The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast - 450. Reagan, Star Wars, Trump, & Power ｜ Dennis Quaid

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00:00:14.820 Hello, everybody.

00:00:30.960 I have the privilege today of speaking with actor Dennis Quaid.

00:00:34.020 He flew into Scottsdale to do the show in person.

00:00:38.240 I saw a screening of his new film coming out in August, end of August, Reagan, last year.

00:00:44.820 And I thought it was a classic American production.

00:00:48.740 Very much enjoyed it.

00:00:50.540 Speaks of a very significant time in the history of the world, really.

00:00:55.280 The defeat of the communist empire, which is something remarkable and extremely relevant to today again,

00:01:04.380 when the same sorts of ideas are making their reemergence.

00:01:08.160 And so what did we talk about?

00:01:10.160 What are we going to talk about?

00:01:11.080 Well, Dennis's career, the challenge of playing Reagan, the purpose of drama, the, what would you say?

00:01:22.480 It's calling to us to see the world through the eyes of other people so that we can expand the way that we look at things

00:01:27.700 and we can expand to what we can understand.

00:01:29.820 We talk about Hollywood.

00:01:32.480 We talk about the future of the music industry.

00:01:35.040 We talk about political attitudes and how they affect the entertainment world.

00:01:41.660 Join us for all that.

00:01:42.720 So I think it was about a year ago that I was in LA and Mark Joseph showed me an early cut of Reagan.

00:01:53.360 It's changed from then.

00:01:55.560 Well, I liked it.

00:01:56.980 I'll tell you why I liked it.

00:01:59.200 I liked the fact that the film concentrated on Reagan's activity as an anti-communist.

00:02:06.480 Yeah.

00:02:06.820 Full warrior.

00:02:07.680 You bet.

00:02:08.200 I thought that was wise.

00:02:09.540 All of his life.

00:02:10.300 Yeah, right, right.

00:02:11.220 All of his life.

00:02:11.960 And so I thought that was extremely interesting.

00:02:14.360 And I thought it was a wise choice to concentrate on that specifically because that's the right, what would you say?

00:02:23.320 That's the central story with him as far as pertains to the world.

00:02:29.460 Yeah, exactly.

00:02:30.340 That is what he, you know, almost single-handedly, really, because if we'd had another president in there, it would have been business as usual.

00:02:38.380 He defeated communism.

00:02:41.020 Yeah, well.

00:02:41.540 Won the Cold War.

00:02:42.780 He defeated it in its last iteration.

00:02:45.720 It's making a lovely comeback at the moment.

00:02:48.280 Well, we didn't, he didn't help them.

00:02:53.080 No, he certainly didn't.

00:02:54.220 No, no, I agree.

00:02:55.280 Which is, you know.

00:02:55.860 Yeah, and I thought the film did a very good job of concentrating on what truly was central about his presidency, and I think that is what was central.

00:03:05.560 And it was daring, and as you said, he had committed his whole life to it, and so that was interesting.

00:03:10.500 I also, I also thought the movie was interesting from a narrative perspective because it kind of harkened, it was a classic Hollywood movie.

00:03:20.140 Like, it harkened back to me, for me, to the kinds of movies that were made in the 1950s and the 1960s.

00:03:26.740 Like, it's unabashedly pro-American, but not in a way that hits you over the head.

00:03:31.500 But it's also, it doesn't have that kind of cynical bitterness that's characteristic of much of the productions of popular culture really since the 1970s.

00:03:41.120 And so, that was nice to see, and it was pleasant to be carried away by a movie that was-

00:03:49.140 It wasn't like an Oliver, a movie that Oliver would do, like about Nixon.

00:03:54.920 Right, right, right, right, right.

00:03:56.960 So, how did you get involved in that project, and why were you interested in it?

00:04:01.220 And I took a meeting, I think this was like 2017, that I heard these people, they want you to play Reagan, and I was just like, sure, right.

00:04:14.300 Because I didn't think I looked like Reagan, or the only thing we had in common was that we were actors.

00:04:21.360 And so, I went and had a meeting with Mark, and so it was a process, you know, because I, he was my favorite president, I will say that.

00:04:35.660 Yeah, and I'd lived through those times and knew what they were.

00:04:40.120 He was the first president.

00:04:41.920 I did vote for Jimmy Carter in 76, regretted it, but in 1980, I voted for Ronald Reagan.

00:04:49.400 And my dad was a huge Reagan fan, and I voted for him and went home, and my roommate at that time from Texas, he said, who'd you vote for?

00:05:02.560 And I said, Ronald Reagan, and he said, you are kicked out of the hippies.

00:05:06.360 Yeah, definitely.

00:05:07.640 That was like, yeah, for sure, man.

00:05:09.100 You're not in the hippie club anymore.

00:05:10.860 So, how old were you when you, how old were you when you, when you voted for Reagan?

00:05:15.500 I was, uh, 26.

00:05:20.180 26, okay.

00:05:21.440 So, you were old enough to have some sense, but you could have easily still been a hippie.

00:05:25.380 So, I wouldn't have voted for Reagan when, when I was back then.

00:05:29.880 I was still being too entranced by the blandishments of the left.

00:05:33.920 So, why was it that at that time, Reagan was a, yeah, yeah.

00:05:37.740 Well, like I said, I'd voted for Jimmy Carter about that.

00:05:40.840 And then, uh, after, which reminds me very much, those times remind me very much of what's going on today.

00:05:48.400 There's this malaise that, uh, Carter had his malaise speech.

00:05:52.880 Right, right, right.

00:05:52.940 Uh, you know, the, he, uh, the, the country was, had lost confidence in itself, you know, about who we are.

00:06:03.360 We was kind of accepted that we were a nation in decline.

00:06:07.060 Uh, you know, it was after Watergate.

00:06:09.980 It was after, uh, Vietnam.

00:06:12.420 The oil crisis.

00:06:13.480 The oil crisis.

00:06:14.400 Yeah, the hostages.

00:06:17.880 Jimmy Carter was like, we tried to be, and play nice with the Soviets during that time, you know, as far as peace.

00:06:25.100 Jimmy Carter did a great job with, uh, in the Middle East, with Egypt and Israel.

00:06:29.500 But he, uh, when it came to the Soviets, it was like, we gave away the B-1 bomber for nothing in return.

00:06:38.640 And we kept, for nothing in return, just to show our goodwill, I guess.

00:06:42.960 And the way the real politic works in the world, they just were, they were doing the biggest military buildup and were making, they were going into Africa.

00:06:54.680 They were, uh, all over the world, they were making great strides, uh, into Central America and the like.

00:07:01.540 And, uh, Reagan, who had always been, you know, this kind of coal warrior and great communicator, came along and told people,

00:07:12.960 like, pick yourself up, you know, there's a brighter day ahead.

00:07:17.380 And, uh, it was the perfect time for him.

00:07:20.340 Right, and he also had a very stark message, which was that, and very forthright, which was unapologetically, that the Soviets were an evil empire. 0.59

00:07:28.760 Yeah.

00:07:29.040 Which they certainly were.

00:07:31.340 And so he put his finger on that perfectly.

00:07:34.780 And so.

00:07:35.060 Yeah, that was all by design.

00:07:36.060 He didn't talk to the Soviets for the first six years of his presidency because they kept dying on him. 0.99

00:07:41.920 Right, right.

00:07:42.500 That's right.

00:07:43.100 They were, they were, they were elect, they were putting forward like one 90-year-old after another, right?

00:07:48.280 Yeah.

00:07:48.420 There was a sequence of them that lasted about six months in office.

00:07:51.280 Right, but it had been, but up until his presidency, it had been appeasement, uh, with the Soviets.

00:07:59.480 I think, uh, Kennedy did a really great job of it.

00:08:02.400 Nixon was actually, no matter what you think of him, uh, personally, uh, he was, is probably, uh, the, the most knowledgeable, uh, world affairs president we've ever had.

00:08:15.180 Um, and, but Carter, uh, he tried to be a nice guy.

00:08:21.420 Yeah, he was a nice, he was an agreeable person.

00:08:23.620 In the same way he personally got together Sadat and, and Begin.

00:08:27.380 Yeah.

00:08:27.640 Which he did a great job of, but.

00:08:29.980 You know, the thing is being empathic and warm and compassionate, that works real well with people who are honest and decent.

00:08:36.920 And, you know, at the local one.

00:08:38.680 Yeah, right.

00:08:39.200 And at the local, that's exactly right.

00:08:41.020 That's right.

00:08:41.680 Yeah.

00:08:41.840 That's a within family ethic.

00:08:44.000 Right.

00:08:44.360 Right.

00:08:44.640 With the real thugs, it's not the right approach.

00:08:47.840 No. 0.97

00:08:47.900 Because they just think you're a sheep. 0.99

00:08:49.320 These guys, these players on the world scene, they're all, they're badasses. 0.52

00:08:54.180 And that's one of the attractions that I had for Reagan. 0.80

00:08:56.920 At least, you know, he's a badass, but he's my badass.

00:09:00.140 Yeah.

00:09:00.780 Yeah.

00:09:01.100 Yeah.

00:09:01.600 Yeah.

00:09:01.820 And a principled, a principled person.

00:09:03.880 A principled person.

00:09:04.660 Right.

00:09:04.960 Which was a remarkable thing also to pull off, I would say, in Hollywood.

00:09:08.660 Because I'm sure that he was subject to the same temptations that people are generally subject to in Hollywood.

00:09:14.620 Yes.

00:09:15.660 And I'm sure gave in to quite a few of those temptations.

00:09:21.560 You know, he was a human being.

00:09:23.880 But, you know, he always picked himself up.

00:09:27.000 He was, you know, his movie career, he was a, I think he was disappointed in his film career.

00:09:35.320 He was, he was, he was a B-movie actor.

00:09:39.340 Yeah, yeah.

00:09:39.440 And, you know, the films were never quite up to what they should be.

00:09:44.940 You know, it's, it's kind of like, he could have been John Wayne, but John, it was already John Wayne.

