Dennis Quaid returns to Oklahoma for 'Reagan' red carpet event (2024)

EDMOND — For 41 years, Dennis Quaid’s favorite film from his body of work was “The Right Stuff.”

He has a new favorite.

“Reagan,” a Ronald Reagan biopic with Quaid in the title role, has a release date of Friday, Aug. 30.

“Reagan” was filmed in Oklahoma. Quaid returned to Oklahoma to attend a Wednesday red carpet premiere event at the Hilton Garden Inn in Edmond. The film was shown at nearby ShowBiz Cinema.

Quaid, asked to elaborate on why “Reagan” was his new favorite movie, said he judges a film based on the “time” he had while making it.

“And now ‘Reagan’ has taken the top spot on that,” he said. “And a lot of that does have to do with Oklahoma and the time that we had here. It’s a very special film for me.”

Gov. Kevin Stitt began the event by proclaiming Wednesday, Aug. 28, as Reagan Movie Day in Oklahoma. The proclamation came at the second red carpet premiere in the Oklahoma City area in the past two months. On July 15, stars from another shot-in-Oklahoma film (“Twisters”) walked the red carpet at a theater in downtown Oklahoma City.

Quaid, who arrived by helicopter and wore a black “Reagan”-branded t-shirt before changing into red carpet apparel, was joined on the red carpet by Stitt, director Sean McNamara, line producer John Sullivan and a fleet of cast members, predominantly those with Oklahoma ties.

McNamara, Sullivan and Quaid were unanimous in their praise for Oklahoma as a place to make movies.

“Oklahoma, first off, has got great people,” Quaid said. “My dad is from Oklahoma, by the way. It has got great crews and the towns, the little towns and the big towns, you roll out the red carpet and make things easy to work here, for people to work. It’s fantastic. It’s located in the center of the country. The thing I remember most is just the people here.”

McNamara urged people to see Quaid’s new favorite film ASAP. Said the director, “If everybody could come out August 30, it’s always important that we get a big audience on that first weekend so people know that we exist. “‘Reagan’ comes out in 3,500 theaters across America, and I think you will find it refreshing.”

Trevor Donovan, who plays Secret Service agent John Barletta, predicted moviegoers will love “Reagan” because it’s the story of “an incredible human being.”

“I think a lot of people that aren’t familiar with the story itself are going to think it’s a political story,” Donovan said. “But it’s a story of an amazing human being from his childhood all the way up until his last ride.”

People will also enjoy the humanity of the story, according to Donovan, who said the film dives into Reagan as a human being.

McNamara said the performances in “Reagan” are “beyond genius.” He called Reagan the role of a lifetime for Quaid.

“He just put so much of his heart and soul into it,” the director said. “He learned every speech all the way through. We would only have, like, a paragraph in the movie or a sentence in the movie, but he learned the whole thing, and we would shoot the whole thing, so he just gave it his all.”

Oklahoma actor Bryan Whorton, who plays a doctor in “Reagan,” said Quaid should get a ton of award nominations for his work in the film. Donovan described Quaid’s performance as incredible.

“I showed up to set, and I had never met Dennis,” Donovan said. “I shot towards the end of the movie, so I didn’t know what to expect. And the first thing that came out of it was the way his face changed a little bit (to be like Reagan’s) with that little crooked smile in the corner of his mouth. And his delivery with that little bit of an airy breath is spot on.”

Sullivan said Quaid was paid the best compliment by Michael Reagan, an adopted son of the former president. The producer said he overheard a conversation in which Michael Reagan, after seeing the movie, told Quaid, “Thank you so much for nailing my dad and getting him on screen right. It’s like you brought the twinkle to his eye and you also brought the seriousness to him that a lot of people didn’t see.”

Quaid portrayed a president that, in Stitt’s opinion, is the greatest president the U.S. ever had. Asked what he liked about Reagan, the governor mentioned bringing down communism and “peace by strength” and what Reagan was able to accomplish and negotiate.

“And his optimistic attitude is something that I try to aspire to be like,” Stitt said.

Continuing, Stitt talked about a Disagree Better initiative that he announced his participation in earlier this year.

“I think you can talk policy debate without having to be hateful to one another, and I think we need more of that in our country, and that’s kind of what I think about in the Reagan days is he was really clear on his policy,” the governor said. “And I’m really clear. I believe in smaller government and lower taxes. I believe government is not the answer. And we can argue and we can debate about that and you may disagree with me and we can still be buddies, but I think Reagan exemplified that statesman attitude. He’s an icon.”

In a phone interview prior to the red carpet event, McNamara said Penelope Ann Miller is phenomenal as Nancy Reagan in “Reagan.”

“Even Ron Reagan Jr. said there would not be a Ronald Reagan without a Nancy Reagan,” the director said. “She’s the one who was the wind beneath his wings and stood up for him and helped him get through what he had to do in order to run the free world. And then I was just with Jon Voight. We were up in Seattle looking at the USS Reagan. He plays the Russian spy, Viktor Petrovich. I’ve done about eight movies with Jon, and just every one of them, he brings some new character to the table. He just is genius. I just love working with him.”

McNamara continued referencing the work of cast members, including Mena Suvari, who plays Reagan’s first wife, Jane Wyman, and Amanda Righetti and Jennifer O’Neill, who play younger and older versions of Nelle Reagan, the former president’s mother.

“So we just have this amazing group of talented people all together, playing the parts of this movie,” McNamara said.

No stranger to Oklahoma, C. Thomas Howell, who played Ponyboy Curtis in the 1983 shot-in-Tulsa film “The Outsiders,” is Caspar Weinberger in “Reagan.” Said McNamara: “He’s incredible. He’s in the situation room and just has an incredible scene pointing out what we’re up against as far as the nuclear arms race.”

According to production notes, “Reagan” was shot over 37 days in Oklahoma and California. Beginning in the fall of 2020, “Reagan” was one of the only large productions (150 crew members, 80 cast members, up to 100 extras) to launch during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We all got it and had to shut down a few times because of it,” McNamara said.

McNamara said filming in Oklahoma was “beautiful.” Guthrie was chosen as the primary filming site because the city was “like a time capsule of Americana from the days of Ronald Reagan’s youth,” according to production notes.

McNamara said 90% of the movie was shot in and around the Guthrie Scottish Rite Temple, which was built in 1923.

“It was incredible,” he said. “They had a big stage there with seats and, on the stage, we built the Oval Office, and then there were all these rooms that looked like the Kremlin, and it was just amazing.”

McNamara said members of the “Reagan” team stayed at Dominion House while shooting in Guthrie, and some rooms there doubled for the interior of the White House.

“There aren’t many cities in Oklahoma that have the assets we do,” Guthrie city manager Eddie Faulkner said while on the red carpet.

Quaid fielded a political question during his early moments on the red carpet. He was asked if he has always been a “secret Republican” during his years in Hollywood. He laughed and said, “I am a registered independent. I have never been a registered Republican or Democrat. I think we’re the largest voting block actually, to tell you the truth. I guess like George Washington, I don’t believe in political parties.”

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