Dennis Quaid: Finding His Faith & the Impact of Reagan | Praise on TBN

identified always as a Christian I think but I didn't really know what that was and I you know finally to the point where after everything was going great for me in the world you still have that same B to fill and I went back and I read the Bible again remember what this country could be wow wow you know when we're all together when we were United there was a part of Reagan that was very very private almost impenetrable really I wanted to get down to what that was and I think that I think that

was his relationship with with God along with Franklin Roosevelt Reagan uh was had more effect on human history I think than than anyone else in the 20th centuy for sure ended the Cold War he was a father figure to a nation and and it felt like you know we were talking earlier it almost feels like Ronald Reagan embodied this kind of you know almost um well let's just say it the way we did Father Figure and the nation needed a father he was everybody's dad in a in a sense uh and you know that was

for better or worse you know you have problem children and you have those that you know go along with a dad but or there's there's that struggle or that close relationship there and uh I think that you know that is carried on I mean in in his legacy I think people still feel that yeah uh going way back in that fatherhood there's that there's that leadership yeah you know that I think we we all so admired we're all about the same age and we I remember turning 18 and being able to vote for President Reagan

right think about Reagan he governed by principles yeah and you know that didn't have to do with like the issue of the day or whatever the PO whichever way the popular wind was blowing and he made a lot of decisions that had people scratch in their head sometimes or that they would they would they would be against but they were based on principles and in the long run it's principles that endure yeah and that's what it takes to be a leader is to sometimes make very tough decisions there needed to be a little bit more

of a father figure to really represent the bigger picture of what America is is and what America wanted to do and and there's a lot of connection points for me my dad uh you know was in radio back in the day when Governor Reagan uh was here in California and and there's a lot to it 1983 the year of the Bible my dad uh was so excited to to be back in Washington DC when when that declaration kind of got put out there and everyone was so celebrating all that so there's a lot of really

great stuff but what why don't we start by first of all saying Dennis Quaid thank you for taking on amazing job Lor and I have seen theie appreciate it it was like it's my favorite movie I've ever done a and uh which used to be the right stuff but just I I judge my films by the experience I had while I was making them and this was just one of the greatest pleasures and challenges of of my life so we were just talking about how it felt like being out at the ranch at his and

nany's ranch and you doing some of those scenes that had just to be had to pinch myself cuz we're doing the scenes that happened at the Reagan Ranch and we're this is like 40 years later in that very same place and it's you know it's kind of have chills go up your spying about it and um the ranch is not open to the public like the library and you know a group of his friends got together and to preserve it and they left they left their clothes in the closet you when you go there you

you feel like Ron and Nancy are going to come back in a half hour or something it's exactly like it was they I I didn't say yes right away to playing Reagan because one thing I he was my favorite President everybody knows what he looks like I didn't feel like worthy in in a way of it but I didn't want to do a uh you a love letter about him I wanted to to really get to where he was as a human being and and uh it took me a long time to say yes and

I went to the ranch and you go up five miles of the worst Road in California to get there to the top of the hill and you come out through the front gate and I realized that Reagan was a humble man I could feel him there you know and the house is this Western White House they had it was uh 1100 square ft maybe they had a king-size bed but it was two single beds that were zip tied together I love it you know there's little things like you know the the basket uh in front

of the television with the three different controllers that I note from Nancy on how to you know do this stuff he had GE Appliances you know so I'm sure he got a good deal on that yeah and but um could really feel uh him as a human being wow and you know he's he's in that place and that's what that's when I said yes we want to know a lot about uh your experience with this but uh our audience you know you're on Trinity Broadcasting you're you're on TBN and our audience cares about you they

care about wanting to know about what this really meant to you and and and you know a lot of times I have to remind guests sometimes that to say this is the friendliest audience you're ever going to speak to right now in regard to this and they want to know about you your faith how to basically this is fellowship on television isn't it come on now right that's that's really a that's what it is you know two or more are gathered yeah right yeah yeah I think you got got a little bit more than two