00:09:50.960 Yeah, right.

00:09:51.500 The niche was already.

00:09:52.140 That was there.

00:09:53.060 And, you know, that he was married to Jane Wyman, whose career went like this.

00:09:59.080 And his just kind of stayed.

00:10:01.760 Yeah.

00:10:02.300 Stayed there.

00:10:03.320 And he became vice president and then president of the Screen Actors Guild.

00:10:11.220 Yeah.

00:10:11.460 During that time, you know, because his career was, was fading, really.

00:10:18.580 And it, it, it's there that the, his real fight against communism started, you know, even though it was kind of rumored, you know, you've got to be crazy.

00:10:30.140 But they really, after the Soviet Union fell, come to find, you go to the archives, come to find out they really were in the, in our unions.

00:10:40.400 Yeah, yeah.

00:10:40.880 Especially in Hollywood.

00:10:42.580 And, yeah, well, it's, you don't want to.

00:10:45.140 And he had, Reagan actually had physical scars on his back from fights.

00:10:50.720 He got, he got seriously beat up in a brawl at the Union Hall, in fact, from that.

00:10:58.500 And he had scars on his back.

00:11:00.340 And so he, he didn't like, he didn't like communism at all.

00:11:05.000 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:11:05.800 Well, it's easy for us.

00:11:07.760 Well, I think still we're blind to the threat.

00:11:09.860 I mean, I see in all of this university uprising that's occurring now.

00:11:15.100 And all of these bad actors who are protesting constantly in inner cities and setting up encampments and building these like independent cities.

00:11:23.800 There's a, there's a stream of thought underneath that that's, well, it's, it's, it's very much akin to the Marxist stream.

00:11:33.540 Yeah, that stream is, you get into the society, into the unions or whatever it is, you start creating mayhem.

00:11:40.560 Yeah.

00:11:40.820 And chaos.

00:11:41.800 Yeah.

00:11:42.160 You put one at this corner, this corner, that corner, and then you just start creating this mayhem.

00:11:46.520 And from that, you start confusing people that they feel like they can't do anything about it.

00:11:52.580 And it starts to grow on its own.

00:11:54.600 Yeah.

00:11:54.780 And Reagan didn't want to expel communists or even the Communist Party, but he, you know, he's principled in that way because he felt like democracy can handle it.

00:12:06.940 In fact, that's what he testified, you know, at the, at Congress during, during that time, during the time of the Red Scare and all that.

00:12:15.720 I guess that's what we're trying to figure out right now, too, whether democracy can handle it.

00:12:19.640 Democracy can handle it.

00:12:21.340 It really can't, what it takes is for, is for people to be informed, be aware, and, and, you know, it's slow, it's slow to move, but people got to get involved.

00:12:36.040 Yeah.

00:12:36.680 Yeah.

00:12:37.040 And I do feel that pendulum happening in this country now, that people are waking up.

00:12:43.520 Yeah.

00:12:44.100 You feel that?

00:12:44.580 Saying, I've had enough, because it affects them in their house, in their house, in their neighborhoods, you know?

00:12:51.340 Just the structure of, and the substructure of society, you know, kind of breaking down, you know, little by little, and where you don't feel safe anymore.

00:13:05.120 You don't, this is, this is not the way I remember it.

00:13:10.140 So, how did you figure that out in your early, in your mid-20s?

00:13:14.420 I mean, I would suspect that the milieu you were in was pretty radical, radically progressive, radically liberal.

00:13:21.760 Like, why, how, how was it that you came to be oriented in that more conservative direction, or particularly in the anti-communist direction?

00:13:29.380 I'm, I'm an independent.

00:13:31.000 I've never been a Republican, or I've never been in the Republican Party, or the Democratic Party.

00:13:36.300 And I've, I've voted both ways all of my life, according to what I thought the country needed at that time.

00:13:46.020 You know, Republicans and Democrats, it's, you know, they need each other.

00:13:51.540 Yes.

00:13:51.900 Yeah, the, the, the Republicans need the Democrats, because of this social thing that's out there, to, to, to kind of lead the way progressively.

00:14:04.200 You know, we move along as a society, and the, and the Democrats need the Republicans to kind of keep a little governor on that.

00:14:11.180 Make sure that we grow the right way, and that, you know, that we don't leave behind principles, and, and things that are at the bedrock of who we are.

00:14:23.300 So, it's, it's been both ways.

00:14:25.860 So, let's go, let's go back to, to the, to, to Reagan, per se.

00:14:29.320 So, you had an, you had a meeting, you said, in 2017, and you weren't sure that that was a part that was right for you.

00:14:35.580 Yeah.

00:14:35.780 I thought, I thought, when I watched the movie, that you embodied Reagan remarkably well.

00:14:40.840 Well, thank you, I appreciate that, but at the time, I got to tell you the truth, what really is, like, this fear went up my spine.

00:14:48.240 Oh, okay.

00:14:48.840 Because here, he's, like, one of the most recognizable figures in the world.

00:14:55.200 Right.

00:14:56.000 It's just a big part to screw up.

00:14:57.700 Yeah, and, you know, that's, so, I was, I was really hesitant about it.

00:15:04.160 And, you know, I also wanted to make sure it was done right, and, and, you know, what it was.

00:15:08.600 And I, so, I, they arranged for me to go up to the library, which I went to, and from there, we went to, I met his son, Michael, as well.

00:15:23.580 And we, I went to the ranch, and it was, when I went up to the ranch, you know, the, it was the Western White House back then above Santa Barbara.

00:15:35.960 And went up five miles to the top of the mountain, five miles of the worst road in California.

00:15:43.700 And I can't believe the Queen of England actually tried to go up that road. 1.00

00:15:47.960 She was, she was a tough cookie there, that woman. 0.99

00:15:50.920 Yeah, but you get to the top, and he opens up, and I realized that Reagan was not a rich man.

00:16:00.640 And, you know, because this place is, is like, it's nothing special in how special it is.

00:16:07.220 I mean, the house itself was maybe 1,200 square feet, you know.

00:16:13.560 It, they had a king-size bed.

00:16:15.640 Everything was left exactly as they left it.

00:16:18.120 And it's not a, it's not a place that you can tour.

00:16:21.180 It's, you know, it's a private home.

00:16:22.820 And, you know, and they had a king-size bed, but it was two single beds that were zip-tied together.

00:16:29.700 You know, all of the, the refrigerator and the stove was GE, because he worked for GE.

00:16:37.560 You know, I'm sure he got a deal on that.

00:16:39.580 And you could tell that he had done all the work there himself, just like the legend had said.

00:16:45.620 And, but there was a humbleness to it at the same time.

00:16:50.680 But he was not a rich man.

00:16:51.880 He made a lot of people rich.

00:16:54.000 And, but he was really who he said he was.

00:17:02.480 And that was the thing that really kind of convinced me at the time.

00:17:08.800 And I started thinking, well, you know, we're both actors.

00:17:11.620 We both have a semi-disposition, kind of optimistic about the world.

00:17:17.360 And there's something about him, though.

00:17:20.240 Yeah, that's funny with you, that, that sunny disposition, because you're, you're not a kind of wide-eyed, deer-in-the-headlight sort of guy.

00:17:28.920 You know, it's, it's very interesting to see that sunny disposition combined with something more like, what would you say, traditional masculinity.

00:17:37.460 And that's likely what Reagan managed to, right?

00:17:40.040 Because he was a, he had enough backbone, obviously, to stand up to the communists in the unions.

00:17:45.180 And on the-

00:17:45.640 Trust and verify.

00:17:46.280 Yeah, yeah, right.

00:17:47.060 Exactly.

00:17:47.540 And he meant that.

00:17:48.420 Yeah.

00:17:48.780 And so, yeah.

00:17:50.140 But, yeah, those things.

00:17:52.380 And then there was also, in, in getting into him, because as an actor, what really fascinates me about acting, even more and more so, is what makes people tick.

00:18:05.560 And who are they behind what you think you know?

00:18:13.220 That's what, you know, the motivations go back, way back.

00:18:15.980 There was something in Reagan that was unknowable, I come to find out.

00:18:19.640 And even those that were close to him would say that, that I don't, don't even know if Reagan was aware of it, but there was something, the great communicator, there was a very private place in there that you could not breach.

00:18:38.240 I'm sure that Nancy knew what that was, but he was a very, very private person underneath it all.

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00:20:23.860 Yeah, well, I wonder, you know, because of the remarkable role he played, there's something singular about that, right?

00:20:36.400 That, what would you say, integrity and vision that enabled him to see the true nature of the communist threat early, to fight that locally and to learn how to do it, and then to take that battle onto the international stage, right?

00:20:53.220 Yeah.

00:20:53.320 To make that the focal point of his presidency.

00:20:56.240 Yeah, even when it was really not the issue.

00:20:59.600 Right, right, right.

00:21:00.800 Like, most people were over here about that.

00:21:03.680 He was, that's what makes a great president, is when they can point out, because they have all the info, and they can say, it's here that we need to go.

00:21:14.240 Yeah, yeah.

00:21:14.740 And convince people that, you know, of what it is to go in the right direction, remind them of the principles, and not just the issue of the day.

00:21:29.200 Right, well, that's something like.

00:21:30.440 To get folks.

00:21:31.440 Right, exactly.

00:21:32.300 Well, that's something like a prophetic spirit, right?

00:21:34.700 That ability to see the current situation clearly, and to see into the future, and to put your finger exactly in the right spot.

00:21:41.720 And it is, it isn't the case, generally speaking, that American presidencies are founded on, say, a foreign policy vision, right?

00:21:52.100 That's, foreign policy is important, obviously, but it's usually not central.

00:21:55.920 And it's much easier for a president to default to some fast payoff local issue, and to do that continually, rather than to fight the battle he fought, which he really fought for decades, right?

00:22:08.240 Yeah.

00:22:08.420 Literally for decades.

00:22:09.460 He was the first to say no to the Soviets. 0.96

00:22:11.720 But his take was so brilliant, and it was disguised, and because his idea, and it wasn't originally his idea, it was from a lot of reading, research, and just time spent.

