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Movie star talks to Santa Barbara audience about playing the president and filming at the Reagan Ranch PHOTOS BY ANDREA RUSSELL PHOTOGRAPHYFrom left, Adam Carolla, Dennis Quaid and Gina Grad discuss Mr. Quaid’s movies during a recording of “The Adam Carolla Show” Friday at the Reagan Center on State Street.
Dennis Quaid came to Santa Barbara and talked about his approach to playing someone he admired — President Ronald Reagan — in an upcoming movie.
“I had three years to prepare for this part, from the first meeting we had about it,” the star of “Reagan” told a packed house Friday at the Reagan Center on lower State Street.
“I didn’t want to do an impersonation,” Mr. Quaid said during a recording of “The Adam Carolla Show,” a popular podcast. “I’ve played a lot of real people. I have a responsibility. I want to tell the story from their point of view.”
A packed house enjoys listening to Mr. Quaid.Mr. Quaid recalled voting for Mr. Reagan back in 1980.
“It was the third time I got to vote, but it was the first time I really wanted to vote,” Mr. Quaid said, noting his enthusiasm for Mr. Reagan on Election Day.
Mr. Quaid told Mr. Carolla about filming “Reagan,” directed by Sean McNamara, last year at Rancho del Cielo, President Reagan’s 688-acre ranch north of Santa Barbara.
“When I went to the Reagan Ranch, that’s when it really hit me,” Mr. Quaid said. “You get up there on a road, if you can call it a road. You get up there, and you realize Ronald Reagan was not a rich man. He was a humble man.
“The ranch is very much as he left it,” Mr. Quaid said.
He noted the one-bedroom home features books from President Reagan’s life, two single beds tied together to make a king-size bed and a TV remote from the 1960s.
“Their clothes are still in the closet,” Mr. Quaid said. “You feel like they (Mr. Reagan and Nancy Reagan) have just left and are coming back.”
From left, Adam Carolla, Dennis Quaid, Gina Grad and Bryan Bishop (“Bald Bryan”) talk about Mr. Quaid’s films and the news of the day.Mr. Quaid’s audience Friday included Andrew Coffin, director of the Reagan Ranch and vice president of Young America’s Foundation.
Mr. Coffin told the News-Press Monday that he’s glad to see Mr. Quaid play the president.
“I think it’s important that it’s someone who respects and admires Ronald Reagan,” Mr. Coffin said. “It adds a lot to his characterization.”
Mr. Coffin said he was impressed as he watched Mr. Quaid’s performance during four days of filming in February 2021 at the Reagan Ranch.
“He did a masterful job of picking nuances of what we remember about Ronald Reagan without it becoming a parody,” Mr. Coffin said. “It was an excellent performance.”
Mr. Coffin said he has spent time with Mr. Quaid during his multiple visits to Reagan Ranch. “He’s somebody I’ve really grown to respect and admire and develop an appreciation for, one that goes beyond what you see on the silver screen. That’s part of what gives me a great sense of confidence that he’s the right guy for the part.”
Mr. Coffin added that during the Alisal Fire, Mr. Quaid made a call “to make sure we were doing OK at the Reagan Ranch.” The ranch wasn’t damaged by the fire.
Mr. Coffin said that based on what he knows about “Reagan,” the movie will show the president’s sense of optimism.
“Certainly he (President Reagan) deserves credit for ending the Cold War without firing a shot, restoring the economy from the doldrums of the 1970s when the country was experiencing stagflation and long gas lines, and perhaps as significantly as anything else, restoring the sense of pride in our military, in America’s place in the world and pride in our country and all that it stands for,” Mr. Coffin said.
Besides “Reagan,” Friday’s program at the Reagan Center looked at Mr. Quaid’s other movies, with Mr. Quaid, Mr. Carolla and “Adam Carolla Show” cast members Gina Grad and Bryan Bishop (“Bald Bryan”) estimating how Mr. Quaid’s films did well on the Rotten Tomatoes rating site. In some cases, they did much better than the modest movie star thought.
In-between the estimates, Mr. Quaid talked about the experience of making his films.
He said he spent a year learning how to play the piano, practicing 8 to 12 hours a day, to portray rocker Jerry Lee Lewis in “Great Balls of Fire” (1989).
“Jerry Lee was one of my piano teachers. He was very generous,” Mr. Quaid said.
He praised fellow star Lindsay Lohan in another of his movies, the remake of “The Parent Trap” (1998). Ms. Lohan played twins. He said the then-child star captured the differences between the twins so well that he felt like there were actually two kids playing the roles.
Mr. Quaid said his 1987 sci-fi comedy, “Inner Space” (also starring Martin Short), turned out to be the most popular movie he ever acted in.
“When the movie came out (at theaters), it bombed,” Mr. Quaid said. “But it found its audience on VHS.”
email: dmason@newspress.com
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