of Reagan, a biopic starring Dennis Quaid and Penelope Ann Miller as Ron and Nancy. Based on Paul Kengor's book The Crusader, it has Jon Voight as a narrator for the story. Not conventionally though. Kengor's book is subtitled Ronald Reagan And The Fall Of Communism, and Voight plays an old KGB hand who explains how the Gipper brought Gorbachev to the table and more.
Due to time differences I wished Jon a good evening from Scotland. "Hello Andrew," he said in a passable Scottish accent. He continued "Great lad, great". It was only fair to say I'd offer him some of my mum's shortbread; even online interviews need snacks, and that got a laugh too.
The film is framed with his character, Viktor Petrovich, as the lens for it. It is a really interesting way to tell a story, a literal new perspective on something we already know. I asked: if he could invent a character to tell his own life story at one remove, who would do it?
He replied, smiling, "I think it should be a Scotchman." He was clearly enjoying using a Scottish[ish] accent. The "only way we could tell the story of me is through a Scots eye you see."
We discussed the fact that Scotland had helped build a large part of the world and so constructing such a story seems entirely in keeping. That presence means there's very often a Scot in the room, from Uganda to the wider Universe. His character Viktor is at the Reagan-Gorbachev summits as an observer. I asked if there was there a meeting somewhere in history he would like to have been a fly on the wall for.
Voight's ebullience became somewhat mischievous, as he answered "Oh gosh, [I] can't answer that question. It's secret."
I pressed him, because uncovering secrets is part and parcel of his character's day job. Another attempt: "Okay, is there a non-secret answer that you can share?"
He demurred again, "No, no". It was time to break out the big guns.
I explained that I had prepared for our interview with appropriate accessories and one way or another I might qualify for sharing.
He lit up again. "[A] Students for Reagan pin and a Karl Marx beard! Oh my God, are you in trouble!"
Trouble yes, but of the best kind. With a figure like Jon Voight, once they've taken over it's probably best to let them go. I might have dug out that badge from my collection, and grown that beard myself, but Voight's been in the industry longer than I've been alive. He's also, in fairness, got more experience with runaway trains than I do.
He continued, "But anyway my lad, Scotland is a - I have a dear friend, Nebli [Basani], in Scotland, a very good young actor. He has been inviting me over. I really have to put that down in my calendar." Voight worked with Basani in Shadow Land, released this year. Scottish audiences will know him from some TV work but also from GSFF prize-winner Expensive Shit.
I'm sure even without friends in Scotland he'd be welcomed, and saying as much he said "Isn't that nice," and talked about having to "save [his] pennies." We talked about the recently concluded Edinburgh International Film Festival, and in the interests of (stereotypically Scottish) financial efficiency we observed that if you do it right, someone will spend the pennies for you.
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| Jon Voight |
That brought us to the business of film. Talking about the way filming of Reagan was affected by Covid, the amount of digital effects work, the way remote casts were composited into scenes or archive footage. I asked what he felt was the biggest material change working on sets in his career.
"There's some good things and some negative things. [We have] very little rehearsal time." he continued. "[In the] old fashioned way we used to rehearse a little bit. Everybody got to be part of it. Now it's like, people don't see each other, they come in, they're ready to go, they have to be ready on the set. There's not as much maybe preparation and care and familial feeling on the sets as there used to be, I think.
"What they have, what I've seen is remarkable technology over the years. That can be negative and positive too. the positive aspect is being able to have CGI for a movie like Lord Of The Rings. [Others had] tried to do it, [they] couldn't do it. Then Peter Jackson, a genius like Jackson, and then they have this technology."
His "whoa!" was genuine, continuing "...and look at those films! [Look at] he magic that is produced in those films." He observed that "You look like you could be a Hobbit.". Rarely one to pass on a chance to be annoyingly accurate about nerd media, I did say "Maybe a dwarf". My disagreement wasn't enough. He was smiling as he said "You could jump right into the film!"
We'd talked about (show)business before, and he continued in that vein. "When you look back at the studios, we have lost the studio system in the United States." He wasn't just talking about the production companies but the shooting aspects, including the use of location shots. "That's of course gone, now the studio is all over the world."
That continued with the spread of more local film industry. "Everybody has a Hollywood in their midst. That's good! If you want to go to the Himalayas you go to the Himalayas. You shoot in the Himalayas. It's amazing what you can do." The ability to go to locations has changed "people's ideas of the reality of the film." Audiences now "expect a certain kind of reality." Counter to that though is the rise of CG, including Disney technologies like 'The Volume' as used on shows like The Mandalorian.
"[Now] you can go to the Himalayas in the studio. [There's] surround stuff, all this stuff. I don't know if that's going to work too much."
He mimicked a director on such a stage "You're very cold! Be colder!". He talked about the effort of trying to duplicate the outdoors and admitted he's seen a lot. However, "The art is still all the same. The story is the important thing."