00:22:30.160 But he thought the answer was to bankrupt the Soviets.

00:22:36.300 Mm-hmm, right.

00:22:37.220 Their economy is minuscule, even today, to what ours is.

00:22:42.940 They had done so much military spending, and they were really, you know, things were so bad over there for their, for the Soviet people, you know, lines just to get food and this and that.

00:22:54.740 And that, he came up, he comes up with Star Wars, which didn't really exist.

00:23:00.840 He got the idea from the movie, you know, about lasers, you know, they're going to shoot down missiles in space.

00:23:08.760 You know, it didn't exist.

00:23:11.220 And Russians knew it didn't exist.

00:23:14.400 At least 90 percent, they knew it didn't exist, but it was that 10 percent that Reagan made him think about it.

00:23:23.720 He didn't, he didn't back off of it at all.

00:23:26.660 Yeah.

00:23:26.880 And so, but it, that, and that's what.

00:23:30.240 That's a weird blend of fiction and fact, right?

00:23:32.020 Yeah, but that really tore them up.

00:23:34.080 Yeah.

00:23:34.280 You know, and so they were on this military spending, and it finally, they just, you know, it just toppled.

00:23:41.560 Mm-hmm.

00:23:42.220 That's really what brought the Soviet Union down.

00:23:45.400 Yeah, well, that's, that's a remarkable climax to a life spent that, you know, that originated in local fighting with the communists in the unions in Hollywood.

00:23:55.740 Yeah, yeah.

00:23:56.420 So how did you prepare to, like, how much work did you do, biographical work and so forth?

00:24:02.940 I don't know exactly how you would prepare.

00:24:04.480 Well, a lot of it, I, yeah, a lot of it, I'd lived through, I'd lived through the times.

00:24:08.280 Yeah.

00:24:08.380 I had a lot to do, and I was a history buff to begin with.

00:24:11.420 So, like, you know, I remember the stuff, but I, I watched YouTube was really great, because you have all of those, you have everything.

00:24:24.060 Uh-huh.

00:24:24.380 You can go back and, and, and see, and, you know, what do you get to, I work outside in a lot, so I work on the physical, how does a person walk, talk, and then from that, it goes inside.

00:24:44.280 And I realized why that is.

00:24:45.860 For instance, like, Reagan had, like, a crooked smile.

00:24:49.240 Yeah, right.

00:24:49.800 It's like, yeah.

00:24:50.400 Oh, yeah, that's good.

00:24:50.860 This is kind of held like that.

00:24:52.080 Yeah, yeah, right, right, right.

00:24:52.580 And there was, and after you do that a while, you realize, well, why is that?

00:24:59.580 Oh, yeah, that's why you look like him in the movie, that's so cool.

00:25:02.680 It's because, yeah, it's gotta be, there's some muscles that are deadened in his face.

00:25:08.100 Yeah.

00:25:08.320 And from what, I don't know, but that's, you know, that leads you to the, the inside of, of, of a person, of where that came from.

00:25:19.260 The way he walked, the way he, the way a person grooms themselves, the way they, you know, the, the image they put out.

00:25:27.680 And then there's the, but really, when you get down to this, the outside, and you have all the news stories and stuff,

00:25:34.400 but I talked to a lot of people who knew him personally.

00:25:38.080 Yeah.

00:25:38.400 And, yeah, and I think that's really where it formed.

00:25:45.940 I didn't want to do an impersonation.

00:25:47.920 That's the thing that scared me.

00:25:49.640 Yeah.

00:25:50.240 Anything of, you know, doing an impersonation.

00:25:52.680 What's the difference?

00:25:55.240 The first, that impersonation is an act, you know, it's like something you'd see on Saturday Night Live.

00:25:59.980 Yeah, yeah.

00:26:00.260 The, the, getting down to who the person is, the real person, is quite another thing.

00:26:07.620 The, I, a personal side, it really humanizes them.

00:26:11.960 Yeah.

00:26:12.800 It makes them singular.

00:26:14.280 And I, I like to, uh, want to get a part of a real person, of which I've played many.

00:26:19.980 I'd like to tell, uh, tell it, their story from their point of view.

00:26:26.000 Yeah.

00:26:26.960 Yeah.

00:26:27.240 You know, not, well, not from the outside, but what we thought of them.

00:26:30.260 And not for me to really, I try not to comment too much.

00:26:34.080 I try to tell it from their point of view.

00:26:36.080 What is it like, the question is, what if I, me, were this person in this situation?

00:26:44.540 Right, well, and that's also what you're transmitting to the audience, right?

00:26:47.140 Yeah.

00:26:47.240 That opportunity.

00:26:47.960 So, what, part of the reason that we go to see movies is because by watching the people

00:26:57.920 on screen and by noting their characterization, we can adopt their aim.

00:27:03.400 And as soon as we adopt our, like our emotions orient themselves around aim.

00:27:08.940 And so, if you can embody a character's aim.

00:27:10.700 Contentions, yeah.

00:27:11.320 Yeah, exactly.

00:27:12.120 If you can, or if you can characterize a person's aims, then you can invite the audience to adopt

00:27:17.840 their perspective, right?

00:27:18.840 And that means they can live being Reagan, for example.

00:27:22.540 Exactly.

00:27:23.040 In the course of the movie.

00:27:23.600 That's why we go to the movies.

00:27:24.700 Absolutely, and so we have, okay, so, how long did you play Reagan, and what was the

00:27:30.900 effect of that on you?

00:27:32.420 Like, I'm curious, when you embody these characters so deeply, it has to, because you're really

00:27:37.880 occupying a different perspective, it has to change you, I would presume.

00:27:44.540 You know, I find myself, like, never really asking that question.

00:27:48.060 Um, I, it's, it's something to me, it's about learning about, it's about learning about myself,

00:27:57.740 yeah, I don't know how exactly how to sometimes articulate that.

00:28:02.760 Um, but, and I leave, I leave, I have learned to just leave the character at the end of the day.

00:28:11.560 Oh, you have.

00:28:12.160 At the end of the take, in fact, just, like, go do something else.

00:28:17.320 Right, right.

00:28:17.880 Because I've already, it's kind of like osmosis, I've already done all, all the work, and

00:28:22.100 now just let the, let the subconscious work.

00:28:25.920 Right, right, so you can leave it.

00:28:27.800 See, that's one of the things that you learn as a therapist, is to, because you're listening

00:28:32.120 to people, and you're trying to adopt their perspective, but if you take that home with

00:28:35.600 you, then you, you can't manage it over time.

00:28:37.860 That thanks, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's not a good idea.

00:28:39.940 They have happened to me, you know, I learned that when I played Jerry Lee Lewis, because.

00:28:44.320 Oh, yeah, well, to tell me about that.

00:28:45.980 Because I, I didn't believe that.

00:28:47.720 But, yeah, at the set, to take the truth.

00:28:51.340 That was great balls of fire?

00:28:52.760 Yeah, it was great balls of fire.

00:28:54.520 And so, you know, I wound up, at the end, about six months after it came out, or maybe a year.

00:29:01.820 Yeah, I was in rehab.

00:29:03.460 Oh.

00:29:04.200 Cocaine school.

00:29:05.380 I see, I see.

00:29:06.840 And, and, and, and, there was a manner in which that was directly attributable, playing that

00:29:12.140 character?

00:29:12.380 Yeah, you know, I was always.

00:29:13.260 So what did they do, make you manic?

00:29:14.440 Like, what did they do?

00:29:14.780 Nah, well, I was kind of already, kind of, you know, you know, I was already kind of along

00:29:22.040 the path, and that just, Jerry Lee Lewis is like everything on steroids.

00:29:27.100 Right, right, right.

00:29:28.540 Man, that's how you played him, too.

00:29:30.000 I mean, that's a very high-energy character, man.

00:29:32.100 Yeah.

00:29:32.800 He was kind of, probably, yeah, what a great pianist.

00:29:37.920 And, yeah, performer.

00:29:40.140 Yeah, he was one that I got to, like, hang around.

00:29:43.200 And he was on the set just about every day.

00:29:47.220 Oh, yeah.

00:29:47.560 In fact, we shot at Memphis, and he was over my shoulder going, you did it wrong, son.

00:29:54.800 Like, after a take, especially the music stuff.

00:30:00.060 But, you know, he was also very generous.

00:30:02.320 He would, he was one of my piano teachers.

00:30:04.540 I didn't play piano before that, you know, just, like, chop sticks.

00:30:08.200 And he was one of my teachers, and, you know, getting that left hand really was the key

00:30:15.040 to Jerry Lee Lewis, because it's a very athletic move of being able to keep that up.

00:30:20.600 And I had a year to prepare for it, and it was on cocaine, so I spent 12 hours a day at

00:30:29.720 the piano, you know, during that time.

00:30:32.260 So, that, but it's, I still play, you know, I continued afterwards, and.

00:30:41.720 Well, that's a good habit you picked up.

00:30:43.140 Yeah, that was the, that was the good that came from it, because it was, you know, that

00:30:45.980 was a great gift from him.

00:30:47.760 And he was, he could be really so generous of spirit, and then he could be like a 14-year-old

00:30:55.380 schoolyard bully at the same time, you know.

00:30:59.160 Think Trump's like that?

00:31:00.300 What?

00:31:00.780 Think Trump's like that?

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00:32:13.520 Because, you know, I've talked to lots of people who know him, and they talk about his

00:32:16.820 generosity and his kindness in person.

00:32:18.740 Yeah.

00:32:19.080 But he's got that 13-year-old schoolyard bully thing, which also—

00:32:23.040 Well, that's the bully that's, you know, out there about what he believes, and I think

00:32:30.960 he's very principled down at the bottom of it.

00:32:33.620 Yeah.

00:32:34.180 And, but, hey, I think he can be bullish, yeah.

00:32:40.300 Well, it isn't obvious—

00:32:42.080 He was in the construction business, man.

00:32:43.860 Yeah, absolutely.

