Jon Voight Is a National Treasure
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Summary
Actor Jon Voight joins Ted Cruz on Verdict with Ted Cruz to discuss his career, his political views, and what it's like to be a star in Hollywood. Ted and Jon talk about Jon's early days in Hollywood, how he got started in the business, and how he became one of the most respected actors of his time.
Transcript
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Hi, I'm Jon Voight, and I'm on a set in Burbank, California,
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and I'm looking at the beautiful face of Ted Cruz,
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It is so good to be here because we're at a time of great tension,
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And in this town in particular, it is so nice to be among friends,
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including one of the great American actors, Academy Award winner,
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and more importantly, I would say, Jon, great American, Jon Voight.
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I thought you were going to say, I usually say,
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I say the man who did, you know, Midnight Cowboy,
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the coming home, runaway train, and of course, the great anaconda.
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And with two little girls, the national treasures,
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I've got to tell you that that is popular in the Cruz household.
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Well, I'm very pleased about that because, as you know,
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if I can check on the Resolute desk to see if anything is hidden.
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So this is not the first time that you guys have met, obviously.
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Senator Cruz, you've spent a bit of time in Hollywood.
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So actually, the first time Jon and I met was 2013.
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and I came to California to speak to Friends of Ape.
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Which, as you know, was a group of conservative, libertarian,
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And I have never—I've never been in any other group
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Like, there was a rule, no cell phones, no pictures.
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And Jon was the most notable who was, like, open.
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they were terrified if someone got a picture of them
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Look, I mean, you've demonstrated a lot of courage
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Look, we all know we're in a very serious situation.
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where this country is being threatened in this way.
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I never would have been able to put that together.
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I mean, the beginning of the open hostility in the 60s.
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How old were you when you started in the movie business?
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I mimicked some of the things I saw on television and stuff
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and wanted to make people laugh and all of that, you know.
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And a great, wonderful comic actor by the name of Sid Caesar
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And I have to credit him with giving me the instructions
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because the stuff that he did was so indelible.
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And we just lost Carl Reiner, you know, a couple of weeks ago.
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And Imogen Koch and those guys, they were really wonderful.
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And then I really didn't know I was going in that direction.
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I just was, you know, smitten with those characters.
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And then later on, I made a serious effort to be an actor.
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This was right before my senior year in college
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when I realized I was walking around with a book
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that was a book of criticism for the British theater.
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And I was looking, and I'd earmarked all the work of Laurence Olivier,
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And I suddenly said, after three years driving people,
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what do you think I should be when I get out of college?
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And probably that's true for you guys too, in some way,
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and you know you can put yourself to work at it.
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And that's it, you know, and it's going to be difficult.
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I'm going to have to start from scratch and all of that.
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I'm going to have my ups and downs like everybody else.
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And I've had long periods of time without enough money and all of that.
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Now, was there a moment that was your big break,
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Well, I, these are just, you know, I worked on a play after I studied for two years
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in a professional class with Sansford Meisner, one of the great, great teachers.
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And then coming out of that, I was just saying a prayer that I would get some kind of work
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And I got a role in A View from the Bridge, which was a wonderful play by Arthur Miller.
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And Arthur Miller was kind of producing it too.
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And Dustin Hoffman became the assistant to the director
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Before I ever saw any of his work as an actor, I had heard that he was a genius.
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But we got to know each other and we had some fun.
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which is we've both been an Arthur Miller play.
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And look, it's a good thing I went the path I did because I didn't have the talent you had.
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I mean, there is a line they always say that politics, rather, is show business for attractive people.
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And I was saying before we started this thing that my son, James, James Haven, as he calls himself, is now working on human trafficking.
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And, but he's political to some degree, but he's crazy about you.
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He says, when this guy talks, he says, that's it.
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And the way you phrase things and the way you prepare and you gather the focus, nobody's better.
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You both raise an excellent point here, which is, it does seem to be a lot of actors are interested in politics and politicians are interested in acting.
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There does seem to be a similarity in these two businesses.
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You remember what Reagan said when someone asked, how could, how could, how could an actor be in politics?
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And he said, well, how could someone in politics not be an actor?
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And it's, look, at the end of the day, you're trying to communicate with people.
