Introduction welcome to your life I was a lifeguard on a river
there's no turn and I learned how to read the currents not just the ones on the surface
but also the ones deep underneath the water Attraction to Reagan Role Dennis I want to welcome you to focus on the
family it's great to be here you you have been promoting yeah you have been promoting this
movie I know that takes a lot of energy you know one thing I saw it last night I watched
the screener it's really so so good but I guess the first question is the obvious one What
attracted you to do this I mean you got different scripts coming your way what was the draw I was
offered this movie in 2018 that with Mark Joseph and I done a movie um a soul serer right
that about Bethany Hamilton uh which you was labeled a faith movie I call them good
movies but you know it's a great story yeah and um great story anyway her brother uh Noah
called me up and said hey these guys are want you to do ran I said rean you want me me to do
Reagan why would anybody want me to do Reagan so I went and met with them and they offered me
the part and it was like I have had this fear go up my spine you know because I didn't think I
looked like Reagan you know granted we're both actors we both have Sunny dispositions I think
but uh he was also my favorite President and everybody in the world knows what he looks like
he's like Mohammad Ali you know everybody in the world has an opinion knows what he looks like and
uh but usually what I have that that fear uh it's usually a sign that I should do that get out of
my gets me out of my comfort zone you know what I mean yeah but do you like that do you like getting
out of your comfort zone most people don't like getting out of their comfort zone well we're all
dragged kicking and screaming out of our comfort zones but then we go oh man that was I'm so glad I
did that yeah but yeah that's I mean that's way it is uh when you walk walk as a Christian too in it
getting dragged out of your comfort zone yeah to The Ranch yeah I didn't say yes I didn't say no and I had to
sit with it and really think about it uh my mother definitely wanted me to do it and uh you know and
uh I just I just wanted to do him Justice I didn't want to do an impersonation uh like Saturday Night
Live or something like that so I I I sat with but I went up I got invited to the Reagan Ranch which
is not open to the public it was the Western White House right and I went up there you go up five
miles to the worst Road in California and you get to the top and come out through the front gate
and I could feel Reagan in that place I could feel who he was his Spirit his who he was yeah for for
first it's obvious that he was a humble man and it was he was not a rich man right which uh kind of
took me a back cuz I always thought of it in that way you know CU he was president but you know the
Western White House that that house there is 1100 square ft that you know he bought that like right
after uh governorship uh they had a king-sized bed but it was two single beds that were zip
tied together yeah some friends bought that place and they left it exactly as it was uh you
feel like Ron and Nancy left and they're coming back any moment they're close are in the closet
anyway that's when I I I said yes cuz I could I could feel him as a person and I felt like I could
get there let me ask you you know for our audience Reagan's Faith our listeners and viewers the faith component
uh has always been intriguing with President Reagan sometimes on full display sometimes very
quiet of course ny's role in some of that uh you know it was uh not always clear where she was
but uh it certainly comes through in the movie you did a the writers and you in that acting role
did a wonderful job pulling that out how did you feel about it now as a Christian yourself you
know accentuating those aspects of who he was just defit something that was manufactured by Reagan
or anything or any kind of just Public Image to put up there it was you know from the time he was
a boy you know and uh he was he was in the church and that's where he learned public speaking was
in the church his mother was like like my mother too was you know a devout chrisan as well and
um like I said nothing manufactured by him and I think after his assassination uh there was
a recommitment there the assassination attempt yeah assassination attempt yes thank God and where
you know he even said it TI O'Neal this you know my life is no longer mine it belongs to the man
upstairs and there's a lot to do let's move to you Dennis Quaid's Faith for a minute you grew up in the Baptist Church
you mentioned your mom and Reagan's mom being very similar uh okay so so many parents in this
community in our listenership you know they're taking their kids to church there might be a five
seven nine year-old Dennis Quaid amongst them you you didn't stick with it per se but now you've
made the full turn just describe you know kind of your hopes that your mom had for you the
disappointments that may have occurred your journey there a little bit and and what brought
you back to faith in God well I I've always had faith in God but it's it's about we go to church
and Sunday school like every Sunday basically up until I was about 12 and uh but then I I I
got disillusioned with what I think I call churchianity mhm you know uh which may may be a
perceived thing too you know as as a Young Man uh but that was just the way I I I perceived it and
I saw it and uh I um so I got you know this was in the 60s and I got into uh I read to sidartha at
in high school which kind of opened me up to uh reading about other religions to you know around
the world like what happens to those billion Chinese are they going to hell you know just those
kinds of questions really just uh didn't seem like you know how could God be this way and not and uh