00:32:43.940 You've got to be in the construction business, you've got to be hard-nosed.

00:32:47.520 That's for sure.

00:32:48.220 For all that stuff, because, you know, it's like—

00:32:50.500 It's all mafia.

00:32:51.320 You've got to watch it.

00:32:53.000 Yeah, that's for sure.

00:32:53.840 You get taken, so—

00:32:55.240 He built a building for a friend of mine in Chicago, like a multi-hundred-million-dollar

00:32:59.940 building.

00:33:00.500 He brought it in under budget and before scheduled, and that was in Chicago.

00:33:05.060 Yeah.

00:33:05.260 And that's, you know, that's—

00:33:06.260 But he's also, he's very, he is very sweet at the same time.

00:33:10.560 He could be that.

00:33:11.800 You look at his kids, you know, he did a great job raising his kids.

00:33:20.980 If you look at it, they are, they themselves are very principled and a great relationship

00:33:27.680 with him.

00:33:28.400 Yeah.

00:33:28.500 Right, right, yeah.

00:33:30.140 I mean, in a way, I mean, you can't say the same thing about Reagan.

00:33:34.260 There was, you know, we tried not to be like, make a love letter for this, you know, because

00:33:41.220 he was human at the same time.

00:33:44.340 And he, you know, his, he didn't have the greatest relationship with his kids.

00:33:53.720 You know.

00:33:53.800 Well, his son, you know, his youngest son, Ron, Ron, takes every opportunity he can to

00:34:02.720 talk against them and to really try to tear apart the legacy of his father and his mother.

00:34:12.900 And Michael, Michael and he, that's who he had, they have a, they have a good, decent relationship.

00:34:24.620 He and, you know, he and Michael do.

00:34:27.700 And, you know, Patty, it's, I can't really, I can't speak for any of them, really.

00:34:33.440 And I'm sure they all have their personal reasons for that.

00:34:37.780 But, you know, he wasn't around much because we're in the studio.

00:34:42.200 He was working for GE.

00:34:43.360 He was always gone.

00:34:45.720 He comes from that generation that, you know, you grew up and you're pretty independent and

00:34:52.420 on your own as, as a kid, you know, like the way I grew up, my parents, it wasn't like

00:34:59.060 the 90s that were your, you know, helicopter parents or, or, or really, you know, the people

00:35:05.880 were living at home till they were 25 and stuff like that.

00:35:08.720 You were, you know, a lot of cases, you know, you grew up on a farm, you were like 14, 15.

00:35:13.880 It's like, you need to go, you know, find your own life.

00:35:20.060 Well, you know.

00:35:20.520 And so it's, but anyway, that was, that was the relationship.

00:35:24.000 I think it was, there was a distance there, I think, with his, with his kids.

00:35:30.740 Yeah, well, it's hard for men to strike a balance between doing what they need to do in the world

00:35:35.240 and being around enough for their family.

00:35:37.600 Yeah, I mean, I, I, I struggle with that all the time because I'm always traveling and stuff

00:35:42.180 and I try to be there as much for my kids, but, you know, parental guilt follows you no

00:35:45.820 matter what.

00:35:47.040 And it's just always there no matter how good a parent or present parent you might, you might

00:35:55.220 be.

00:35:55.700 So what do you make of his flaws?

00:35:57.560 Like, how would you characterize them?

00:35:59.660 You spent a long time inhabiting his skin.

00:36:02.300 Like, we talked about Reagan as someone who had a long-term vision, who was very committed

00:36:07.560 to it, who was very good at communicating that in a way that was compelling and who,

00:36:12.180 well, who was one of the main players in the devastation of the Soviet Union, right?

00:36:16.360 I would say him, Alexander Solzhenitsyn and then the Pope or the, oh, and maybe you could

00:36:21.060 throw Lech Walesi in there too as a, as an additional contributor.

00:36:24.440 They're not the only people, obviously.

00:36:26.060 Yeah, exactly.

00:36:26.820 They're major players, man.

00:36:27.440 You know, we, it was like, that was in concert all with the Pope and with, like, Valenza,

00:36:35.080 that was, that was all in concert with the United States.

00:36:38.440 Yeah.

00:36:38.560 They wouldn't have been doing what they did if you hadn't had the support from the United

00:36:41.700 States that, that they had, you know?

00:36:45.540 And, but the, the flaws with Ray, everybody's, everybody's flawed.

00:36:55.140 You know, I think like early in his, like his movie career, I don't think he, I don't think

00:37:00.460 he believed in himself as, so much when he, when he came to being an actor.

00:37:04.540 I think that's why he accepted more second-rate scripts.

00:37:07.320 Yeah, I think he was just out to, like, work for a living, you know, and it takes, you

00:37:13.680 got to, you got to be willing to wait for things at the same time.

00:37:19.120 I mean, that must be a difficult thing to get right now.

00:37:21.420 It's like, I've done stuff for money and these go, oh, I wish I hadn't done that.

00:37:25.280 Right.

00:37:25.560 Yeah, but you need money too.

00:37:26.500 Luckily, I've been able to get, to get through it.

00:37:28.560 Yeah.

00:37:28.840 And, and I also remember, like in Iceland, when, you know, the final meeting with, or

00:37:39.920 the, the meeting with Gorbachev about, we were going to like dismantle nuclear weapons and

00:37:46.620 Gorbachev had said, you know, we'll dismantle all nuclear weapons, just give up Star Wars.

00:37:55.060 Yeah.

00:37:55.360 And, you know, and he'd offered his, he'd offered to Gorbachev, we'll share the technology

00:38:07.980 with you so that we both have it, said to know that.

00:38:11.900 And, but Reagan said, no.

00:38:16.440 And I thought at that, at that time, his presidency, I thought that there's that old codger coming 1.00

00:38:26.780 up, you know, that won't, that won't bend.

00:38:29.580 Yeah.

00:38:29.880 And that, you know, I didn't think it was finessed the right way.

00:38:34.720 I mean, I wasn't there, but, you know, it went down.

00:38:37.980 And then also it's, I think he delegated a lot, which was kind of a strength in that

00:38:44.180 he was an ad man, you know, as president.

00:38:46.380 He showed us what kind of the president, he was the best.

00:38:50.640 Kennedy was also great at it.

00:38:51.900 But as far as being, representing a president as an ad man, you know, as an image, he was

00:38:59.080 really good at it.

00:38:59.800 But he delegated it a lot.

00:39:01.400 And I think he wasn't able, like an Iran contra, he wasn't able to really keep his finger and, 0.83

00:39:13.800 you know, to really be aware of what was going on.

00:39:16.900 He was delegated and I don't think he had direct knowledge of it.

00:39:21.380 You know, once he had said, okay, I like these guys, then there's AIDS.

00:39:25.960 AIDS was another thing that I think he really, you can fault him with.

00:39:31.380 He made the wrong decision on AIDS. 0.75

00:39:33.620 He really portrayed it from the start as a punishment from God for the sin of being gay. 0.96

00:39:45.060 Because it was really recognized as a gay disease or if you're a drug addict. 0.85

00:39:52.040 And, you know, he was, in that case, I think he was out of touch and missed the boat, you

00:40:06.160 know, on that.

00:40:09.580 But, you know, it's, he's still a man of principles.

00:40:13.080 But, you know, sometimes people have their faults.

00:40:16.160 Of course.

00:40:16.680 There is no perfect.

00:40:17.260 Well, it's worse than that in some ways.

00:40:19.700 There's no perfect crime.

00:40:20.700 Well, also, sometimes, I learned this from reading Nietzsche.

00:40:25.280 It was the first time I'd really thought about it.

00:40:27.000 That it isn't exactly obvious that someone's faults are clearly distinguishable from their

00:40:33.680 virtues.

00:40:34.740 I mean, you look at Trump, for example.

00:40:36.820 Right. 0.64

00:40:37.120 He's got that bully aspect and he's really good at it. 0.94

00:40:39.680 Like, he's like the world's best 13-year-old bully. 0.93

00:40:41.920 Oh, yeah.

00:40:42.020 He can nail you with a nickname and he's so good at that.

00:40:44.240 He'll use what you said and, you know, turn around and make a nickname of it.

00:40:48.100 He'll make fun of handicapped people.

00:40:50.700 He'll be able to, you know, it's like, there's been so many times where I just want to say,

00:40:54.860 please, just be quiet.

00:40:57.240 Why do you have to go there?

00:40:58.660 But then, you know, part of that, I can't help but think that part of that is also what

00:41:04.000 makes him intimidating to people like the dictator of North Korea.

00:41:08.040 Exactly.

00:41:08.840 You know, and it's so like, how do you, because if he was agreeable like Jimmy Carter, Jimmy

00:41:13.440 Carter was a very nice man by all appearances and by all reputation, but he's not the sort

00:41:19.060 of person that like a real psychopathic leader is going to take seriously.

00:41:22.680 Whereas Trump, like, and maybe this is also why he could deal with the mafia types in the

00:41:26.920 construction industry in Chicago.

00:41:28.280 It's like, you have to have a touch of, it's like Harry Potter.

00:41:32.060 You have to have a touch of the devil inside you in order to understand what the devil's

00:41:35.400 like.

00:41:35.720 Even our allies take care of their self-interest first.

00:41:41.000 Yeah.

00:41:41.680 You know, and if that doesn't happen to coincide with us, they're still going to look after

00:41:45.460 themselves first.

00:41:46.320 And then you have Saddam Hussein, you know, the Ayatollahs, you have, you know, some of,

00:41:56.340 you have Putin, you have the Chinese, they are, they're smart.

00:42:03.940 These are really smart people and they know real politic and they are ruthless when it comes

00:42:10.640 to their agendas and they go, these have been going on a lot longer than one president.

00:42:18.100 Yes, that's true.

00:42:19.040 These guys are in there for life and they've, and you take a little Kim over there in North 0.85

00:42:25.340 Korea, this is like the third generation since, you know, of the grandfather, the father 0.93

00:42:31.280 and the son and the son.