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And it, one way or the other, one of the frustrating things.
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I just say, you know, a lot of conservatives, we're not doing a lot of communication.
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The whole point of this podcast, I mean, we're seeing an assault on our whole country.
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We're seeing on our constitution, on our founding principles.
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And, and young people, I mean, it makes you weep.
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The schools aren't teaching the principles that built this country.
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And if we don't explain them, how can we fault the young people for not knowing?
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Well, they've been, they've been getting that fed to them for, you know, for more than a generation.
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Several generations have been brought up on Common Core.
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And this is a disaster, teaching against our country.
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So was, and, and, and, and they don't teach, they don't teach history.
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Well, they teach, they teach a sort of fiction, I've noticed.
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It actually reminds me of a line from your acting teacher, Sanford Meisner, who famously described acting as living truthfully in imaginary circumstances.
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But increasingly, it seems like the history we're being taught is imaginary circumstances.
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We were recently with two other friends of theirs who are about the same age.
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And the topic of Christopher Columbus comes up.
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And all four of the girls are being taught in school that Columbus is a genocidal maniac that murdered people.
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And, and look, as a dad, you're trying, you're trying not to, like, be too overbearing with your kids.
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And so I've, like, asked Carolyn, I said, well, okay, look, we have a federal holiday in this country called Columbus Day.
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Do we typically name holidays after psychopathic murderers?
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Like, like, is there maybe another side to this?
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And I'm not invested in defending Christopher Columbus as the greatest person who ever lived.
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But I was, but it's the degree to which our children are being fed propaganda.
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And, and, you know, you see this in the mobs that, that, that are tearing down and attacking George Washington and Jefferson and Madison and Lincoln.
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You know, they attack Frederick Douglass, the great abolitionist.
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But if there's a statue of him, he's got to be bad.
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And that's, we're facing real insanity here, you know, but as I say, it, it's been, uh, this destruction has, has a source.
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And, uh, and now it has many sources because there's, there's Islamists.
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There's, there's, there's originally Russian, you know, Marxism.
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And now there's Chinese Marxism, Chinese, you know, incursions.
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And, uh, and a lot of people in the United States are really wanting so badly to take down this president that they're falling in with anything.
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And there's just nothing but, uh, um, there's a, there's a real lack of compass morally and they'll do anything and say anything, uh, to get to power.
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Now, was there a time when you saw Hollywood, when you saw entertainment get, get worse, get, get markedly more intolerant?
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Um, I mean, is there a point that sort of stands out to your mind as a shifting point or was it more gradual?
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Well, she was, I mean, it's, it's a good question, Ted.
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I think the movies that I love, I was, I was raised at a time, I was born in 1938 and I was raised on the golden age movies.
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The movies of, uh, you know, uh, of, of Capra and the movie, you know, all these great, when they talk about actors and when they say, John, you're a great actor.
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You're one of the, you're some fellas, look, it looks what we came from.
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I mean, you know, we had, uh, Bogart and Tracy and, and, uh, Gable and Jimmy Stewart and all those fellas were, you know, I was going to school on those guys.
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And then Marlon came along, of course, and then we just threw in with Marlon, but, uh, uh, and the gals of that age, fantastic performers.
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And all of a sudden, at some point we felt, oh, we're a little, we're more sophisticated.
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We have more complex, uh, techniques to bring to the fore, you know what I mean?
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But you look at that, the other stuff that was before, it's fantastic.
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But we lost, what did they have in the golden age?
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A group of Jewish people who were saved, came here to save their lives and to build their lives.
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They know what a happy ending is because they were all people who read the Bible.
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We'd freed the world from, from, from the, the...
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evil of Hitler. I mean, that was a powerful... Oh, you bet. But the other thing is, you see,
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that in the Bible, the Jewish people, at the end of every chapter, you have to end on a positive
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note. So if you know, if it's coming to the end, like if you read Isaiah, and there's some bad
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stuff is being stated, they're telling you that the future is going to be pretty dim. But then
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they go back and reiterate something on the positive side. You know, that there will come
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a time when the so-and-so and the change and we've reached the land of Israel or whatever.
