ladies and, gentlemen, please

welcome dennis quaid. amanda mcginty will wallace and julia. good evening.

welcome to the ronald reagan presidential foundation and institute. my name is david trulio and. it is my privilege to serve as president, ceo of this foundation. we begin all of our official programing, the pledge of allegiance. so i ask that you please and join me in honoring our flag and all those who serve under it. i pledge to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for, which it stands one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. before we go further, there are a few people in the audience i would like to recognize former u.s. representative gallegly and his wife, janice. internationally known award

winning journalist, producer, new york times, best selling and fox news contributor and editorial advisor raymond arroyo. has. producer of the reagan movie mark joseph joseph. director of the reagan movie sean mcnamara and his son seamus, who has a birthday today. let's give a hand to seamus. moore. broadly, there are several members of the reagan movies cast and crew in the audience. let's give them all a big hand of a. we are in for a very special evening from small town roots to the glitter of hollywood and then on to commanding the world. the reagan movie is a cinematic

journey of a man overcoming the odds exercise. tremendous leadership and achieving remarkable results. america's 40th president. the story told through the voice of victor petrovich, a former kgb agent whose life becomes inextricably linked with ronald reagan's. when reagan first caught the soviets attention. as an actor in hollywood, the movie was not reagan foundation project. however, we are really excited to have a converse with members of the cast and play a handful of clips from the film. in a moment we're going to be joined on stage by the following four cast members. i ask that you please hold your applause until they join us on stage. so first, of course, is dennis an emmy and two time golden globe nominee known for his roles in movies such as the rookie the day after tomorrow, the parent trap and many many more. a household.

his work has spanned multiple generations of beloved films. in addition to acting, is also a musician releasing albums, and he is currently promoting a new gospel album titled fallen, a gospel record for sinners and since we're all sinners, it's an album for everybody. there we go. dennis said that playing ronald reagan was one of the greatest honors his life and he was inspired, by the many parallels each of each of them had in their lives. next, ilia basken attended moscow's prestigious theater and variety college and has built a considerable career in tv and film. he also a regular on the long running internet program outlaw radio, where he makes amusing commentary on contemporary topics. next amanda righetti, moved to los angeles at age 18 and a year later was cast. the hit the o.c. when warner brothers and peter roth recognized her talent after

being part of the o.c. success righetti is known for television and film roles, including in north shore, the mentalist, chicago fire and captain america, the first avenger. and then have will wallace who has acted in, produced, written and directed numerous award winning films, including the thin red line i am sam rules of engagement and broke sky, for which he received a best actor nominated run from san fran indie, which will also played roles on such shows as beverly hills 90 210 and baywatch. pretty cool. so with that, i ask you to join me in warmly welcoming to the stage the cast members of the reagan movie. welcome. you're right about.

abc. well i'm going to i'm going to start with. of course. and dennis, you said publicly years ago that ronald reagan was your favorite president. so how you come to that assessment and what drew you to the role of playing ronald reagan? i was aware ronald reagan from when i was driving down to from houston as a boy and my dad was listening to the speech on the on the radio and he was pounding the dash and said, garani, yeah, yeah. and that was as first politically, i also remember him from selling barack. so soap on death valley days and g.e. theater and but when it

came time to to vote, i voted for ronald reagan. i went home in los angeles. my roommate said. who'd you vote for? i said reagan. he said, are kicked out of the hippies. so i turned in my hippie card, which i never really had had. he was my favorite president. you mentioned in the speech. that's a reference, i assume, to the 1964 time for choosing speech. that was this breakout speech that had him really burst out onto the political scene. so you were just randomly in the car, your dad listening to the radio. yep. wow. that was it. i mean, that kind of my introduction to the political, you know, about. yeah, i could see how he inspired my dad and my my dad was reagan was his hero. and i remember even in talking with him, i think it was in 72

and he was saying we need ronald reagan and he was right. he was an early adopter. right. yes, i can tell you. oh, yeah. all the way. so is maybe because of that and, this these formative experiences relatively early in your life that caused you to say a a few years ago, you said publicly that a shiver of fear went up your spine at the prospect playing ronald reagan, but you're really actor. you actually played bill clinton in a movie prior to that. so this is not new territory for you. but why did you have a shiver of fear? well, because he was my favorite president and, you know, i there's a lot of things i felt unworthy. i felt like, why anybody want me to play reagan? i don't really look like him. sound like him and that. and he's really what it is, you know, he's like muhammad ali,

he's known all over the world. and so everybody's got a pigeon of him. so it's probably fear of being judged, too, and all that, which is still, by the way, but but it usually that shiver of fear of it goes up my spine. it's usually a sign that i should do that because. it's out of my comfort zone and so took me a while to say yes, but i went to the reagan ranch and drove up that five miles of the worst road, california, and got up on top. and soon as i came out onto the clearing there, i felt like, yeah, i could feel him as a as a human being and what he was, you, i felt, is he was a humble person, wasn't a rich person. and i could just feel him and all his work up there. and so i said yes. so. so how did you approach the