00:42:34.180 And they, you know, they're, they're moving on these things.

00:42:38.080 It's not just talk from them.

00:42:39.760 Yeah.

00:42:39.980 You have to take them.

00:42:41.460 Yeah.

00:42:41.720 Well, it looks to me like you need someone with a certain degree of.

00:42:46.200 As far as like, it's like, let's all be so understanding and everything.

00:42:50.440 They love that.

00:42:51.220 Yeah.

00:42:51.560 Yeah.

00:42:51.780 They love that stuff.

00:42:53.300 Absolutely.

00:42:54.000 Yeah.

00:42:54.260 Absolutely.

00:42:55.180 Absolutely.

00:42:55.680 Well, this is the problem with a kind of a naive agreeableness is that trying to get

00:43:01.220 along with people works really well, unless you're dealing with a shark, in which case

00:43:05.280 it doesn't work at all.

00:43:06.400 All you're doing is laying yourself open to be ripped to shreds.

00:43:09.220 Yeah.

00:43:09.640 And it's the way it's always been.

00:43:11.100 And you're going to make things worse.

00:43:13.060 Yeah.

00:43:13.780 If you're trying to avoid war, you're going to create one. 0.96

00:43:17.840 Yeah.

00:43:18.400 Because there's just going to be this red line that, you know, they come closer and

00:43:23.280 closer to.

00:43:23.780 If you keep them over there, I say, don't cross that.

00:43:26.660 Yeah.

00:43:26.840 Yeah.

00:43:27.080 Yeah.

00:43:27.160 But if you don't back up what you say, then they'll take advantage of it.

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00:44:25.500 Yeah, well, I think it's a remarkably, well, I think Trump accomplished two things that were

00:44:34.800 truly remarkable and I think very much under-appreciated.

00:44:40.460 ISIS?

00:44:42.400 Yes.

00:44:43.080 Okay.

00:44:43.620 We could throw ISIS in there. 1.00

00:44:44.860 I was thinking, I was thinking no wars and I was thinking the Abraham Accords because-

00:44:49.860 Yes, Abraham Accords. 0.66

00:44:50.540 He should have got a Nobel Prize.

00:44:51.180 All this stuff that's happening right now would not be happening if the Abraham Accords 1.00

00:44:57.460 had been signed.

00:44:58.840 Yeah.

00:44:59.940 Because, I mean, that's, in a way, that goes way beyond what Carter did.

00:45:06.660 Although what Carter did was incredible, but it was like a real true continuation of that,

00:45:11.040 of Saudi Arabia because these countries are devoted to wiping Israel off the map up until 0.95

00:45:19.220 this point.

00:45:20.440 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:45:21.700 So, let me ask you this.

00:45:23.480 It's a little bit-

00:45:24.540 What was the second thing?

00:45:26.120 Oh, no wars in the Abraham Accords is what I was thinking.

00:45:29.380 It was his fundamental achievements.

00:45:30.840 Yeah.

00:45:30.980 Like, those are both major achievements of peace.

00:45:33.080 Yeah.

00:45:33.420 Which is not necessary.

00:45:34.540 It's certainly not what anybody would have predicted at the onset of Trump's presidency.

00:45:38.080 Everybody thought that-

00:45:40.000 He'd be a warmonger.

00:45:40.440 Reagan was going to be a warmonger. 0.95

00:45:42.180 He was called that throughout his presidency no matter what.

00:45:44.880 Yeah, yeah.

00:45:45.320 You know, and it was especially when he was, like, saying go to these Soviets, you know,

00:45:49.900 it's like, oh, they're going to have a war.

00:45:53.620 But that's really what kept us out of the war.

00:45:55.920 Yeah.

00:45:56.260 Yeah, definitely.

00:45:57.200 Definitely.

00:45:57.820 Definitely.

00:45:58.540 Yeah.

00:45:58.760 Well, the 80s were, they were an intense time.

00:46:01.920 I mean, people were more terrified of nuclear war in the 80s than we're terrified now of

00:46:06.260 climate change.

00:46:06.640 With good reason, too.

00:46:07.440 I mean, there was at least two incidents where it was, like, this close.

00:46:11.900 Yeah, I know.

00:46:12.360 I know.

00:46:12.860 I mean, they were seconds away from pushing the button.

00:46:15.500 It turned out to be a flock of geese.

00:46:17.500 Or you take the Korean airliner.

00:46:21.500 Yeah.

00:46:22.060 You know, that shot down.

00:46:23.820 Those are scary.

00:46:25.180 Absolutely.

00:46:25.920 Scary times.

00:46:26.100 Absolutely.

00:46:26.700 Absolutely.

00:46:27.180 Absolutely.

00:46:27.340 So, what's it been like?

00:46:30.280 What's been the consequences of your political engagement, maybe your political stance,

00:46:36.660 in relationship to your career in Hollywood?

00:46:41.680 I am who I am.

00:46:44.340 Like I said, you know, I'm an independent.

00:46:49.520 I really, truly am an independent, you know.

00:46:51.540 I voted for Obama once.

00:46:53.380 I voted for Clinton once.

00:46:54.720 You know, I voted for Ross Perot once.

00:46:57.980 Right, right.

00:46:58.740 You know.

00:47:02.860 So, it's...

00:47:04.620 I think, you know, while we were doing Reagan, you know, that was...

00:47:10.960 We were doing it in 2020.

00:47:13.080 And it was, you know, during COVID and stuff.

00:47:15.040 And they tried to cancel me twice.

00:47:17.740 Tell me about that.

00:47:20.440 Once it was over a...

00:47:22.880 I was doing a podcast around that time, you know.

00:47:26.400 And I forgot what outlet I was having an interview with.

00:47:32.280 It's right when COVID started happening and Trump was, you know, in those meetings, you know, on television every day.

00:47:41.940 You know, giving updates about what was happening.

00:47:44.080 You remember those times.

00:47:45.760 And the guy asked me, like, how do you think Trump is handling, you know, the crisis?

00:47:54.040 I said, well, you know, at least he's there every day.

00:47:59.660 He's, you know, comes out and he's there every day.

00:48:04.180 He may not, you know, be making, saying the right things or this or that, but, you know, he's there every day.

00:48:12.140 And that's reassuring, you know, to see your leaders out there, that they're doing something about it.

00:48:19.220 And over that, you know, the, you know, they were trying to, like, they blew that up into, that was one time.

00:48:32.420 And then while we were doing the film, there was this false story that came out.

00:48:36.600 This was that I had taken, like, $400,000 from the CDC through Trump to do a commercial for the vaccine or something like that, which was totally false, false narrative.

00:48:57.060 And how I, you know, my son was calling me up about, like, hey, man, you're going to get canceled over this.

00:49:02.240 It says, like, people, you know, it was like, and so, you know, but I didn't get canceled.

00:49:09.780 But it was untrue to begin with.

00:49:12.700 So, but it's just.

00:49:15.200 Do you have any idea why you didn't get canceled?

00:49:19.060 Like, did you do something right or do you, like, people get canceled.

00:49:23.980 So why didn't it happen to you when the storms kind of came up?

00:49:26.480 Because it was, I don't know.

00:49:27.040 I don't know.

00:49:27.920 It's a, it's a, I went on Instagram immediately.

00:49:32.240 And, you know, exposed it.

00:49:34.560 Yeah.

00:49:34.860 And, you know, but.

00:49:36.960 Right.

00:49:37.220 So there was smoke, but no fire.

00:49:38.840 Yeah.

00:49:39.120 So that's helpful.

00:49:40.220 Yeah.

00:49:40.420 I don't know.

00:49:41.280 Maybe it's, I, like, I'm really on neither, neither side is left and right.

00:49:50.300 I come from a time when you had conservative Democrats.

00:49:55.780 Yeah.

00:49:55.940 And liberal Republicans.

00:49:57.200 And their agendas were not so far apart, really.

00:50:02.740 And now it's become this deep, wide valley.

00:50:10.140 And they're about 50-50.

00:50:12.560 So it's hardly to get anything done.

00:50:14.620 Yeah, it's a weird thing, you know, from, I've spent a fair bit of time in Washington

00:50:20.220 and a lot of time talking to Democrats and Republicans.

00:50:23.420 And I've had more success talking to Republicans, frankly.

00:50:27.860 It's been easier for me to talk to them.

00:50:29.600 And I don't think it's because I'm particularly, it's certainly not initially conservative in

00:50:35.420 my orientation.

00:50:36.200 Although I think I've become more conservative in some ways.

00:50:39.860 The Democrats, their fundamental sin, as far as I can tell, is that they can't draw a boundary

00:50:47.800 at all between the mainstream Democrats, which are the majority, and the minority of radicals.

00:50:55.020 Yeah, the inmates are controlling the asylum.

00:50:57.000 Absolutely.

00:50:57.740 Well, and these are exactly the same people, as far as I'm concerned, that Reagan was facing

00:51:02.540 off against in the 1950s in Hollywood.

00:51:04.500 It's exactly the same thing.

00:51:06.940 And, like, I've asked 50 Democrats that I've talked to, when does the left go too far?

00:51:13.680 And I've never got a straight answer from any of them.

00:51:15.980 And that's God's honest truth, right?

00:51:18.600 It's like, well, obviously the left can go too far, right?

00:51:21.700 I mean, remember the Soviet Union.

00:51:23.340 Remember Maoist China.

00:51:24.740 It's like, they went too far.

00:51:26.500 When?

00:51:27.720 I asked RFK that.

00:51:29.260 He said, I don't want to have that kind of divisive campaign.

00:51:33.240 Really brilliant, man.

00:51:35.360 But you asked him what?

00:51:36.440 Well, I asked him when the left goes too far.

00:51:38.840 And he said, I don't want to run that kind of divisive campaign.

00:51:41.740 It's like, well, you know, the radicals are pulling your party to the left in a major way.

00:51:48.260 And maybe it's time to draw some boundaries.

00:51:51.460 Like, for me, I'm not a fan at all of the equity move, the idea of equality of outcome.