Having talked about performance, he continued "The acting has been very good for a long, long time. The great actors of the days before I was born are still great actors." He talked about his acting career in context. "My period was kind of a scientific period," referencing the Stanislavski method. "All this stuff, the example of Marlon's work, couldn't have been anyone but [Brando]. Each personality: Spencer Tracey, Clark Gable, Catherine Hepburn... [they're] unique people, full of entertainment value and beauty and all that."
It's always fascinating to hear actors talking about other actors. These are, after all professionals, and they'll see things in others' craft that outsiders won't. "We fall in love with different kinds of things at different times. Real talent hasn't changed. People who work hard and love the work."
By this point we'd run well over our allotment, and as I mentioned this he exhorted me thus: "They're trying to stop you! Stand up for yourself!". Sadly even the threat of Mel Gibson wasn't enough to extend our time.
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| Penelope Ann Miller and Dennis Quaid |
The interviews didn't stop though, and I was soon talking to Penelope Ann Miller and Dennis Quaid. As I introduced myself there was a delighted "Scotland!" from Penelope, but she'd left the accent work to Jon Voight.
As they're both familiar faces I asked how hard it was portraying a couple who were themselves so recognisable.
Dennis looked to his co-star and said "You go first", and her reply of "Thank you dear" brought smiles all round.
"I think what helped is that Dennis and I got on very well. We had an instant rapport and chemistry, I feel. I think that hopefully translates... when you watch the film. Their love story was [palpable], that's what we learned so much about. How deeply devoted and in love they were and that they really had that partnership, and without that partnership I don't think Reagan would've been Reagan."
As she spoke it was clear how comfortable the two were in each others company. That chemistry definitely informs the portrayal of a couple who were famously close. She continued, talking about how without that partnership "he wouldn't have been the President. Because she truly believed in him, infused him with that love and that confidence and that support he became the man that he became."
The film does go back and forth through Reagan's life. As a young man, 'Dutch' was, amongst other things, a lifeguard. "Plus you know those things from his childhood that you learn helped him become that person. the love story in that sense was just reading a lot. He wrote her a love poem or note every day. He was very romantic."
At that point she looked at Quaid who quirked his mouth in an 'aw shucks' sort of way. In an earlier conversation with fellow journalists there'd been discussion as to just how star-struck one can get at these things. It does help the portrayal of two famously charismatic individuals to have stars of this calibre.
She explained "There's a lot of things that you learn about that you didn't know, that you didn't get to see, and it's essentially the heart of the film."
Dennis explained that he didn't want to do an impersonation, he wanted to "play from his point of view", continuing that he "feels that I owe that to real people.". Talking about the challenges of portraying another famous individual, he carried on that it was "a scary proposition. Everybody knows what Reagan looks like, like everybody knows what Muhammad Ali looks like." He said he "really felt for Will Smith when he took on that one."
Smith's casting did attract some criticism because of differences in physicality, but that's much less of an issue in Reagan. Quaid is now as old as Reagan was when he took office as President. He is a Texan rather than an Illinoisan but he's got those movie star good looks. He's got some overlap with Reagan's film career. Both played a federal agents, Reagan in the Secret Service pictures and Quaid in 1997's Switchback. Admittedly, the closest I can get to a 'monkey picture' is The Right Stuff which isn't. Some CG assistance and the work of a makeup department does a lot too, but they're building on a strong foundation.
Quaid explained "It's become my favourite movie I've ever done." In a long career, that's some statement. He continued "I'll tell you the truth actually. I've got a different way of judging films. It's about the time I had while I was doing them. There's just something about this movie, to be a fly on the wall, everything I wanted to see about Reagan winning as president, but you didn't see behind the scenes."
Talking about the process of filming, Miller picked up the baton:
"We filmed this four years ago, during Covid, and the fact that it's taken this long for the movie to come out was not by design! Just to put this out there, [we] didn't plan on doing this during an election year, but that's what happened." She laughed as she explained "We were a very tight-knit group because we weren't able to interact with anyone."
"Maybe that helped, because Nancy and Ronnie were [she gestured with her hands], her daughter says they were two halves of a circle." Quaid clearly agreed. Their chemistry through the film is tremendous, and as Miller said it's the heart of the film.
Moving on to talk about relationships, Reagan had (in)famously said the most terrifying words in the English language were "I'm from the government and I'm here to help." Given how important the relationship between the two actors was, and how important the relationship of those portrayed is to the movie, we asked what are the most terrifying words in a relationship?
Quaid was straight in: "None," drawing a laugh from his co-star, continuing "when you don't speak any," and laughing as well.
Miller said she thought "the most terrifying words are the words that when someone is speaking you don't know if you can trust them or believe them. That was the beauty of this relationship." Dennis by this point had his arm around Penelope's chair. "Nancy was the only person really truly that Ronnie trusted and vice versa." With practice that demonstrated that relationship, Quaid joined in, almost harmonising, "There was a real closeness, a real chemistry there," before Miller finished with the strength of "knowing that whatever came out of their mouths was the truth".
Their relationship as actors has definitely informed their performances, and with them being as strong, it is sad audiences have had to wait so long to see it. They were cheerful about the fact that it's now ready. A final jovial "Here we are!" was delivered in unison.
Reagan is in US cinemas from Saturday 31 August