or more yeah I I hope so how how did your faith play into this and what is your you know how's it you see parallels between yours and ra Reagan's Faith well yeah you know uh in a way you know I like my story and my the story of me as a Christian you know I brought that into the role of Reagan and uh you know I was I was born in Houston was Southern Baptist you know growing up you know uh we the First Baptist Church downtown Houston and then switched over to belir Texas

you know is that in the 50s and 60s it was like it was such a great time to be a kid in in this country and um I was baptized when I was nine and uh I in my teen years I became disillusioned with what I call churchianity I guess you know and it was also late 60s early' 7s there was a lot of other things that were you know pulling it at this country country and um I got into uh I read a book called sidarth I got into reading about other religion in Hinduism

uh I went around the world I I read the babag Gita the DAP I'd read the Bible You Know cover to cover and read uh the Quran and I you know there was a drug culture at the time you know back in the 60s and 70s they was uh the drug culture that was going on then it was about to expand your mind you know in it was like a spiritual experience did you inhale did I yes I did inhale okay I yeah I did I'll say it right now and you know I wound up

and you know things are it's all about really filling that hole that empty hole sure uh inside you and I you know I identifyed always as a Christian I think but I didn't really know what that was and I you know finally to the point where after everything was going great for me in the world but finally getting to that point after I did Great Balls of Fire I played Jerry Lee lwis God bless his soul rest his soul yeah I uh I was in rehab uh rehab about six months after well that met his

fifth go around but I I went up at rehab about about 6 months after I uh finished the movie and um when you got out you still have that same hole you know you you might get sober but you still have that same hole to fill and I went back and I read the Bible again my goodness and what year been that would have been 1990 1992 right around there and it um this time it was the red words of Jesus in the New Testament that that really hit me and was the beginning of my

personal relationship with Jesus Christ wow you know I'd never really gotten that before and and that continues to grow but that is um really what everybody's looking for whether they know it or not what age would this kind of maybe first time realization of what a personal relationship with with j Jesus is what what age were you that was in my 40s yeah in your 40s so you you kind of did a full circle thing started in church went around the world looking searching and came back to that truth uh in the 90s yeah and

you know they had a personal relationship with but that I mean that's not the end of the story I'm a human being you know and I've gone through I could through cycles and you know I of uh ups and downs Peaks and valleys in in in my spiritual life you know that feel sometimes you know that God is silent you know and then I wonder but I've always um I talk to God you know it's called prayer yeah and a lot of it's called listening there you go you know so uh you know through that

like relationship with him deepens and um it's uh you know I am where I am today you know uh we we do these kind of conversations a lot and this there's this there's this interesting uh kind of thought that you can apply to some of these you know seasons in your life as it were is how do you even know you have faith unless it's called upon if you never go through a desert season or this kind of mid bar season and and what's really interesting about these kind of Silent or or what we would

call a desert experience or something like that is the is the Hebrew word for Desert is midbar and if you would ask somebody that understands the Hebrew language they would say midbar is actually a positive thing you know we think of Silent seasons in our life as these kind of God's distance from us and he's left us alone and all that and and the Jewish connotation of midbar is very good because the desert the Wilderness is where you experience God and it's a positive thing in in the Jewish kind of language and we sometimes get

all get that all wrong that if it's quiet or it's or it's a a lonely season or if it's kind of a desert series and we're we're we're distance we're further from God and maybe it's the opposite of that maybe that's when we're actually closer to God that he's nearer trust is strong even at our lowest point you're saying yeah yet well uh Jesus is on the cross was that's crying out to God because God was silent even and then and uh it's it's a stress test I guess in a way too isn't it would

you you were talking about faith you don't know how do you know you have faith until it's called upon called upon you know that stress point and you know we have our knee-jerk reactions then it that gets back to the principles that we were talking about too with Ronald Reagan as well you know about you you have something solid there that you can go to in those times of of trouble I wrote a song about those seasons in life really that it's called God gets lonely too my goodness that uh how he wants to have

a relationship with us as much as we need a relationship we need a relationship with him right you know uh you're very familiar to our viewing audience you're very familiar to L and myself because we've seen you on the big screen the small screen uh behind you there's a poster of you that actually I actually thought for a moment that was actually Ronald Reagan and that you were turning into Ronald Reagan I realized no that's actually you back there but but how did this uh experience of playing him um come about you know you're taking