00:51:56.440 That's like, that's a catastrophic idea.

00:51:59.360 It eliminates individual difference.

00:52:01.120 And why would you do that?

00:52:02.820 Especially if you're interested in diversity.

00:52:04.840 It's like, there can't be equality of outcome if you want people to be different.

00:52:09.820 Like, those things don't go together.

00:52:11.320 Right.

00:52:11.600 And you're going to compare people on absolutely every dimension.

00:52:14.880 And you're going to insist on equality.

00:52:16.280 You're going to wind up handcuffing everyone.

00:52:18.320 And, you know, basically coddling people to where they can't get ahead because, you know, life's tough for everybody around here.

00:52:29.600 And I definitely, I totally believe in a safety net socially.

00:52:34.080 You know, that wasn't originally part of the Constitution, what it was, what the government is supposed to provide.

00:52:42.720 But, you know, I definitely do believe in that.

00:52:47.820 But there's some government-sponsored programs that you go back, like Social Security, these things that were meant to help people.

00:52:58.760 You go back to the 19th century, and there was, like, nothing.

00:53:02.100 Yeah.

00:53:02.240 You know, you had, like, this is where all this stuff started, where you had the Vanderbilts and the Morgans and the Rockefellers and everything.

00:53:11.120 And there was the Carnegie, there was just no checks and balances on wealth.

00:53:16.400 They were, like, the Carnegie was, you know, rivaled the government himself.

00:53:22.440 I mean, you put them all together, they were, they had more cash than the government did.

00:53:28.560 And there was no checks and balances on that.

00:53:31.820 And a lot of people, they wind up then with, you know, up here and then down here.

00:53:38.460 And so I think, you know, some of the things that came into being, you know, social networks, and the Democrats can't take credit for all of them.

00:53:48.060 No, no.

00:53:48.540 You know, Teddy Roosevelt was very, you know, progressive, Republican, and Lincoln, of course, and, you know, things.

00:53:58.000 And, but at the same time, you go, you can go too far about, and what is the point in the end?

00:54:10.120 It seems to me, when it goes too far, it's when it's not about what they're talking about.

00:54:15.480 It's about power.

00:54:16.720 Yeah, yeah.

00:54:17.300 It's, it's totally just about power.

00:54:20.900 Yeah.

00:54:21.120 I don't care, if you don't care what you're tearing down.

00:54:23.620 If you look at the political spectrum, like a distribution between left and right, as you get farther out on the fringes, you get out of the political, I think, entirely.

00:54:34.000 Is that you get into the domain of people who are using the political for nothing but power.

00:54:38.800 They're very, they're exactly the psychopaths that we were talking about.

00:54:41.540 It's the Marxist agenda. 0.88

00:54:42.860 You know, create chaos and move into that and get people used to it.

00:54:48.360 Yeah, and it's all about compassion, but actually what it's about is power.

00:54:51.800 Right.

00:54:52.320 Yeah.

00:54:52.680 Compassion is the Marxist disguise.

00:54:54.920 The Democrats, I mean, the Republicans have done it as well.

00:54:59.220 You know, I wasn't really very proud of the Republican Party back in the 90s, in a sense.

00:55:05.720 It's, they played kind of the, the personal, like the way they were with Clinton and that it was, they weren't working together like they could have been working together.

00:55:24.320 And it, it seemed like, to me, like a power move on the Republican, back in the 90s, you know, you're going to the 80s and into the 90s.

00:55:36.680 So I just did this, last year I did a seminar on Exodus, on the story of Moses, and Moses is the archetypal leader.

00:55:45.900 And his fundamental temptation and flaw is power.

00:55:50.540 Right.

00:55:50.940 So it's always the case that in the political realm, the temptation is to default to power and to corrupt the enterprise.

00:55:59.520 Yeah, like with Clinton, you know, this, he did something, which is not a crime, but because he lied about this, then they go into like the Republicans' pounce and they, they impeached him.

00:56:12.000 Yeah, they impeached him.

00:56:13.620 And that was, you know, a play for power.

00:56:15.640 You know, yeah, they failed ultimately in that, you know, times are so good.

00:56:24.320 And Clinton, Clinton also was very good about, you know, two years into his presidency, he was, it was like a duck.

00:56:32.700 He wasn't, he wasn't going to make it for the second election because times are bad.

00:56:37.060 And he had, he was so pragmatic and so smart that he basically absconded the Republican agenda, plopped it down and went State of the Union speech, said the era of welfare in this country is over, you know.

00:56:58.180 And, well, that's how he won the second election.

00:57:02.460 And he was, he was a very pragmatic person.

00:57:05.980 Let me return to Hollywood, if, if you don't mind.

00:57:12.200 It seemed to me that Hollywood took a walloping blow with COVID and then the strike.

00:57:18.080 And one of the things I've noticed about myself is I used to go to movies all the time, to theaters.

00:57:24.020 I love going to movies and I've gone to very few movies since COVID.

00:57:28.100 It's kind of like, I don't know if I got out of the habit.

00:57:30.920 It's something like that.

00:57:32.200 Partly, I used to know where to get reliable reviews for upcoming movies.

00:57:38.060 Like I was in the stream.

00:57:39.400 I knew what was coming out of Hollywood.

00:57:41.020 I made plans to go see the movies.

00:57:42.780 Right.

00:57:42.920 That all disappeared.

00:57:44.000 And now I don't know how to get back to that.

00:57:47.400 But I think.

00:57:47.740 And you're wondering, is it because of my age?

00:57:50.640 Must be.

00:57:51.560 Yeah, yeah.

00:57:52.220 Well, that could be too.

00:57:53.080 Although, see, I don't know.

00:57:54.500 Or is it just that way?

00:57:56.200 Well, I, well, I, I also don't know that.

00:57:58.600 And, and of course the media landscape is fragmented too.

00:58:01.260 And so it's hard to figure out what sources you can rely on for information.

00:58:04.160 I mean, the way to advertise movies is nowhere near what it used to be.

00:58:06.980 It used to be just like an ad in the newspaper.

00:58:09.320 Yeah.

00:58:09.740 And that was enough.

00:58:10.840 Yeah.

00:58:11.080 And then it became like TV ads and audiences could smell a movie.

00:58:14.920 Yeah, right.

00:58:15.500 It was like so surprising.

00:58:16.740 It was just like, I remember for me personally, breaking away when that came out.

00:58:22.100 It was hard.

00:58:22.800 There's no advertising or anything like that.

00:58:24.980 And we're driving to the theater, you know, to go to, you go for the, you know, like the opening of it on that Friday.

00:58:33.100 Yeah.

00:58:33.400 And there's a line around the block.

00:58:34.740 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:58:35.300 It's like.

00:58:35.580 Well, people are in the movie culture.

00:58:36.440 How do they know?

00:58:37.020 Well, that's, that's the thing is that these things are very fragile, you know, is that we never know what makes a whole enterprise work.

00:58:44.340 And if people are movie fans, they're in the movie culture, they track it.

00:58:49.120 And if you break that, it's like.

00:58:50.500 That's gone.

00:58:51.160 Yeah.

00:58:51.360 Well, yes.

00:58:52.180 Okay.

00:58:52.460 So you feel that that's gone.

00:58:54.560 You don't see Roger Ebert on television anymore.

00:58:58.480 There was a whole culture that went with it.

00:59:01.200 Yeah, yeah.

00:59:01.460 That everybody watched.

00:59:03.480 What are the new movies coming up?

00:59:05.380 And like, you know, laying them out there, what they're about.

00:59:10.340 Yeah.

00:59:10.580 And all that.

00:59:11.980 And, you know.

00:59:13.320 And you knew months in advance.

00:59:15.180 Really, you know, great debates on what they were about.

00:59:18.700 And so, so how do you, what, how do you view the current reality and the potential future of the film industry?

00:59:28.340 Are there still stars?

00:59:30.980 That's the thing.

00:59:32.200 Who was the last movie star?

00:59:34.500 Well, from what I've been able to understand, the only star truly standing.

00:59:38.720 Leonardo DiCaprio.

00:59:40.800 Cruz.

00:59:42.780 That's going too far back.

00:59:44.020 Leonardo, Leo.

00:59:45.260 Yeah.

00:59:46.040 They're still out there.

00:59:48.300 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:59:48.860 They do occur.

00:59:49.880 Yeah, they're out there.

00:59:51.120 But they also, my sense too is that, and I don't really know what to make of this, that they're, are they the last of a dying breed?

00:59:59.100 Well, you know, the new is like, it's gone from, it's gone to social media.

01:00:05.660 Yeah.

01:00:06.000 That's where the new movie stars are.

01:00:08.260 I mean, Justin Bieber, the first star, totally created on YouTube.

01:00:13.760 Yeah.

01:00:14.080 You know, not that, nowhere near the traditional way.

01:00:18.300 Yeah.

01:00:18.640 Of doing it.

01:00:19.180 And then actors now are the same way.

01:00:22.080 They have their, their Instagram page.

01:00:26.480 They, you know, self-advertising.

01:00:28.120 And, but used to be back then, movie stars, like in the, you know, going up and really until the 80s, 90s, true movie star, you wouldn't do a talk show on TV.

01:00:44.100 You would avoid TV like the play.

01:00:46.220 Right, right.

01:00:46.680 Jack Nicholson, you would never see him on a talk show.

01:00:49.140 He'd do one interview in a prestigious magazine, whether it be Time, Playboy.

01:00:54.780 Right.

01:00:55.200 Whatever it was.

01:00:56.140 Right.

01:00:56.500 That was.

01:00:56.920 That's part of that protection of exclusivity.

01:00:59.640 Yeah.

01:00:59.700 And you would, you know, some guy would spend a couple of days with him or something, but you really wouldn't, there was a mystery to him.

01:01:06.660 Yeah, yeah.

01:01:07.360 So that when you went to the theater, really what makes a movie star is you go to the theater, they are a mystery.

01:01:15.920 You don't know too much really about their life.

01:01:18.280 Yeah, yeah.

01:01:18.480 So you don't want to either.