physical transformation or essentially. i had the privilege of seeing an advanced the film you're playing ronald reagan from the time he's in his mid-thirties until he's well into his 70. so how do you as an actor, how do you approach? well, i was lucky that i had a year that turned into two before we shot the movie. i had a year that turned into two before we shot the movie because of covid and just a number of things together to do it. mark, joseph, 2,009, you've been trying to get it together so it was a long journey. i went to youtube. youtube was so great like that. everything is available to you as far as the exterior, how he

talks, footage going back to his time in the movies at the senate subcommittee. his voice of course is very high, like all of us, when he is young, so had to work on the voiceover that period of time and map out a transition, get a crooked smile and where does that come from? i worked from the outside in. it was really about feeling him. i'm never going to go away. i'm still dennis quaid playing ronald reagan. we never get away from ourselves but i didn't want to connect in a way as an idol. i wanted as a human to do what makes people tick, that's the question. it must be someone of your acting stature must still have had a real challenge trying to capture some of those iconic lines. there is one clip i would like

to player, probably the most famous line of ronald reagan. >> we changed it yesterday. i wanted to get it more like the way he said it. >> everybody is here again. real inside information. let's play clip number 6 and then we will invite dennis's comments. >> general secretary gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek liberalization and change, come here to this gate. mr. gorbachev, open this gate. [cheers and applause] >> mr. gorbachev, tear down this wall.

>> one of the advantages was i lived through all of it. those times, great times, inspiring times, what reagan did for all of us, he was the voice of the american people i think. >> i want to bring in will here. into an early part of the reagan presidency and a very consequential moment and invite

some commentary. to the team in the back, let's go ahead and play clip number one. >> mr. president, the air traffic controllers are planning a straight. >> can they do that? >> legally, they have all signed a no strike contract. >> a contract is a contract. that's the way i learned it. they forfeited their jobs. >> this is a very significant moment in the reagan presidency and comes very early on. i want you to comment and kick it around. >> a powerful moment and i believe, this is august 3, 1981, and i just think just to be part of that, i was fortunate enough, mark joseph, who was able to set up some

time for me to resume, i got to meet him via resume and to keep his insight and i think just to be, when reagan -- it is just -- >> pelosi may not know the full context president reagan fired the air traffic controllers who had gone on strike and will's character who became attorney general but at the time, a key long-standing advisor to president reagan is explaining to the president the momentous nature of this decision, you get to deliver that so you are in touch with the actual -- >> the first real test of his presidency i think. about how tough he is going to be. it affected the soviets but he just shut down all the airspace in the united states and what will he do to us if he does

that to his own people? >> to your point, ronald reagan was not only a union member but a former union president. >> right. it center profound signal of how tough he was. really amazing. >> our contract as a contractor. >> maybe we will switch gears. let's talk a little bit about the young ronald reagan and his mother. i would invite you, what was it like preparing to be ronald reagan's mom? >> really big shoes to fill. there wasn't a lot about nelly. there was plenty on youtube to search for ronald reagan, embodying a physical attribute and for nelly, there wasn't that kind of -- >> she died in 1962, she was

not a public figure. >> most of my research and most things i found out about her were from reagan's hand. reading his autobiography. some biographies that were written about reagan that his mother found her way into the story, god and ronald reagan actually was the most poignant part of the research because it was the most information about her and the impact she had on his life, what she instilled in him as a young boy. he really carried with him through his life. >> what were some of those things. did you start out with essentially a blank slate, you're going to learn about nelly reagan, what did you learn about her and what came of that? >> i learned she was the youngest of 7 children, her mother passed when she was 17

and her and her father had a sort of very strained relationship and she fell into the arms of jack reagan, and he was a catholic, she was a protestant which was a big no-no back then. she stuck with her protestant roots and raised her children in the faith of god and really led them with that strong hand, and very strong moral compass. i think she drove into the church world, don't know if it was a way to escape the hardships of her own life but she survived influenza 1918, she almost died at her faith in god and that was something she profoundly put upon her children and raised her children. >> i want to come to the faith element which is very

significant in a moment but before that, let's play clip number 3. and invite you to tell us about nelly and what she's trying to instill on a younger ronald reagan. >> that's what boys do. stand up to them. go on. ♪♪ [applause] >> tell us about that scene.