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Now, you were talking about movie greats. Did you get to know John Wayne? And what do you think
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about the recent efforts to rename the airport? I mean, there's a real... The left is mad at Wayne.
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I think they should call it the Redskins. Redskins Airport in Orange County.
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Listen, you know, I'm very close to the Indian community and they'd love it that they have a
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football team. They should keep the name and they should give these guys, you know, 75% off of
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tickets or may give them tickets to every game. It's a better deal than renaming.
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It'd be cool. And then celebrate the natives. I suppose this is the fear, though, is you had
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this Hollywood ending that, you know, that Hollywood invented. Increasingly, though, it seems to me
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people don't like a happy ending. People seem to have a much more...
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It's a negative strain because it's a loss of... It's a loss of a spiritual base, really. We're
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meant to be happy. Human beings are meant to be happy. God is saying, be happy, enjoy. Let go,
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let God, do you know? And this is the way you approach problems. That's the way I approach
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problems. I say, what are we doing? What am I getting all... Cool down, man. Just watch
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what happens. Do the best you can. Celebrate the day. Be grateful for your gifts and the
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many gifts and stuff like that. And that's a proper and positive way to be. Like when you
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see I came into this group and you can't see everybody, you can't see all the people around
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here, we're all in a positive note. Everyone's happy. We're cheerful. We're saluting each other,
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making each other feel good, and we'll have a nice experience here. And that's the way we were
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meant to be. And we've lost that to some degree. We think we're smart, Alex. We can be more
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sophisticated. And Marlon didn't help sometimes because he created this dark image and it was so
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attractive that everybody wants to be dark and mean and, you know, whatever it was. But listen,
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Marlon was magnificent. Let's, you know, I'll let you know I'm still crazy about Marlon. Marlon,
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I'm crazy about you. Well, and people communicate with storytelling. I mean, that's what's so powerful.
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And the left, they've seized culture. They've seized education, K through 12. They've seized
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colleges and universities. They've seized journalism and movies. I love movies. I love stories. I mean,
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when I was a kid, my dad, so you and my dad are both the same age. You're both 81. And my dad would
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tell these incredible stories and I would just sit and listen to them. And you think about the stories
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that are told now. I mean, I look at these protests. Are we ever going to see another cop movie again?
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Can any of all the great movies of heroes who are police officers, can they be told anymore?
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I think so. I think we need them more than ever.
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We absolutely do. And let's take something like the great debate right now in this country between
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free enterprise and socialist. You look at the movies coming out of Hollywood. When's the last time
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someone in business was portrayed as not a villain? Like, I'm actually happy when a small business
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owner is not murdering kids. If they're just a crook and stealing, that qualifies for a positive
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portrayal. And what about all of the epic stories of our nation, of people with nothing who made it
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Absolutely. Well, you know, the positive thing is they're still coming to America.
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Like the Neil Diamond song, you know, they're coming to America. And why? Because there's
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nothing else out there, fellas. And anybody who wants to, is listening to me, you kids,
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you're listening to me. Why do, as does everybody want to come to America? Because the other side,
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this socialism that people are saying is a good thing to ingest and speak for, has never worked
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ever, has never brought about anything but misery and death.
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But this is such a great point. People are still coming here. They're coming here
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to this country so much more than to any other country on earth. And yet, it's this problem
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you've identified, which is that people no longer have gratitude for their country, for their
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family, for their God. It seems like we're in more of an entitlement society than a grateful
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Well, people want us to be an entitlement society. That's what the Democrat Party is selling.
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So, oh boy. And they have really sold out completely. I remember, I said this before,
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but there was a moment when Villagosa, our mayor, who's a good guy, by the way, was asked to go out
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and correct the Democrat platform. This was several years beginning of the Democrat convention
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with poor Obama, I think. And he was sent out, you see, as a sacrificial lab to put God back in
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the platform. And to put the idea of Jerusalem being the capital of Israel into the platform
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because they felt they couldn't sell the tickets. Do you understand?
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A lot of votes won't go their way. And that's all they're interested in. They care what it is.
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If they, you know, they would say anything in order to get a vote. And they have anything.
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Three times the delegates at that convention voted no.