01:01:19.440 You imprint your own life on them.

01:01:21.600 Yeah, yeah, definitely.

01:01:22.760 That's what happens.

01:01:24.140 Yeah.

01:01:25.000 You know, you see them for something inside you.

01:01:29.160 Yeah.

01:01:29.880 And that's what makes a movie star.

01:01:31.380 Well, you actually don't want to know much about the person's life of an actor.

01:01:34.460 And now it's like, well, it got to be that you just do everything.

01:01:39.220 Yeah.

01:01:39.700 About everybody.

01:01:41.080 Yeah.

01:01:41.600 And.

01:01:42.360 That brings them down to earth and that's not good if you're a star.

01:01:45.660 Well, it doesn't create mystery.

01:01:47.400 Yeah, right.

01:01:48.520 Let's put it that way.

01:01:49.320 I wonder too how much of it is the fact that like when you and I grew up, being on television was like, that was a remarkable and unlikely occurrence to be personally on television, even to know someone who was on television.

01:02:02.300 The bandwidth was so narrow.

01:02:03.940 And then the movies were above that.

01:02:05.820 Yeah, yeah.

01:02:06.240 It was easier to be on TV than on the movies.

01:02:08.320 Right.

01:02:08.560 But now everyone is on TV all the time.

01:02:10.720 Yeah.

01:02:11.140 Right.

01:02:11.440 And so that's another borderline between the public and the actor that's disappeared.

01:02:16.360 It's like everybody is videoed from the time they're young.

01:02:19.420 But there's no going back.

01:02:20.680 No, no, no.

01:02:21.020 And that's the way the world's heading.

01:02:21.940 No, no.

01:02:22.100 And, you know, good things come out of it.

01:02:25.980 Good things.

01:02:26.300 What do you see that's good coming out of it?

01:02:27.980 Well, for one thing, there's really a broad communication in the zeitgeist.

01:02:32.840 People have taken over their own stories.

01:02:34.760 Yeah.

01:02:35.260 And like, you could be like me and choose not to participate very much.

01:02:40.300 You know, I mean, I have an Instagram page.

01:02:43.000 I have a Facebook page.

01:02:44.320 And, you know, I kind of, but I, you know, I didn't grow up with it.

01:02:49.620 So it seems like a real chore to me.

01:02:52.120 Yeah.

01:02:52.700 And.

01:02:53.840 Right.

01:02:54.060 It's not your culture. 0.95

01:02:55.180 Yeah.

01:02:55.800 And I like face-to-face communication.

01:02:59.140 And I like this.

01:03:01.060 You know, this is great.

01:03:02.580 Why do you like this?

01:03:02.920 Because it's, it's, it's, it's a real, I feel like I'm, that is one good thing about

01:03:11.680 today as opposed to then is that you could do an interview like with a magazine and, you

01:03:17.400 know, somebody who was out to do a job on you.

01:03:20.020 Yeah, absolutely.

01:03:20.400 Because they kind of feel like they build you up.

01:03:22.340 Yeah, yeah.

01:03:22.660 You know, you have this fall and then you have the comeback.

01:03:25.460 Yeah.

01:03:25.640 But like with this, it's unfettered.

01:03:29.560 Yeah.

01:03:29.920 And I get to represent myself.

01:03:32.700 Yeah, yeah.

01:03:33.520 In my way.

01:03:34.400 YouTube's great for that.

01:03:35.320 And podcasts are great for that.

01:03:36.600 Yeah.

01:03:36.800 And they really reward unfettered communication.

01:03:39.200 Like the people I've talked to.

01:03:40.400 Yeah, they do.

01:03:40.700 Anybody I've talked to on my YouTube channel who politics or is false, they get slaughtered.

01:03:45.720 Yeah.

01:03:46.060 Like if they say what they think.

01:03:47.780 But it comes out very quickly.

01:03:48.820 You find out who people are.

01:03:50.460 Yeah.

01:03:51.000 You can't hide so much.

01:03:53.120 Yeah.

01:03:53.420 Well, that's what Joe Rogan told me.

01:03:54.780 He said, you know, you can tell if there's anything to anyone after about 20 minutes.

01:03:57.880 Yeah.

01:03:58.040 Because you can, well, people who are hollow, they're exhausted, especially in a podcast

01:04:04.280 like Rogan's, which is three hours long.

01:04:06.180 It's like, there better be some depth to you to get through that conversation in an interesting

01:04:12.320 manner for three bloody hours.

01:04:13.880 They're kind of like, you know, let's see what happens like 30 years from now when, you

01:04:19.960 know, some of this stuff is going to come back to haunt people.

01:04:24.220 You know, I mean, some of the things that I did and thought or whatever, you know, back

01:04:28.580 in my teens, 20s, man, I'm so glad it's not on YouTube.

01:04:33.520 That's for sure, man.

01:04:34.580 I feel exactly the same way.

01:04:36.500 I can't imagine, you know, I remember most of my adolescence and my adolescent friends 1.00

01:04:43.400 as really a nonstop parade of stupid decisions. 1.00

01:04:48.260 Yeah. 1.00

01:04:48.680 You should be able to make those stupid decisions in private. 1.00

01:04:51.540 Right. 1.00

01:04:51.920 That's for sure, man.

01:04:53.140 The last thing I would have wanted was video records of that, right?

01:04:56.720 For it to be distributed around the school.

01:04:58.740 Yeah.

01:04:58.860 I can't imagine, like it was a difficult enough enterprise trying to negotiate the weird 0.98

01:05:06.740 social world of adolescence without having to be absolutely terrified that some goddamn 1.00

01:05:11.600 stupid thing you did was going to be permanently instantiated in the minds of everyone in your 1.00

01:05:17.480 town. 1.00

01:05:18.160 God, I just can't imagine what that would be like.

01:05:21.400 Terrible, terrible.

01:05:23.140 Yeah, and you just can't just move away from it because it's the internet.

01:05:25.680 Well, that's right.

01:05:26.200 That's right.

01:05:27.380 Well, that's right.

01:05:28.020 Well, one of the wonderful things about human memory is that we forget.

01:05:32.120 Yeah.

01:05:32.480 Right?

01:05:32.920 The remembering, that's not exactly a miracle.

01:05:35.820 Like things happened and so now you know it.

01:05:38.060 It's like, well, can you forget?

01:05:39.240 Can you put it behind you?

01:05:40.200 Well, not if it's permanently recorded.

01:05:43.380 Yeah.

01:05:43.660 Yeah, no, that's just, that's not good.

01:05:45.680 Tell me what you're working on now and what you have in the future and maybe what you're

01:05:49.840 excited about on the film front.

01:05:51.820 Um, well, I've, uh, I've started, uh, a production company with my wife and a business partner

01:06:01.320 and, uh, make films that, that I really believe in and that we all believe in, you know, as

01:06:10.000 a company and, uh, you know, kind of based on, uh, certain movies in, in my career.

01:06:19.340 Like, you know, like to me, like breaking away the right stuff, the rookie, the parent trap,

01:06:24.780 the, you know, it's a brand basically.

01:06:28.760 And that I want to, to do.

01:06:32.680 And, uh, part of that, I got, we have a thing, uh, Diamondback, which is a film I, hopefully

01:06:38.320 we're going to be shooting this year, uh, that very much like a, a movie of the, from

01:06:44.160 the seventies that I, and, uh, that I really believe in.

01:06:49.460 What's the plot of Diamondback?

01:06:50.840 It's, it's, it's, uh, you ever see like Thunderbolt and Lightfoot?

01:06:56.000 It's, it, or a really, uh, a great Sam Peckinpah movie.

01:07:00.420 It's like that.

01:07:01.360 I see.

01:07:01.740 And it's modern at the same time.

01:07:03.120 It takes place in the sixties.

01:07:04.700 True story.

01:07:06.080 This kid who was in the Marines, you know, stationed in Quantico gets out of the Marines.

01:07:11.880 He's just, his wife died while he was in the Marines and they wouldn't let him go home.

01:07:19.620 You know, she died of cancer.

01:07:21.180 And he just, you know, he's young and he's just like, it's sort of like, you know, Oswald,

01:07:27.320 you know, he got out, he got, he was a Marine.

01:07:29.640 He got out and, you know, uh, these guys to get out of the military and they just kind

01:07:35.120 of like ramble around.

01:07:36.720 They're kind of, uh, they don't, they don't have a path.

01:07:41.100 He wound up robbing a bank, really smart kid, uh, wound up robbing a bank, robbed, and

01:07:46.560 then robbed two banks in the same day, same town.

01:07:49.960 Well, and for a penny, and for a pound.

01:07:52.840 Went to, uh, you know, and when he was being sentenced, he got caught.

01:07:56.920 It was like in the desert.

01:07:58.220 It was one of these chases through the desert, which is like a modern Western.

01:08:01.540 It was just fantastic.

01:08:03.780 And, uh, he told the judge when he gave the sentence that just give me 20 years because

01:08:09.920 it doesn't matter because I'm going to be getting out.

01:08:12.660 I'm going to break out.

01:08:13.640 And then he did.

01:08:15.880 And then he got caught again.

01:08:17.800 Then he broke out again.

01:08:19.060 Hmm.

01:08:19.760 And he eventually got, there was this one cop that was chasing him and, uh, who became like

01:08:25.520 a father-son thing.

01:08:27.400 Hmm.

01:08:27.500 And, uh, he got involved with this, with this case.

01:08:31.420 They wound up on like the third time, um, uh, they shot each other in the desert.

01:08:38.720 But, and, uh.

01:08:40.480 Right.

01:08:40.780 So you got a 60s adventure.

01:08:42.100 You got a Western thing going on there.

01:08:43.680 Yeah, it's the anti-hero.

01:08:44.720 It's, it's, it's an anti-hero, uh, you know, the rebel hero turned anti-hero role that,

01:08:49.760 which is very reminiscent of the movie, movies of the, of the 70s.

01:08:53.540 Are you good at evaluating scripts?

01:08:55.480 Yeah.