you know and not the other and uh but anyway I I read the DAP I read the bagita I read the Quran
I went around the world asking every everyone around the world about you know who's God to you
and uh cuz I I guess I'm a seeker and then I also you know ex tried to fill that hole that was there
you know that can't be filled through other things like uh drugs and alcohol or achievements or
whatever there is in uh life that has to offer you know that you think is going to finally or
a relationship that you think is finally going to fill that hole for you and you know and
I wound up in rehabbing uh in the 1990 and I read the Bible already I think you know twice
by that time I was in my 40s but I read I read the Bible again and especially this time read the
New Testament and it was the read words of Jesus that really kind brought me back really what it
was about was a personal relationship with with God With Jesus Christ in in in particular and that
is the thing that started to really nurture inside me that relationship and has grown and you know
spurted grow spurts and stumbles and Falls but you know it's still it's always there and it's that
is my rock yeah I was thinking uh you know when God Reaching Down to Us you look at other religions I studied in Japan
for some of my college time and you know I had the similar experience of looking at other things
Buddhism shintu ISM but you know I think it was Josh McDow or one of those leading evangelists
back here in the US who always said you know the difference with Christianity is Christianity is
the only religion where God is reaching us all the others are built on Works us trying to reach him
praying so many times a day you know doing good works which are you know import for for meditating
for how many years until you become enlightened or whatever that that and I I do believe in
meditation I think you know I think when Christ Jesus talked about prayer it's prayer and
meditation you know meditating on God which is all great but as far as like just calling out his
name and he's here right now yeah In This Moment well it's just like the god way to do it you know
you don't have to build it to me I will make a way for you it's just if you're going to believe in a
God wouldn't that be the god you'd want to believe in a God that prepared the way for you that made
the sacrifice all of them just as I am right just as I am right kind what led me to the Lord in
my 20s too I mean I made a commitment to Christ at 15 but then wobbled as I like to say until I
really made that harder commitment at about 22 and realized okay this has to be more serious
and I was certainly lacking that uh you know Christian Influence for yourself oftentimes for me it was a football
coach that got me pointed in the right direction when you look back on your own life are there two
or three people that really made that difference for you uh oh yeah for sure who were they and what
were they yeah well my mother who was my rock good old my life yeah she always there I mean even when
nobody else was or I felt like I didn't deserve it you know uh that's uh that's uh she was she was
really that and uh you know in as far as my early years my dad I really had a great relationship
with my dad you know it was a um a complicated Rel relationship you know very much like Reagan in
a sense his dad was alcoholic but at the same time the life of the party or whatever and uh very kind
of outgoing he was he was a really good man my dad but uh there was a teacher in uh in uh College
acting teacher who really had a big effect in my life as far as uh this where I was going to go and
he really made acting seem interesting you know it was like psychology about what makes people tick
and uh Billy Graham had a a uh had a huge effect to my life still I mean still does really um he
was like the real deal and you know um that he was I almost felt like he was uh like my my father
in a sense my you know my spiritual uh father here on Earth uh just just growing up you know
I never met him or anything and uh but uh uh you he was he was just an an amazing person you know I
hadn't thought about it this way but when you look at Billy Graham and of course you and I grew up
you know watching his Crusades Etc and then you see Reagan there are attributes in the two of them
that are similar this commitment to Simplicity you Billy Graham & Ronald Reagan know Billy Graham didn't get lost in the weeds
he didn't he didn't get caught up in debates about himself either I mean it's always the
gospel always this is what Jesus has said this is what he's done for you why not respond to his
invitation and you know in some ways in the film The Reagan film you you all did a great job of
boiling down the essence of Reagan to be simple and straightforward and there's just not to leave
wiggle room with words but say what you mean mean what you say Let's uh you know again the movie's
coming out this weekend you can find where to see Music it's going to be a great show I do notice the
guitars everybody that's visually watching this is going ask him about the guitars Jim but you've
also done a number of albums and you're musically gifted which is funny it's like the right side of
your brain is working huh well right or left side yeah I think it's left brain is accounting and
right side is Arts and Music I don't know but I don't know but anyway talk about your music uh
well I had a go did a gospel record uh last year that came out and uh it's called Fallen I call
it Fallen a gospel record for Sinners because I one of the biggest audience possible I could get
I think we all qualify for that yeah and it's a uh half of it is songs that I grew up with in the
Baptist Church that I love so much and then the other half are songs that I wrote uh before and
and during the making of the record and then it all adds up basically to my spiritual journey
I think that's really cool you know looking Hollywood & Faith at Christianity in Hollywood I know Mark Bernett