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That's right. So, Mayor Villagosa said, so that's it. So, all in favor of putting this
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in the platform, say aye. And they go, aye, you know, and pretty good. And then, and the nays,
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nay. And they go, yeah, nay. And it was, one was more dominant. The nays were more dominant.
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He could have used better acting lessons. He didn't do a good job.
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Let me do that again. Understand what we're saying now. So, and so, and he says,
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God in the platform and put the capital of Israel is Jerusalem. Okay. All in favor, aye.
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And you see the people that go and have, they're actually throwing things. I mean,
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there really is, this is the beginning of that movement. I'm telling you that we saw in the
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streets. Right. It's right there. Yes. And, and then somebody walks up to him from long,
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this big stage, walks all the way over to him and says, and he goes, he says, okay, we'll do it
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one more time. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Same thing. Same response. All those,
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again, nay. The eyes have it. Thank you. And he gets off the stage.
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Well, and, and, and, and as you noted, that was to put God back in the platform because they,
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they'd removed it. And, and three times the delegates denied it. And I have to admit,
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I sort of chuckled and wondered if there was a rooster crowing somewhere. I mean, there is a
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parallel for that, but, but it is some of the early beginnings in modern times of the anti-Semitism,
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of the anti-Israel sentiment, of the anti-American sentiment on the far left that has been manifested,
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that are now manifested in, in the mobs that, that are burning our cities and that are murdering
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police officers. Exactly. Exactly. And it's. And with the complicity and the support and the
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encouragement of the media. And it's the media. Donald Trump has broken the media. I mean,
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remember the media used to argue they weren't biased. They used to pretend they weren't biased.
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They don't pretend anymore. I mean, they hate him with an unhinged quality. And I want to tell a story
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about John. This is an interesting story. So, so John is. Be careful. Passionate about our country.
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Yes. Oh, we know that. And, and passionate at, at risk to himself. He's in a town, he's in an
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industry where speaking out carries risks. But, but in 2016, as you know, Michael, I had a, a tough
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primary against Donald Trump. I think that's a diplomatic way to put it. I mean, it was, we,
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we both went at each other and he won, I lost. And after that happened, John actually got on a plane
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he called me and said, Hey, can I come see you at your house? And you got on a plane,
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you flew to Houston and you came over to my house. It was about 10 o'clock at night. I said,
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sure. Yeah. Come on over. I'm happy to talk to you. And you went, you brought for my girls,
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I stuffed animals, I think it was stuffed rabbits. And you sat in my living room for about an hour.
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And you were urging me at the time saying, Ted, you need to support Trump. And, and I wanted to see
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Trump be conservative. I wanted to be, and be more conservative. And you were as earnest
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and you said, look, our country is hanging in the balance. And that conversation,
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it was powerful because it was from the heart. It was because it was a plea.
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We've got to, to, to pull our country back from the brink. And I did, I supported Trump. I campaigned
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with him. But the fact that you flew across the country to sit in my living room and make that
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plea, this was not just type a tweet and, and throw it out in the world. This was.
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Well, by the way, there were no cameras there. I mean, this was a,
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a private interaction. I've never told that story.
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That's right. I think that's the first time you've ever said it publicly.
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But you did it because you care about the country.
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Yes. And I knew the power of Ted. I knew it was important that we can't lose Ted.
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And, and I had seen, I had seen Ted with his filibuster. And I was so impressed with it.
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And I listened to a lot of it. He was like Jimmy Stewart. You know what I mean? This was,
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it was as good as a movie. And he was wonderful, really wonderful. And the statement he made,
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regardless of whether he was able to sway everything at that moment, was extremely important.
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He was making a stand. He said, and he was doing it with a smile, nothing, not an angry statement.
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He was just saying, this is America, fellas, don't lose it. That's the essence of what he was doing.
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And I saw that and I said, this, this guy's important. And so I, I actually went out of my way to,
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to say hello to him. And then when this thing happened, I knew, I talked to a friend, friends of mine.
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I said, you know, I really want to go and talk to him. Well, why did you do that? Call him up. He'll be,
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you know, and, and that he said, come on down and come on and just spend the time.
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And I spent time with Heidi and the children and I had a wonderful time. This is a wonderful time.