one of the the one of these people out of history that you realize the largest news event in our lifetime was basically the end of the Cold War I mean that's that's literally one of the biggest events in our lifetime and this guy was as it were hellbent and like valinda yeah basically accomplished that Maggie Thatcher was kind of yes he was in there too and rean had been fighting communism all his life really from the time that he was he was president of the Screen Actors Guild by the way and uh he was fighting

communist there yeah because they were trying to take over the unions uh people thought it was an old wives tell that you know but then when the Soviet Union fell they found the files and uh you know they were trying to take over the unions and uh you know he boy did we need him it took a cold warrior like him to really know what the real world was like and lead us there and it would be a much different world if it weren't for Ronald Reagan I'm interested in knowing how you approach this that

you're doing and taking on Ronald Reagan is a is a a pretty tall order yeah I understand your mama kind of had some effect on a little bit yeah she's she's got to do this cuz I didn't I didn't think I look like him or or you know I definitely didn't sound like him and he's one of the most recognizable like Muhammad Ali recognizable in the world and so you know that really a fear went up my spine about it and that's usually a a sign that I should say yes because it gets me out

of my comfort zone about it it's uh and uh but it's about the way I work is it's about from the outside in a little bit but also finding out the humanity getting down to what makes somebody tick and uh something that I can relate to a person with we both have Sunny dispositions I know that we're both actors and uh it's about there was a part of Reagan that was very very private almost impenetrable that that I that I found everyone who had known him had said and really I wanted to get down to

what that was and I think that I think that was his relationship with with God actually wow I really do there was a very private place in there that uh was hard for anybody else to enter yeah a very private man feels like when this is a great communicator yeah it feels like whenever he would speak and embrace faith and and Faith issues again this 1983 was quote the year of the Bible and and so many of the Christian leaders my dad and others and Bill brigh and all the the ones that were kind of

there at that time um were so uh they they were literally enamored by the way that he could command uh the attention uh of the world and and figuring out how to do that on screen had to be this the fear moment coming up your back to to walk in and actually portray that I mean he had to get there himself you know one of the things I I kind of felt when I play a real person I feel like I have an obligation to play play them from their point of view and that means

finding out you know about their strengths or you know that could be obvious to all of us that we admire and stuff and sometimes to find out get to maybe some of those insecurities that we all feel too because we we're all human beings and we all feel the same things going through life and uh you one of the things was with Reagan I don't think as an actor he ever got to that place he aspired to be oh wow as an actor and whether it was that you know he was relegated to be movies

by Jack Warner and you know John Wayne already had his spot or or or or whatever it was and he was you know he was married to Jane Wyman at at I think at this time and uh she was W an Academy Award while his career is going down and what is you know what does that what do you feel like inside with that yeah you know it's it's those little things that actually kind of shape us in a way and you know I think God's purpose for him was becoming president it was because really

with kind of the his career going downhill that he became vice president and then president of the Screen Actor Guild which was really his entry into politics my goodness and fighting communism in know back in the 50s and 60s uh uh as uh in the guild there that's actually an amazing point that you bring up that so often we fight the thing that we're trying to prop up or that we're trying to what if he would have kept fighting and pushing and elbowing back into roles you see you know God was making a left-hand turn

for him that's what we do is I I I get this expression that keeps coming back to me that you know you got to be careful what you ask God for because he just might give it to you yeah and he'll give it to you in a way that uh you didn't expect you go wait wait wait wait a minute that's not what I meant you know that and uh we really were tested in that way and it's it's about finding purpose in life you know what is God's purpose for us and that's you know

