Jon Voight gives powerful insight into 'Reagan' story | Carl Higbie FRONTLINE

Mr gerbach tear down this wall trust but verify were you better off when they were four years ago and as you just saw Mr gorbachov tear down this wall some of the most iconic speeches used by one of the most effective presidents dating back to George Washington Ronald Reagan the former California Democrat and movie star turned one of the most conservative presidents of the 21st century now being honored in a new film appropriately titled Reagan John Voit Academy award-winning actor and Sean mcar director of Reagan uh Mr voy pleasure to have you back on again sir this is this is a huge movie well it's uh it's thanks to the fellow who's on the other screen with me Sean McNamara he was somebody who I think there there there are not two other people that could have gone through this journey with us through Co and through the strike and all the things that interfered with the the uh the schedule and Performing of this piece uh I think Sean did a magnificent job and everybody else stepped up so I'm very pleased with the film and I know people are going to love it yeah Sean I mean look everybody references on the conservative side Ronald Reagan about how great he was he did ban automatic weapons but ever outside of that he a fantastically conservative president uh tell us about how you came up with this how you got here and what your take of it is now absolutely well I was handed a script written by Howie clner uh about six years ago and I thought it was terrific because the first thing was I I loved Reagan I voted for him when I was 18 years old and he was the first President I voted for but it was told from the point of view of a Russian spy Victor Petrovic and so that's right away I knew John Voit had to play that part and he is just so incredible I mean you wouldn't think to tell a story from a Russian point of view but that's exactly what we do so it's a brand new perspective that I think makes it kind of fresh and kind of original and um and now where we are in the world we we had no intention of releasing this during an election cycle we we shot it in 2020 but with covid we got shut down a couple of times and then we had to go back to Oklahoma where we shot it and do the re-shoot and then we had the actor strike and the writer strike last year we had a war in the Ukraine where we were doing some of the visual effect shots and it just morphed into to August 30th of 2024 so now when you watch it you can't help but think what's going on in the world there's there's two the assassination attempt alone unbelievable the debates the college campuses so even when I'm watching the film it is unbelievable how much it reflects what's going on in society today yeah no it's shocking but uh John you know what's interesting is you obviously played the role of the Russian spy who was telling the story and a lot of people don't know this but the Soviets despite not admitting it were absolutely terrified of Reagan no oh yes they were yeah they well see the fellows who followed him me representing in the film one of those fellows they were that was assigned to look at this man they kept giving reports back that this guy was standing up against communism saying an awful lot of things that that were concerning to them and then he became a political force gradually they saw his political Talent as well and they got the reports back in these files that said this man says what he means and he means what he says so when he started speaking out they became really frightened yeah and and they were right to be frightened because in the in the end he found a way to dissolve the Soviet Union yeah well you know Sean one of the things that uh struck me about this is you know you really nailed the caricature of nearly every single person I've I've only seen previews I will go see this movie as soon as possible but you really nailed it down how were you able to get so closely and so accurately to some of the personalities that people have been written about for decades now well number one I got the best actors in the world um starting with Dennis Quaid he uh he researched the character he studied you know YouTube's a great source to go back and look at all the old speeches and it was based on Brian kangor's book The crus Crader and everybody did their research and and Dennis there I mean we got the costumes right we got the hair right but he made a choice so it wouldn't become like an SNL skit he said look you're coming to see uh Dennis Quay play Ronald Reagan so he just used his voice a little bit like he learned to do the voice a little higher back in the 40s when they were talking about that democracy can handle it and then he like lowered it when he got into being the governor of California and then it was the more traditional well you know as president of the United States which we remember him more for but we had the actors did such research John John voy had been to Russia I mean and he got the character of Victor down so exactly because these are artists who want the best to inhabit these roles so we all benefit from that same with Penelope Pian Miller she she read nany's book and just nailed every moment of it and we had the best you know crew in the the the nation by putting them in the best costumes the makeup and all of that stuff but it comes down to just really talented actors from everything I've seen thus far it shows John Voit Sean mcar congratulations on this thank you so much Carl thank you [Music]