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On that filibuster, on that, on that very moment you're describing,
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I know that didn't win you a lot of friends in Washington. I think it didn't make you Mr.
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Popular in the Senate. It probably won you a lot of supporters out here in the rest of the country.
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But I, I see the same thing with you, John, which is you've been outspoken. You've been
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passionate about your views, not just on politics, but on religion too. Very unpopular in this town.
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And so that's it. You see, it's the same thing, but, but there's no religion anymore. I mean,
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you, you know what I mean? It's like, like, look at, look at what our, our governor does. You say
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you can march in the streets, arm in arm, but you can't sing in a church. That's right. I mean,
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it's crazy. You can break into somebody's, you know, offices and, and, uh, work and burn them down
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and turn over a police car and you can't pray. In a time of Christ,
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people's character comes out. And, and, and on the left that there is for, for too many
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elected officials, a, a, a, a, a deep hatred of religion, of religious liberty. And we've seen
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petty tyrants, whether it is Gavin Newsom saying, you can't sing in church or Bill de Blasio in New
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York city saying any church or synagogue that meets, we're going to permanently close that church
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or synagogue. And who the hell, what, what politician, you don't have the power under the
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first amendment. Where did our freedom to go? Where did they go? It is fundamentally wrong. And,
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and that doesn't mean that they're not, there isn't government power to have reasonable common
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sense. You can have a prohibition on large public meetings. If there's a public health crisis,
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that there's a long constitutional authority for quarantines, for reasonable restrictions,
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what you can't do is single out and persecute religious faith and treat it worse than everything
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else. You can't say, if I agree with what you're saying, it's okay. But if it's just faith,
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you're a second class citizen and we're going to come shut you down. You look at de Blasio,
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the persecution that he's directed at the Orthodox Jewish community. I mean, it has been,
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it's very revealing of, of, of the antipathy for faith that the far left is.
00:28:30.620
Yeah, for sure. Yeah. This issue, Senator, I mean, you're, you're obviously in the political fight
00:28:35.320
every day. You're in the fray and John, you're, you're outspoken and you've seen a lot of this.
00:28:40.540
You've, you've, you've, you know, you've, you've been, you've been one of the biggest actors in town
00:28:45.540
for decades and decades now. You've seen things change. Are you looking forward, hopeful for the
00:28:52.900
country or less than hopeful? I'm an optimist. I'm an optimist by, I mean, that's the essential,
00:29:05.000
me is an optimist. People who know you know that this is true. But, uh, I feel we've been blessed
00:29:13.660
with this president. I feel that this man, I mean, you look carefully at what he does day by day.
00:29:21.340
You can't think of, uh, another human who's, uh, above 24 that can handle this schedule and this
00:29:32.060
kind of battle every day. And the hate that's visited upon him, the, the, the, I mean, it's
00:29:37.440
unhinged. Yes. So, so, uh, what, what he needs is us, you know, he needs every pat on the back he can
00:29:45.740
get. He needs to see our smiles and our lack of fear in the face of this too, because he's leading
00:29:53.340
the way with that in, in, in those aspects. He's, he, and so, uh, do we have the leadership? Yeah,
00:29:59.900
we have the leadership. Yes, we have the leadership. We have many brilliant people right
00:30:04.060
now. And I said, at one point, I said, look, I said, the Democrat party and the Democrat party
00:30:10.660
is not anywhere near, it's not even an American party any longer. Unfortunately, I have to say that
00:30:15.700
it's, they're not for America. They're wed to something else. These guys are connected.