I think he got LED in a roundabout way to that and acting helped out in the end because you know as president he was the greatest actor we ever had so how do you think the assassination attempt on his life changed him very interesting and we just had one a couple you know another one first one since R in back uh I think he said that you know my life is no longer my own yeah after surviving that yeah it's got to be a very humbling yeah uh event to happen to you your mortality it's

right passes in front of your eyes and you know uh we're mortal God reminds what we're here for yeah and rean as well you know he was waving a bullet bounced off went in right here they were going to go back to the White House because they didn't think they thought he was okay and you know blood came out of his mouth about halfway there and they went to uh I think it was Walter Reed and the bullet was about that far from his heart so again it was about a quarter of an inch from

being gone my goodness I had the opportunity to sit with maau gorbachov for two days and interview him for a different project we've not used that footage uh he's now passed away and so it was a while back that we were able to do this and he was a politician and asked him a simple question Mr gorbachov you your your mother was a very well-known believer in Christ uh you were given your name you know through the uh through the priest at the church and you know all the different you know the the different things

are you a believer in God are you a Christian and he he did this political answer and he said you know I I was baptized I was baptized and I was this and and then when the church uh with the when the with the Orthodox Church celebrated its thousand year anniversary I was I allowed them to you know do this celebration and you tell me am I a Christian you know you tell me am I a no and that wasn't good that wasn't good enough for so I asked the same question about seven times finally

I got him to to answer da yes to this did God use Ronald Reagan and you to make the world a safer place and he said duh there's there's going to be a there's going to be a point in watching the film and we saw an early version and and you know that had some you know missing pieces and this and that and the other thing but but basically you turn into Ronald Reagan at some point during this thing and that's always end of it is so moving and the end is just absolutely just you

know you choke up and it's almost that's almost to respond to what you said about that's almost when you decided to take the role is when you went there and felt uh the humility of what Ronald Reagan was as a person you take the role those scenes filmed there are kind of the emotional climax of the whole movie and it is and that works seriously that that was that was that was very well done it's he was Ronald Reagan was authentic and that's what came across and that's people who didn't agree with him uh knew

he was an authentic person yeah and uh admired that and um I think there's a lesson in all of that for us the movies is to entertain for us to go into you know the dark and watch a story that it inspires and uh entertains us and uh that's the first thing the word authentic triggered something um that I want to kind of remind everybody that we literally sat with with gorbachov for two days in his office in Moscow we put him on camera for several hours with his uh interpreter at his side a longtime

interpreter his name is pav pav was so good at interpreting that you could really have a conversation with with maau gorbachov it was amazing and this authentic moment that you're talking about uh ruic most historians look back at ruic as a disaster except gorbachov didn't he saw the authentic uh Ronald Reagan and said we're finished I looking back I think that's where the Cold War was actually won it was for the first time America president said no to the Soviets it was instead of appeasement yeah and that's where they had always gotten us with you

know with Carter and and you know datant and that and uh Reagan said no and I myself I was a big fan of Reagan back then I I was mad at him yeah I felt oh he's acting like an old codger yeah it finally came up you know here it is we had peace in our time we were going to get rid of nuclear weapons all together right right at that conference it was going to happen and Reagan had walked out because uh they the Soviets said had always done that they never lived up to

their agreements and but he he walked out and um they came back and built for real this time it wasn't just a show the way I heard it in those 48 Hours was uh that was the end of it and they saw the authenticity inside of Reagan when he said no they knew he meant it and cold war was over there so in ' 89 the walls started coming down I was there in 1990 I went over there myself during that I took a chisel and a hammer and IED all the all the uh all

the guard dogs the German shepher guard dogs were just like you know they were trained to like attack everybody but the guards were all laughing and having a great time it was it was what a feeling I have a piece of the Berlin Wall about this big in my office that I broke off and put a towel around it carried it back to the United States but I have a picture of my oldest son who's now 34 in diapers and I'm holding him in East uh on the east side of Berlin of the wall I'm

holding him in my hand like he's hanging onto two pieces of of rebar like this and so the Berlin Wall was built the year I was born and it was torn down the Year my son uh was born in 1989 so 61 and 889 and and so uh Ronald Reagan has always been this bigger than life thing and for that was an impossible thing I mean before that I'd done a movie in Germany about four years before that and and talked to people and went to the Burlingham wall went through Checkpoint Charlie went over the

other side no one ever believed the Germans that that would ever come down everever and and it what it did it was like a a flame was lit in the heart all of a sudden you know the with every hop it was incredible and then all of a sudden this flicker of hope maybe that could could happen you know Reagan amazing famously never kind of solved any of the inter mural squabbles in his team and if his cabinet was was fighting he like yeah you guys work that out I I I largely adopted that same

