IR Interview: Jon Voight for "Reagan" [Showbiz Direct]

The Inside Reel

Actor Jon Voight talks to The Inside Reel about story, approach and appreciation in regards to his new film: "Reagan" from Showbiz Direct.

Transcript

00:00I am about to start the biggest war of this century and I'm not going to fire a single

00:16shot.

00:17You're going to blow up eight years of diplomacy.

00:18Well, if you think that got their undies they don't want, you just wait.

00:22What did the president know and when did he know it?

00:25What would you have me do?

00:26I want you to fight.

00:33Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.

00:45Good morning, John.

00:46We've talked many times before.

00:47Thank you, sir.

00:48Hi, Tim.

00:49Good to see you.

00:50Good to see you.

00:51How are you doing?

00:52I'm doing pretty good.

00:54I think the one of the last things maybe we talked was Ray Donovan, but every single character

01:00has perspective and has to have perspective.

01:04Looking at Victor, did you have to do that or see his eyes on Reagan?

01:08How did you have to approach that from your perspective?

01:12Well, I think the story of Victor, at one point in his career as a KGB officer, recognized

01:33the spirit and the goals of Reagan as being appropriate and he fell in love with him.

01:41He said, this guy's the guy.

01:43This guy can do it.

01:46He can change our country.

01:47He can bring us back to sanity.

01:51That's an interesting journey.

01:55The film is not about my character, but that's the journey he goes on.

02:00The film is about Ronald Reagan.

02:02He was affected by Ronald Reagan and many people were.

02:07There's a fellow by the name of Victor, not Victor Petrovich, that's the character I played,

02:14but Yuri Bezmenov, who was a spy.

02:20You can look him up.

02:22There's a lot of video of him and interviews with him.

02:29He was a real spy and he changed his thoughts about it.

02:33He came to warn us about the many things that the Russian propaganda was going to do,

02:43was doing from the seeds that they'd planted in the 50s and 60s to take out, to destroy America.

02:51He became very helpful to us, although those seeds were planted and they're all around us now.

03:01But anyway, that's who I went to school on a little bit and I think I did the proper job with him.

03:10I will be frank with you that as a citizen, I would not like to see any political party

03:14outlawed on the basis of its ideology, because I still believe, Mr. Chairman, that democracy

03:20can handle it.

03:22I was a brand new KGB officer, given my first intelligence assignment, a certain actor and

03:29union leader.

03:31There's a purpose for your life.

03:34You can run from a bully for so long, but after a while, you're going to have to stand up to him.

03:39It's my boy!

03:43There's about to be another war right here in Hollywood.

03:46The commies on one side, the mob on the other, and you're right in the middle, son.

03:52If you put as much work into your career as you do making your speeches, you'd have an Oscar by now.

03:59You always take a character on physically.

04:02I mean, you play him at different ages, but do those things help you?

04:07And on top of that, this guy was a psychologist too, your character in real life.

04:13He understood watching people for their tells, how they acted, how they responded.

04:18Sure, right.

04:20Well, yeah, everything you're saying is appropriate to the character.

04:31My whole piece is trying to educate a younger man and bring him along.

04:38This younger man is played by Alexei Sparrow, who was a young Russian actor, performer,

04:44singer, who's terrific and a good guy.

04:48And he's lovely in the film.

04:51And so it's Victor trying to bring this fellow to an understanding of things.

04:57And I had a lot of help to become 35 years younger and several years older.

05:07And the older incarnation needed something, and then the younger incarnation certainly

05:13needed something.

05:14And I had a great makeup fellow by the name of Scott Wheeler, who was just a very talented

05:24guy, and we got along very well.

05:26And I think that he did a terrific job.

05:29And that is the answer to your question.

05:36Thank you, Victor Petrovich.

05:56Now, I'm watching the film, because your character obviously bookends exactly where

06:20this man went and how Raiden functioned.

06:23You know, did you get a better understanding of Raiden as a politician, as a person, or

06:28did you have a conception of him before you came to the film?

06:33Well, I wasn't able to, I learned a lot in terms of the film's process, because it was

06:39a very long film when it started.

06:41And there was an awful lot of information there.

06:43But I also have gotten a lot of information about Ronald Raiden from people who worked

06:48with him.

06:49And there's a whole group of people out there, very active now and very helpful in our society

06:56now, who worked under Raiden.

06:59And they all had very specific stories to tell.

07:02And, you know, he's talking about his humor, his decency, his strength, his, you know,

07:11and then you look at his journals, all of the writing about him.

07:17He's been written about, as a modern president, he's the most written about president, I

07:23think, in the modern era.

07:27And then there's his own diary, you know, the Ronald Raiden diaries.

07:32Unbelievable that he wrote every day something.

07:35And he'd always start out with something like, it was a beautiful day today, or the

07:40sky was clear, whatever it is.

07:42He talks about the weather, talks about this.

07:44Very positive.

07:47And you get the idea of a very clean mind, very organized, you know, a person who wrote

07:54down little jokes to tell, you know, and he had a good sense of humor and a great way

08:03of delivering the jokes, you know.

08:05And, of course, his friends in Hollywood were his friends.

08:09And, you know, Frank Sinatra or whoever it was, Jimmy Stewart, they were his friends,

08:19and they, you know, occasionally drifted by the White House.

08:23But he was the real deal.

08:26He was a great force for good in our presidency.

08:32And he reminded us almost daily of the founding principles and how they worked.

08:41And I still feel the same affection for him, maybe more so because of the film, now that

08:52I've examined him so clearly.

09:02And I learned how to read the currents.

09:10Not just the ones on the surface, but also the ones deep underneath the water.

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