00:30:23.620
To Marxism and to those countries that represent Marxism. It's serious. So they're a torpedo against
00:30:31.480
the ship of state. There's no doubt about that. But, uh, I said, you know, there's no one on the
00:30:37.540
other side. I said, just Mark Levin. I said, Mark, they don't have anyone of stature. There are no
00:30:45.360
statesmen, no one of stature, no one. Well, look what, what they've come up with as their, as their,
00:30:52.620
uh, candidate. They, and they've gone through everything they can go through. And that's
00:30:56.840
what they came up with. There were 27 candidates, I think, at the beginning. They don't have
00:31:00.080
anything. Pardon? He's in hiding and he's not willing to take on the mob of the angry lunatic
00:31:06.720
left. He's being told to hide. I, it's. Listen, it's, it's all, this is all manipulated. It's all,
00:31:12.060
there's figuring what, how they can get him in. Now, on the other hand, I told Mark Levin,
00:31:18.680
I said, I can give you 50 people of great stature right now. And you can give me another 50 on top
00:31:29.420
of that. And I, and I believe that. I believe we have an army of great people. And if we are
00:31:36.440
directing ourselves toward helping this, uh, union restore itself, like guys like Ted Cruz,
00:31:45.360
who knows what was, has been taken from the constitution, Mark Levin, another one like that,
00:31:51.020
we have to restore, we have to go back to that essential, uh, the constitution and, and the, uh,
00:31:59.320
and the, uh, declaration of independence and all of this, the letters of our founding fathers in
00:32:04.580
support of those things. And, and the history of the decisions that were made by the great people,
00:32:09.800
uh, you know, Lincoln and Jefferson and, and, and, uh, Adams and Jackson and all of these people
00:32:18.420
right to the present, the great people right to the present. Okay. We have a tremendous history that
00:32:24.100
we can fall back on and learn from and restore ourselves with. And that's what we have to do.
00:32:28.580
And, and people are hungry. I believe for leaders who will defend America, who are proud of America,
00:32:35.760
who say, I, I love our nation. And that doesn't mean that you ignore our faults. That doesn't mean
00:32:42.820
that you don't try to move towards justice. You know, you look at the great civil rights leaders,
00:32:48.420
you look at, at Frederick Douglass, you look at Dr. King, where they made explicit appeals over and
00:32:54.040
over again to our founding documents, you know, the declaration of independence began, you know,
00:32:58.920
made the majestic promise. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.
00:33:04.620
And yes, we had slavery. We had discrimination. We had, that was the original sin of our nation,
00:33:09.780
but we were founded on a promise of equal rights and equal justice for all. And, and I agree with Dr.
00:33:17.780
King that the arc of history bends towards justice, but the left,
00:33:23.160
they don't teach that. They don't know that they tear it down that we're an evil society rather than
00:33:29.540
a society committed, founded on noble ideals. And we've had a long, and at times bumpy journey.
00:33:38.240
I mean, we fought a civil war where 600,000 lives were lost to end slavery. And, and, and, and, and that,
00:33:46.520
you know, you referenced the Obamacare filibuster, you know, I think that was a moment where people
00:33:52.520
wanted someone to stand up and fight. The president, the best characteristic of president
00:33:57.060
Trump is he's got a backbone and he will stand and fight. And there's so, we need that. We need
00:34:02.540
people who will defend America, who will stand up and defend police officers who are heroic in
00:34:12.260
That's, that's a good affirming line too. And this is the strange thing. I hate to play devil's
00:34:16.200
advocate here, gentlemen, but I'm looking around, I'm seeing statues falling down. I'm seeing the
00:34:20.540
country rioting. I'm seeing a whole young generation, my generation go towards socialism.
00:34:24.960
How do I get your optimism? I mean, John, all of your peers in Hollywood, how on earth do you end
00:34:30.680
up being one of the very few to defend our country and look with, with hope on its future?
00:34:34.860
I've had a lot of support in my life. I've had a noble father, told stories, great storyteller,
00:34:45.480
just like your dad. And, uh, you know, I, I've, I've been helped and I've helped been helped by,
00:34:52.100
uh, other people right to this day. And I really rely on, on those friends who tell me the truth
00:34:57.760
and have straightened me out when I've been out of line and all of that stuff that I've gone through,
00:35:03.080
you know, and, uh, and that's where I get my stuff. And also I, I'm a fellow who, uh, uh,
00:35:10.120
says a prayer every day, many prayers. And I really, and I meditate and I try to get there.
00:35:17.680
You know what I mean? I try to get there. It's hard to meditate. People say it's easy.
00:35:22.340
True prayer is hard to get to that tone where it's really just talking.
00:35:28.340
So, so let me give you a moment of optimism. We're in the midst of a year, unlike any other,
00:35:35.600
we've got a global pandemic. We've got the great depression. We've had race riots on some level.