thing everyone has to kind of work everything out themselves you're a delegator exactly yeah and and I love that because he was after one thing he was after about tearing down communism that c war and he got it done and it was just it the big guy did the big idea you know not only in our hearts but for for the people that were living under that system right it just didn't work it was it was it was breaking people's hearts what's your favorite scene out of the movie um gosh I got a bunch of

them I really do and uh those I think the scene where gorbachov and and he at the first meeting wow in Vienna you know face to face it certainly pops up in my head where did you shoot that Dennis where we shot that in Oklahoma yeah at that big at the at the Mason shot here Masonic temple what you shot in here we shot here too we we uh shot a large part of the movie in Oklahoma at I think it's the largest Masonic temple in in the in the world fact it's huge you know

make it into anything we even made it into uh uh Berlin you know out there for tear down this wall speech that scene really comes out because it was their first meeting and the you know they went into that room and just had that face to face one on one with each other and it was kind of an impossible thing that happened but Reagan had that way you know he could break through to people we're in Southern California and if I kind of look over my here that is a full siiz actual version of Air

Force One did you shoot on board Air Force One uh yes we shot on board right right on thee here so being on this plane made me feel really old it looked to it seems small in there all the technology that's in there it's like oh I remember that yeah I think it was after Reagan or after Bush actually while Bush they were building this 747 for Bush and I think he barely got to use it for about 3 weeks before Clinton so there's a big giant um helicopter kind of down on the next floor

down there and you filmed on that here at the Reagan Library yeah they were kind enough we got we really got great support great from the Reagan family and uh even and uh you know the the foundation and the library and the ranch and uh there's so many people who really wanted to see a story told what did you ever come to a point playing Reagan where you felt really solid in in in representing him not really not once not no not once not once do the best would do the best that I could you

said tear down that wall I mean you know there's uh you know you just try to do the best that you can do and do everything good a great job you really did I can't believe you said that because literally you turn into the guy in the movie oh I think a minute you say oh I've got this one then the Lord allows something to over okay here it comes you got to be always trying to learn something you know right to the very end and run to the tape with it you know and because

you sit on your laurels and you know you're not learning a thing I want to I want to remind everybody of something that I have two boys they 34 and 30 so when you did the the rookie that was that was one of the biggest movies of our Movie goinging experience back then I don't remember exactly I don't remember exactly had a boy he was so my kids were playing for the for the uh Dodgers uh in their little league and our little league team actually played at Dodger Stadium and they had some Fields up

behind it Pete Rose was Pete Rose's kid was on our on our crazy but you that was a big moment in our life that movie was endearing to to to many and and very that very much reflected my life too that movie what it was about cuz it wasn't about baseball it was about Second Chances in life and I think everybody can relate to that we all need that but yeah third chances is and third and fourth and fifth and six yeah yeah okay um remember uh a moment in the filming uh where you felt

inspiration to do the scene okay you've admitted that you never felt like you kind of got it nailed but but there had to be little I knew when things were good you know were going well and I knew know then when it wasn't well it was just like hey we got to like stop and work on this and get this thing right you know to uh well I'll take like the scene uh that in the second uh election the debate where Ronald Reagan about his age you know it says I will not for political purposes

take advantage of my opponent's Youth and inexperience you know and yeah that was plain and well wanted to get that just right because Reagan was very studied when it came to that he was really funny he always opened up with a joke yeah and this I mean this spoke volumes he could have like fought that age thing and earn back about it but he did it with a joke yeah that even had Mandel laughing laughing yeah you it was kind of the genius of rean disarming everybody about his age and they had already had a

first debate where that's where the age came into question because he had a had a bad debate and in a sense because it was all about facts and figures and stuff and that's not way the way that Reagan operated but he told that you know uh Youth and inexperience and there was a laugh and Reagan picked up his glass of water did a little and did that a little movie acting there that was a Jack Benny sure because he did the weight to extend that out there and that's all he had to ever do can

