Happy birthday, Ronald Reagan. What making a movie about our 40th president taught me about his greatness

Editor’s Note: President Ronald Reagan was born on February 6, 1911. The following essay has been excerpted.”Make Reagan. ”

Filming a film during a pandemic is an unparalleled surreal experience. Part of the joy of making a movie is the joy of being together. It’s about wandering around with restaurants, local haunts, and generally with cast and crew.

When I first landed in Guthrie, Oklahoma, I went straight to our community coordinator, Emily Onion, and asked her what the rules were for staying there. The conversation turned out to be:

“Can I go to the restaurant?”

“no.”

“How about Walmart?”

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“It’s definitely the most dangerous place.”

“How do you eat?” I asked.

She just stared at me.

Ultimately, we made a plan and Walmart groceries were delivered to my door every day. We lived in rental. My 92 year old mother, my wife, my children, caregiver, assistant. While I was at work, the kids were doing Zoom School and we were trying hard to make it normal from the mess.

There were plenty of indications that explain Guthrie’s town like the town he once had. It mentions that many pubs are shelter in the event of a ban. While walking, I came across an assassination scene. The walls of the Washington Hilton hotel near where Reagan almost lost his life were fully replicated by our design team. The next day, Dennis Quaid, who was appearing in the 40th President, recreated an incredible moment in front of the wall, and we took part in the race.

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Dennis spent a long day that began with that scene, then moved on to various picks, including stories with his aging mother, Nell, played by my old friend, Jennifer O’Neill. The scene was beautiful in which 40-year-old Reagan said he was washed away by his mother, divorced and lost.

When Dennis and I discussed this scene, he said he wanted to change some lines. I asked him if he had a similar conversation with his mother, and he immediately said yes by the time he and Meg Ryan were divorced. “It’s just a riff on it,” I told him, and he said to Jennifer’s character Nere that he didn’t have a perfect life in Hollywood and that he said he told him. He said he couldn’t do it and told him to tell him what he had said. I’ll do it someday.

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It was closed twice in the fall the previous time due to Covid and after finishing filming and returning to LA, it felt like I had PTSD. But now I was looking forward to getting a strong finish.

When Reagan was in Las Vegas, we moved on to the final scene of the night and the final filming of Dennis. This was the moment when Reagan was on the edge of his rope, smoking a cigarette and drinking a beer. Sheen culminates with him by throwing a beer bottle behind the scenes at a show where he was forced to perform to pay his mortgage. It was a scene we carefully made.

I called out his old friend Pat Boone and asked: if Reagan had been lying in Vegas, how low could he go? Did he reach for the bottle? Did he throw it into rage?

On January 20th, 1981, Ronald and Nancy Reagan won the victory at Reagan’s first inauguration. (Corvis/Corvis via Getty Images)

I raised the same question to the Reagan biographer. Reagan ensured that Reagan did not do anything like that, and what Reagan said specifically about Vegas shows that it is difficult, but still part of God’s plan. Masu.

Pat didn’t have it so we took his notes. Even if Reagan later considered it part of God’s plan, it could have been a huge disappointment, he might have lost his cool after drinking a drink.

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That’s how we played it.

We were finished near midnight and we hugged one last time as Dennis went down the stairs. We had been through a long and painful journey, countless peaks and valleys, and now it’s almost over.