00:35:40.940
It's, it's horrifying at another level. Look, I got to tell you like, like the shutdown we had in
00:35:47.520
March and April and May in our family, there's never been a moment that has been better. So if you
00:35:55.260
were to ask as parents and it's, it's, it's, it's hard to be a parent. It's with our girls.
00:36:00.900
There I am again. The, the, the, the single biggest thing, if I could have prescribed what
00:36:05.820
our family needed more than anything else, it would have been cancel every event, cancel every
00:36:11.840
dinner party, cancel every play date, cancel every basketball game, cancel everything. Put all four
00:36:18.380
of us, Heidi and me and both girls in the house, 24 hours a day with nothing but each other for about
00:36:24.320
three months. And, and we've never had, so, so Heidi and I, we began during the whole time of,
00:36:31.040
of the COVID lockdown, we did lunch every day with the girls and dinner every day. We've never done
00:36:37.380
that in their whole lives. It's great. We began doing something I've wanted to do for a long time.
00:36:42.500
We've never done. We began doing a devotion at night where we would read together. We would read
00:36:47.980
three chapters of the Bible each night and just start with three. And I'd wanted to do that, but look,
00:36:52.280
it's hard. You're busy. You're on the road. Everyone's doing something or else. And we were
00:36:56.680
all at home. And I got to admit the first week or two, we did it. The girls went nuts. They didn't
00:37:02.040
want it. It wouldn't stay still. They, I mean, they were pushing back and it's been a, a, a wonderful,
00:37:08.100
we just, we just finished second Corinthians. So we started Matthew. We made it through second
00:37:12.180
Corinthians. They're actually in Galatians. We're in Galatians chapter two right now,
00:37:15.920
but it's been every night and we have conversations. We live near downtown Houston.
00:37:25.580
Every night, Heidi and I would go for a walk. We'd walk our dog at about sunset.
00:37:32.200
And the whole town, we turned into Mayberry. People were out. You couldn't get close to each
00:37:37.620
other. So you'd walk socially distance. And it was, it was a beautiful thing. And it was a reminder.
00:37:43.140
This is still a great country. Um, I mean, I point to that as a source of optimism. I have heard so
00:37:50.840
many people who say our families grew closer and that's a, that's a wonderful thing.
00:37:58.880
All right. Let me segue to a different topic, which is just the world of movies. You worked with
00:38:06.320
lots of actors. Is there an actor like in, in all your time who you were just like, wow,
00:38:13.540
that guy is incredible. That woman is like, like who took your breath away. And I mean,
00:38:17.740
is there someone who stands out? Well, I have to say, you know, when I look at people,
00:38:24.020
I just see talent. I see everybody as unique. I see, you know, like some people remember there's a
00:38:34.380
rabbi that called people. He said, how can you, he said, he was giving dollars to people all day
00:38:41.280
long, all day long, old man. And he said, how can you do this? He says, well, I'm, I'm counting
00:38:47.240
diamonds. How can you get tired of counting diamonds? And he's talking about human beings,
00:38:54.660
the value of human beings and the potential of each human being. I believe everyone is,
00:39:00.280
has, has superpowers. I believe everyone has potential like that. So it's just a matter of
00:39:06.840
encouraging them and getting them to discipline things and do this things and think positively
00:39:11.920
and all of that. And something comes out, you know, and I've worked and the actors I've worked
00:39:16.420
with, I've worked with great actors. Are there people who stand out? Yes. All the people with
00:39:21.660
the movies that have been successful for me, like starting with Midnight Cowboy, nobody was better
00:39:28.320
than Dustin Hoffman. Dustin Hoffman is a, when he, when they said he was a genius on the set of,
00:39:33.980
of, of the Arthur Miller play, A View from the Bridge, they were right. He's, he was a genius.
00:39:43.260
And we got along, we liked each other and we got along together. We were perfect for each other.
00:39:48.560
We helped each other and we were laughed with each other. We invented, okay, that's that.
00:39:53.780
And then every other one, you know, certainly with, with Burt Reynolds in Deliverance,
00:39:59.500
Burt got the role of his life. One of the great movies of all time. I mean, it, it iconic.