romad dowy and a handful of other people that you know do such a good job representing the Lord as
they're working professionally and kind of top of their game and doing the right things and but it's
got to be kind of a difficult environment you've moved out of California now but describe for us
just that world living in that world that bubble and trying to be a person of faith I you know we
all have probably ideas is of what that looks like but uh is it difficult or is it okay if you're
living to who you are and being true you generally get a hearing it you know I I think Hollywood gets
that but I think there's really quite a lot of uh people of Faith out here they they may not speak
publicly about it you know maybe you know because they feel like o going to get cancelled or yeah
I've heard that there are a lot of Christians you know very some very vibrant churches out here I
was really when I first got out here Jess Moody I don't know if you're familiar with uh Jess Moody
he was in Florida and he was he's quite an amazing uh preacher Baptist preacher at First Baptist
Church of Van eyes over there and then uh Greg Lor actually yeah correct today I mean he's doing
great things I was just uh at his Crusade at uh Angel Stadium and 45 45,000 people they filled the
place to the rafters yeah they had they had 6,000 people he's kind of the modern in every eight
people came down he's like the modern version of Billy Graham I think I mean he's the guy that
stepped into the role he's got such a great demeanor such a great delivery it's inviting he's
authentic you're attracted to what he's having to say and yeah he really has filled that that role I
think he's authentic and he and he says it for a a another generation coming you know it's like the
same thing and it's it's well it's authentic it's he he doesn't try to manufacture it you know
there a funny story Mark Bernett was telling me when he was doing the Bible along with Roman
Downey but they were doing those features ad and the Bible and they did really well I think it
was on History Channel but he was talking to the executives at the different production houses
mostly Jewish leadership and he said uh as he was pitching it they were saying yeah just do the Old
Testament we'll cover the cost of doing the Old Testament he goes well that's not really the whole
Bible and he said they would say yeah well okay throw in the New Testament but leave out the Jesus
parts and I thought that is such a funny story and he he took it in stride and he was able to do it
the way he needed to do it which represented the true scriptures both Old and New Testament but I
thought it was so funny yeah do the Bible without the Jesus Parts without the Jesus thing yeah
that's yeah that's the that's the the thinking out here in a way you know and Hollywood still
hasn't gotten it yet uh to tell you the truth you I think they had it back in the 50s remember you
like Charlton hon and you know they used to you how many uh movies uh zeph in there was a lot of
movies about Jesus you Ben herd there was a you know all kinds of uh the The Ten Commandments um
but Hollywood just they felt like they were too cool for school or something I guess but Faith
movies they you know when they started out they were very basic it took him a while but then Along
Came the Sha and then I got involved and I can only imagine and of course uh Soul Server which
is uh you know faith aspirational film I think and they have these predictors these trackers you
know about what the box office is going to do and and I can only imagine you know and they're
usually really right spooky but they said I can only imagine oh it's maybe make $2 million for the
weekend we made $17 million for a weekend and they scratch their heads and they now they have these
advis advisers in the agencies and the studios that are their faith people that are yeah going
have to look for uh material or whatever but they really still don't get it well I think you know
the The Wonder of our faith is that I think we can remain calm you know I've been telling this
my wife and I have been doing this devotion we're just talking about the fact that you know it says
in the word that every knee shall bow in every tongue confess so I believe that will be true now
it's a matter of how do we persuade others to look at Jesus and his claims and try to help people see
the light literally and we don't need to have uh anger or negative energy toward people we need to
love them and show them and talk with them what Spiritual Awakening it is we believe and I do think if we did that
successfully the country would have a Hunger for More of the good stuff that you've done here with
the Reagan movie and the other movies I think the country does have a hunger yeah for for for that
stuff there's a lot more of it now than there was even years ago yeah that's true you know and I I
said this when Co came along and in a sense it's that I I feel that there is a spiritual awakening
going on in this country right now H that you know uh spiritual Awakenings don't actually feel that
that warm and fussy you know that's that's what they're all about you know it's like a spiritual
Revolution but it's happening and uh I think it's a wonderful thing that people are really starting
to wake up because they've been out there they've tried they're like me they they've tried they've
tried a lot of other stuff that doesn't work well that's the whole point filling that hole that you
talked about whether it's drug abuse alcoholism relationships I mean that's what's so tough when
you talk to people to say this will fill that void and and you know haven't it feels like Dennis we
haven't progressed far from the garden we're still saying no we we know best we know the knowledge
of life we will pursue it and then in the end God just lets you run to the end of that road and