you do that line for us a little bit like you did in the I'm not going to repeat it for you you got to seen the movie for that sorry what do you want us to experience okay we go to the theater August 30th uh by the way I I thought about the thought that we've we've heard a little bit lately about bad debate nights we've heard that phrase a couple of times in the last couple like maybe a million bad night and uh the but what do you want us to experience uh coming out

of the theater I think for people who were born before 1990 remember what this country could be wow wow you know when we're all together when we're United and and also remember even though we were like not divided sometimes how well we all work together in a sense and what this country was and what it still can be yeah and those after 1990 you get a little education of what it what it could be yeah still a lot of us uh a lot of the viewers older than us are saying amen and the younger ones

are going what are you talking about you know because they they haven't seen politics done at a level where we can really Embrace blame them you know back then we had we had Liberal Republicans and conservative Democrats and uh there really wasn't all that much difference between the two yeah and that has become so polarized and you know I I in a way I think covid has been kind of the beginning of a spiritual awakening again in this country you know it's usually spiritual Awakenings usually that there a struggle and that's what we've done and

we've done it together and I I we have to learn how to to get back to that that little flicker of Hope again yeah we're all Americans yeah it felt like it felt like we had a touch of it at 911 that all of a sudden we were Americans again it feels like Co kind of brought the world together uh the the largest uh streaming event in YouTube's history was Andrea belli walking out in front of the dwo in Milan singing Amazing Grace he walked out sang that song and and you know it felt like

we could attain to something bigger and it feels like Reagan represented that last era of that time right uh well every generation has their own test of that too don't they I think Co was the way it for one thing everybody's life stopped you know and realize how fragile you know all this jobs and this and that are and it brought us back in homes doing a routine that we hadn't maybe done in 20 years the kids are home families are together you know and uh it really brought some introspection to people about looking into

you know their own spirit and what do you fill that with and you know I think you have to talk to God at some point yeah you know something we haven't talked about is Sim and Nancy their their little love affair through all the years was so inspiring that's really Central to this film yeah in fact in in a way you could say This Is The Love Story this film there wouldn't have been a President Reagan without Nancy and that does I'm not saying that she was the puppet master or anything like that it was

just the strength of their relationship they had God in their relationship as well and uh how behind him she was and they found strength in each other and they he wrote her love letters every day yeah a little love note even when uh after in the hospital after the assassination attempt and uh it's and uh Penelope and Miller she plays Nancy and I don't know she channeled her I don't know how she was doing this but it was it was like sometimes even annoyingly though a little bit it's so great it was fantastic I mean

I I I would look at her I would have had uh been able to do Reagan without somebody really fantastic in that part and she was so good let's Circle back to the influence of your mama on you and this movie yeah well my mom was was always has been she was The Rock in my life you know uh she was there she was always there to remind me about a lot of things and you know a lot of things I didn't want to hear as well but Mom's for you know she was just a

really great lady a really great lady who you know loved God and uh what you know what had wanted us to have a relationship with with Jesus in a very personal way it it that personal way really kind of came to her really uh back in the 80s as well you know which I guess is late in life uh but uh she was uh you know she was somebody with principles too and the just a I really miss her I do know that she was happy when you finally signed on to this film yeah she

got to she was around for that I wish she was here to for when it comes out next month but she she'll be here in spirit sure your uh final thoughts concerning uh what you want our audience to know about this film and this experience and what they'll experience in the theater whatever you want to final final thoughts yours well like I said I you know I want people to be entertained and uh inspired by this story you know because it's it's it's about a man Ronald Reagan but I I I think it's about it's

about us too you know as Americans and what we what we stand for and Who We Are and uh you know uh he wasn't he wasn't a saint you know no one is he was a human being and but there's something there to Aspire to I think I love your your thought that it's almost like um there's going to be a whole generation of people that are going to get to see what politics actually could be like because never actually seen it no I haven't I haven't seen it in quite a while yeah I haven't

either have we it's in theaters this August 30th and Dennis thank you for uh making time for us so much for having me uh library and uh uh to the TBN viewers you're going to see him on Huckabee and you're going to see him over on MSM with Dr Phil you're going to look it's this is a big movie for our time right here it is simply Reagan in theaters August 30th