00:40:05.320
Yeah. And, and Burt was sensational. It was his role. You know, when anybody gets animated,
00:40:13.180
when every individual has that kind of, every individual is just filled with potential. I remember
00:40:19.800
I, I ran a class for a couple of years, for a year, a year, I said, I'll take over the class
00:40:25.300
because somebody's leaving and the teacher was leaving. And they said, John, would you take over
00:40:28.820
class? I said, okay. And my purpose in the class, I set my, as my purpose that I was going to get
00:40:35.080
every one of those kids in that class, which were about 24 kids to achieve that moment where they took
00:40:43.300
the class over where it became their moment, their class, when everybody walked around and said, wow.
00:40:51.040
And I remember this one fellow right down to the end, we couldn't get him on the last,
00:40:56.820
the last class that I had, he broke through and he was fantastic. And it was not that he could do it
00:41:05.180
every night, not that he went on to have a great career, but that night he was a superstar.
00:41:11.400
All right. Different question. Do you have a thought? Is, is one harder than the other drama
00:41:17.360
versus comedy or, or, I mean, they're both. Well, I've never done a real comedy comedy. I've done
00:41:23.600
some stuff that was funny, like in Holes when I played Mr. Sir, you know, it was a funny character.
00:41:28.900
And I, I have a pretty good sense of humor and all in every role, like with cowboy, midnight cowboy,
00:41:35.540
there's a lot of humor in that. And the thing that actually sustains Anaconda
00:41:40.600
is humor. That, that character, every line I say in that movie is funny to me.
00:41:47.120
Right. I love it. I love every line. It's so, it's so crazy. So anyway, there's humor in the work
00:41:52.760
that I do. Uh, but, uh, I haven't done comedy comedy. Comedy, I think comedy is very, uh, specific,
00:41:59.880
you know, it's, uh, it's a, it's a different, uh, different aspect, different technique in a certain
00:42:05.800
way. But we have, we, and we have people who, uh, are, are doing wonderful, wonderful work. I grew
00:42:13.080
up in the time when we had Sid Caesar, as I said, Jackie Gleason. Sure. Uh, I love Lucy. Yeah.
00:42:19.460
Lucille Ball was a genius. And, you know, we had all these wonderful Americans, Ricky Ricardo.
00:42:24.460
Ricky Ricardo. Oh yeah. He was, and he was quite brilliant, Ricky. So anyway, so it's,
00:42:32.380
it's Jackie Gleason used to, they say he didn't rehearse. He would have somebody else read lines
00:42:38.460
for him and he had a kind of photographic memory, but he was absolutely, uh, he knew what it was and
00:42:45.020
he knew this character so well. And then he would come on and do it. And they loved it because that's
00:42:49.860
why it was so spontaneous. That's why the people were listening to each other. Uh, they had this
00:42:54.820
little cluster, you know, with Art Carney and, and the gal, which was her name, Audrey Meadows.
00:43:00.220
They were fantastic, but he came on and they didn't know quite what he, they, he hadn't rehearsed it.
00:43:06.460
So he was just, you know, he was going, he was ready. You know, on, on the subject of comedy,
00:43:11.980
there, there are many jokes about politicians and actors, which I'm sure we've all heard.
00:43:16.160
They're very negative, but I, but I am struck by a positive version of it, which is that a
00:43:21.380
similarity between actors and politicians is they've got to be concerned with truth. The truth
00:43:26.340
about public policy, public philosophy, we're getting at truth about a character, truthfully
00:43:30.440
in imaginary circumstances. And, and you've got to like people, you know, this, if you don't like
00:43:34.440
people, you're gonna have a horrible time on the campaign trail. If you don't like people,
00:43:38.040
why would you dedicate your life to building characters? You know, that that's the,
00:43:41.260
that's the bright side of it. And I thank you very much. And I, and I, I got to tell you,
00:43:45.240
gentlemen, I think you, uh, you both exhibit the bright side of both of those professions.
00:43:50.440
And I wish we could go on another five hours, but we'll have to just do it again. Senator,
00:43:55.020
next time you're in town, John, thank you so much for being here. I'm Michael Knowles.
00:44:09.520
This episode of Verdict with Ted Cruz is being brought to you by Jobs, Freedom, and Security
00:44:14.780
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