then you look off that cliff and go okay maybe I wasn't right yeah yeah yeah yeah God doesn't want
you to eat that because you'll be immortal like him yeah that's what we're all looking for but
it's like uh and you know nations are like people you know you have to find out for yourself you you
go out there and that's why you have free will and uh you try things but uh hopefully you come back
to that which actually works without a doubt you know which is that personal relationship the uh
I'm an old football playing guy but the movie I Reagan's Last Days cried in two or three points but probably the
tears that fell the hardest were at the end of the movie where uh Reagan's diagnosis with
Alzheimer's came into full bloom and him riding the horse with the secret service at the very end
and you know Reagan asking can we just have one more ride I mean I was like choked up as could be
and uh it was moving and of course then the portra the real footage of his funeral I mean the there
are things in there that are yeah I mean just her at the casket kind of stroking the casket saying
her goodbyes that is you know those are meaningful moments in life that Define what's important it's
Why We Fight The Way We Fight here to focus on the family because in the end as you know that's
what's going to matter the most who's around your death bed who is it that's going to stand there
at your funeral and say this was a good man and uh man that's where I choked up I was like yes that's
what to live for yeah in the end uh you know I won be on my deathbed go gosh I wish I'd done that
movie or did this that if you know if anything it was it would be about I wished I'd attended you
know with my family my kids my mom and my dad I I wish you could have said this I wish you you know
I try uh I really try to remember that in raising my kids and also try to remember that in being
a son um that uh you know our time out here is precious and we need to enjoy our life we need to
enjoy each other it's so good I mean that's what Legacy it's about and we try to convince people every
day of that what do you think looking back all the great movies you've done what do you want your
legacy to be oh I I I really you know I I hope that my kids say I was a good dad yeah that would
be you know that uh that would be a great legacy and to be a really good uh husband to my uh wife
who I just adore with every everything and my life and uh God is in a relationship and that's one
of the big reasons for its strength but just that it's the simple things that what it comes down to
because I I like to say to you know people when you start thinking about oh you know the doing
big deals being an actor or movie stars of this I say uh who here uh knows who Tyrone Power was
and they got they get up a lot of blank stairs I said he was the Tom Cruz of the late 40s and
uh you know who remembers what except that which is eternal that sounds like Ecclesiastes or
Proverbs right these things are fleeting they're going to pass but you know that's how we build
into our kids hopefully this idea of character meaning about what's important yeah about what
is important in this life well Dennis this has been great I so appreciate it uh God bless you in
your quest both uh you know just personally with your family and your career and what God has left
for you to do and also for this movie the Reagan movie again which opens this weekend people can
look for it locally it's going to be on I'm sure hundreds if not thousands of screens so go out
it's going to be thousands want to hear over 3 theaters uh and you know message to the Baby
Boomers man we were the one that we were the ones that really created the movie business I
need you to get out there again movie and leave the charge and take your kids yeah yeah kids will
need to see it I'm going to take my boys for sure you delivered it greatly and in a beautiful way
so thank you again for that Dennis God bless you go see I had a really great time talking with
you thanks for having me likewise take care God bless actor Dennis Quaid on focus on the
family with Jim Daly and it was so nice of him Outro to carve out the time to talk with you you've
really got me motivated to see the film well I hope you will that's the idea and it's worthwhile
and again there are some great faith elements in the movie and it's uh obviously in a political
context but it's not a political movie it's been in the works for years that the timing was
just what it was and it's really about Reagan's entire life from his childhood to the end of
his life I there were three times I teared up in the movie as well uh take the family
and enjoy a good film that talks about good things it opens this Friday yeah and we've
got a link to a trailer of the Reagan movie in our program description you know John also
I don't want it to pass without emphasizing what Dennis was talking about in his own faith
Journey that he accepted Christ wobbled along did things he shouldn't do I appreciate that he
came out of drug rehab and you know he's had that Hollywood life and I want to make sure that if
you're in that spot you don't have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ call us we have a
great uh ebooklet that we can send you it's called coming home it explains what it means to become
a Christian and I want to make sure that that invitation is extended to you so call us and allow
us to explain to you what it means to become a Christian don't hold back it's the most important
decision you're ever going to make in your life it's one for eternity yeah our number is 800 the
letter a and the word family and uh you can also find that booklet coming home on our website
we've got a link in the program description you can download it right from there well thanks
for watching focus on the family with Jim Daly I'm John Fuller inviting you back next time as we once
again help you and your family thrive in Christ