01:08:55.880 I've read enough of them.

01:08:57.260 I know by page, page 30 will really tell you.

01:09:01.060 I mean, I, I might be 15.

01:09:03.360 I'll go, where is this going?

01:09:05.380 But by page 30, if it hadn't happened.

01:09:09.460 Yet, it's, it ain't going to happen.

01:09:11.760 And that's how I choose movies.

01:09:13.940 I read a script and I am an audience member.

01:09:17.380 Yeah.

01:09:17.940 With a first time experience.

01:09:19.920 Can you imagine that?

01:09:20.740 Of the story.

01:09:21.160 Yeah, I can.

01:09:21.920 Yeah.

01:09:22.580 And it's funny how like every movie I've ever done, it's the script.

01:09:28.020 Uh-huh.

01:09:28.400 Yeah.

01:09:28.840 In that description part.

01:09:30.100 Uh-huh.

01:09:30.720 But, um, um, you can certainly elevate it from there, but basically it's the story.

01:09:37.540 That's what really, that's what really gets me is the story.

01:09:41.080 How many movies have you done?

01:09:42.440 I think about, we're getting up towards, uh, I, I know it's at least 120, but it might

01:09:49.020 be 150.

01:09:50.220 I don't know.

01:09:50.460 Wow.

01:09:51.180 Wow.

01:09:51.440 Yeah.

01:09:52.040 And what, what percentage of those do you think are good?

01:09:56.740 Well, no, I wasn't exactly.

01:09:58.640 Or live up to what I thought they would be.

01:10:01.180 Yeah, that you're, that you're, that you're particularly pleased about in retrospect.

01:10:04.360 Oh, I, I, yeah, probably, I'd, I'd say maybe 20%.

01:10:11.100 Oh, yeah.

01:10:11.860 Yeah, maybe 20%.

01:10:12.760 And then there's, you know, there's that, those ones that are just really close to me.

01:10:18.440 So I, I have different reasons for, uh, loving some of the movies that, that's different

01:10:27.140 from an audience because it's like, like I watched myself in film and I remember it

01:10:32.620 has so much to do with what was going on in my life at the time.

01:10:35.480 Uh-huh, uh-huh.

01:10:36.440 You know what I mean?

01:10:37.100 So in the scientific literature, the best predictor of quality, so let's say the impact

01:10:43.980 of a scientist's work on other scientists, that's a good measure of quality.

01:10:47.840 The best predictor is quantity, right?

01:10:50.920 So there's a real tight relationship.

01:10:53.440 It's very difficult to do anything of note without doing a lot of things.

01:10:57.260 Yeah.

01:10:57.480 Right?

01:10:57.700 So you're going to-

01:10:58.380 That's true.

01:10:58.740 If you do a lot of-

01:10:59.240 A lot of them were taking chances.

01:11:00.560 Yeah, yeah.

01:11:01.060 Yeah.

01:11:01.220 Some of them were, some of them were financially, um, um, uh, was reason-motivated.

01:11:10.240 Yeah.

01:11:10.740 Uh, but, uh, you know, tried to do things.

01:11:14.700 I've never had any kind of strategy in my career except to try to do as many different

01:11:19.980 types of things as possible.

01:11:22.280 Right, right.

01:11:22.920 And I typecast myself-

01:11:24.280 Right.

01:11:24.960 Uh, as a-

01:11:25.680 So it's a standard creative strategy.

01:11:27.480 As a genre and, uh, whatever.

01:11:30.220 That broadens what you're able to do, too.

01:11:32.760 Well, the thing-

01:11:33.140 Well, that's my interest.

01:11:34.220 Right, right, right.

01:11:34.640 It's like, what makes people tick?

01:11:36.520 Right, right.

01:11:36.820 You know, what's this?

01:11:37.840 Right, right.

01:11:38.340 Something, you know, the best things are something that really scares you.

01:11:42.160 Because fear is a really great motivator.

01:11:44.180 Like Reagan, for example.

01:11:45.420 It's a really great motivator.

01:11:46.320 When does the movie come out?

01:11:47.620 When does Reagan-

01:11:48.000 It comes out August 30th.

01:11:49.480 Yeah, yeah.

01:11:50.840 Are you excited about it?

01:11:51.860 I'm really excited about it.

01:11:53.160 Yeah.

01:11:53.700 I-

01:11:53.960 It's going to be distributed widely?

01:11:55.200 We went through a process in the editing of it, as well.

01:11:58.180 Yeah.

01:11:58.800 That, um, that got through a place that I'm really happy with it.

01:12:03.920 Oh, good.

01:12:04.580 To tell you the truth.

01:12:05.380 Yeah.

01:12:05.560 Oh, good.

01:12:06.300 Oh, good.

01:12:07.080 I wonder how much it's changed since the screener I saw last year.

01:12:10.620 You have the-

01:12:11.320 You have the script.

01:12:13.800 You have the movie you shot.

01:12:16.700 And then you have the movie you edit.

01:12:19.040 Yeah, yeah.

01:12:19.520 No kidding.

01:12:19.960 That's where it really happens.

01:12:20.980 That's for sure, man.

01:12:22.040 Yeah, yeah.

01:12:22.420 It's something to be able to edit well.

01:12:24.080 It's where you really get the point of view.

01:12:25.760 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:12:26.280 And you point at the story.

01:12:28.360 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:12:30.020 Oh.

01:12:30.760 All right, sir.

01:12:32.240 Is that it?

01:12:33.300 That's it for this side.

01:12:34.740 For everybody watching and listening, I'm going to continue this conversation behind the Daily Wire Plus platform for another half an hour, so you could join us there.

01:12:42.740 Is there anything else you want to-

01:12:43.920 There was one other thing that I'm working on, which is, uh, uh, the name of the company, our company is Bonnie Dale, by the way.

01:12:49.920 That's my mother's maiden name, or her middle name.

01:12:53.280 And, uh, the, I'm working on Happy Face right now, uh, for Paramount.

01:12:58.840 That is, uh, it's, uh, it's, uh, I'm playing your serial killer.

01:13:04.260 Oh, yeah.

01:13:05.000 Yeah.

01:13:05.240 Happy Face.

01:13:05.900 One from Canada, by the way.

01:13:06.940 Uh-huh.

01:13:07.560 Oh, yeah.

01:13:07.940 Well, we have the best serial killers, too.

01:13:09.660 Yeah, you do.

01:13:10.580 Yeah, you really do.

01:13:11.880 Killed, uh-

01:13:12.460 That combination of nice and evil, that's a, that's a particularly Canadian thing. 0.98

01:13:16.380 Yeah, this is really, it's really about, he killed, like, uh, eight women who were five

01:13:21.520 years in the 90s, but yet he was a doting father.

01:13:24.540 And it's really about his relationship.

01:13:27.840 It's really about-

01:13:28.760 Who was he?

01:13:29.200 Her.

01:13:29.560 Who was he?

01:13:29.880 Her relationship.

01:13:31.000 What's his name?

01:13:31.720 Do you remember?

01:13:32.240 Her relationship with her dad.

01:13:35.780 Jesus.

01:13:36.080 I won't tell you who it is.

01:13:37.160 Brutal.

01:13:38.100 Brutal. 0.86

01:13:38.620 Look up Happy Face Killer.

01:13:41.200 Oh, yeah.

01:13:42.100 Yeah.

01:13:42.440 So, what's it like to inhabit a role like that?

01:13:44.420 It's so much fun. 0.77

01:13:47.080 You're a bad man.

01:13:49.380 All right, sir. 0.61

01:13:50.060 Keith Jesperson.

01:13:51.680 Thank you very much.

01:13:52.320 Yeah.

01:13:53.200 So, anyways, as I said, everyone, um, join us on the Daily Word Plus side.

01:13:57.860 I think I'll walk through Mr. Quaid's, uh, autobiography and find out, you know, what set

01:14:04.400 him on a role to be an actor.

01:14:05.760 I'd like to find out about, also about why that's a family affair, because it is with the

01:14:10.440 Quaid's, and quite remarkably and successfully, and so there's an interesting story there.

01:14:14.340 So, if you're inclined to join us on the Daily Word Plus side, please feel free to do so.

01:14:20.400 Thank you to the film crew here in Scottsdale for making this possible.

01:14:23.180 Thank you very much for flying in.

01:14:25.080 I'm very much looking forward to seeing how the Reagan film does.

01:14:30.120 Have you run into any distribution problems with it?

01:14:32.560 Is it going to be widely distributed?

01:14:34.220 No.

01:14:34.440 No one's resisting that?

01:14:35.580 No, no, it's, it's going to be widely, it's going to be, I think, uh, 3,000 or 3,500 theaters.

01:14:41.300 Oh, great.

01:14:41.840 Great, great, great, great.

01:14:42.700 Well, I wish you all the luck with that.

01:14:44.320 Like I said, it's not like we shopped it around, uh, you know, all these years.

01:14:47.200 It was just, we kind of waited till we got the film where we wanted and then shopped it.

01:14:51.800 Well, it seems with all the agitation on campus and all the politics that's in the air

01:14:56.380 and the upcoming election in November, that August might be a hot time to release it.

01:15:00.540 Well, I, well, uh, I, one of the things was I didn't want it to come out in an election

01:15:05.840 year and, uh, definitely didn't.

01:15:08.940 And then, uh, it's coming out, you know, in an election year and turns out it's a perfect

01:15:14.980 time for it to come out.

01:15:15.580 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:15:16.360 It seems, seems like it might be.

01:15:17.760 It seems like it might be.

01:15:18.800 All right.

01:15:19.520 Say hello to Mr. Johnson for me.

01:15:21.480 Will do.

01:15:21.960 All right.

01:15:22.460 All right.

01:15:22.760 Thank you everybody for watching and listening and, uh, sayonora.

01:15:30.540 We'll see you next time.

01:15:31.540 Bye.

01:15:32.540 Bye.

01:15:33.540 Bye.

The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast - May 20, 2024

450. Reagan, Star Wars, Trump, & Power ｜ Dennis Quaid

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