what is going on? how did you approach it? what was embellishment? what was in the historical record? >> the reagans moved a lot and dutch got picked on a lot. he was bullied quite often. it got to a point in his life that he was old enough to grow a backbone and she really sort of helped kick him over that to the place where he needed to stand up to the bullies in his life that were coming up against him and giving him a hard time. it's a tricky scene. seen. of funny thing to walk because it is in love but also a little bit ruthless. so i think my approach was she was a very loving mother and i wanted it to still have it come

from a place of love, not from a place of do this or else. historically i don't know what it was. we just would've filled in the spaces that we could based on what we know. >> one part we know very well was the profound nature of her faith and in a moment i want to go to clip number 2 where ilia's character features prominently. let's go to clip number 2 and i will invite ilia and amanda's comment. >> i finally traced his disdain for communism. >> people are frightened, hungry, divided. when a participant of our country visited his church. >> the state runs and controls everything to the smallest detail. your speech, your thoughts, you know what they took away from us, first thing, that.

they closed down most of them. many are dead or disappeared. americans should know more about communism because it is coming here. freedom is only one generation away from extinction. just like that. the seed was planted. >> tell us what is nelly reagan doing and tell us the nature of the character you are portraying? >> nelly is exposing reagan to soviet communism. ultimately that's the crux of it. back then, soviet communism was the big bad and i think reagan.

a lot of his presidency was fighting soviet communism and the darkness that came about with it. the character that is visiting the church at that time. >> tell us who you are portraying at why it matters so much? >> because it is actually happening right now in this country. the misinformation that goes around and when the real people speak out, when people tell the truth, universities and most of the left-wing organizations don't want to deal with those people. they don't listen to them. that's what my character in this movie was trying to explain to his audience in this church where younger ronald

reagan for the first time heard the soviet union, famous people, where killing americans and not only americans, western americans. there was a group of writers that went to the soviet union by invitation of joseph stalin. there was herbert wells, very well-known writers and they were treated with like they were kings, royalty, they were shown token villages. i don't know if you know what it is. general potemkin was explaining how peasants lived and they

lived awful lives but to show the general, they built a special village where everything was just marvelous and everybody could only dream about life like that and that's where the village was. so he invited writers, 3 of them as when they came back they started saying, writing the soviet union is a paradise, everybody in the working class is happy and has everything they need. >> workers paradise. >> workers paradise. >> you grew up in what was than the soviet union and latvia which is now a free country but at the time but i >> it was part of the soviet union. >> when did you come to the united states and what was your perception of presidents general land ronald reagan specifically?

>> good question. i came here in 1976 at the end of the ford administration and the next president was jimmy carter and after a couple of years living under jimmy carter, i started to wonder did i do the right thing? but then came ronald reagan and i knew that it was the right thing. >> i want to pose to all of you. [applause] >> as each of you prepare for these roles, what if anything surprised you, what did you learn? dennis, you are familiar with ronald reagan, you grew up with him but as you went deep, what surprised you, what did you learn the caught you off guard? >> so much.

just in the clip right there, brought up a lot. freedom is just a generation away from extinction. kind of yeah, yeah to that until recently it's true how we have to really guard and hold precious all these gifts we've gotten from our forefathers, because we can lose them. and that's very real. the other thing, reagan was fighting communism very early on, from his time he was an actor who became vice president, then president of the screen actors guild and he was fighting communists in the screen actors guild.

>> very compellingly conveys that. they were trying to take over the guild, the unions. everybody that thought that was a big wives tale after the soviet union fell, it was exactly as they said. he was dedicated to that and a time when our country, idealistic, we wanted to be friends with everybody and we think you make a promise and you keep that and expect world is like us but they didn't grow up like us, they don't have the freedoms of us, we appeased and appeased and appeased the soviet union for just about every presidency that i remember in my lifetime and

reagan was the first to come along and say no. they -- people say we don't want to make them mad, they will attack us, but it took a cold warrior like ronald reagan to win the cold war because they respected. >> or portrayal also conveys that he was a happy warrior. he wasn't an angry abrasive man. >> he had a sunny disposition. he liked people. you know? they liked him. doesn't take a genius to figure out that way of life, most of the world was living under. thank god for him. his idea that he formed before

his presidency was to bankrupt them. that would be the way to bring down the soviet union. turned out to be right. >> the star wars, made them bankrupt. >> the strategic defense initiative and there's a special exhibition at the reagan library right now about that. i encourage you to visit. part of the element you just raised about engaging with people also has is reflective of the broader implication of the movie that there's tremendous resonance for today. in a moment i want to go to clip number 5. there are many parallels between the late 70s, early 80s and today. one is how divided we are the country and how contentious it is but let's play clip number 5, that is where tip o'neill and ronald reagan meet for the

time, i will invite dennis to comment on that. >> mister speaker. >> mr. president. >> congratulations. welcome to the place you enjoyed tonight because tomorrow we go to work. >> i've been well briefed on you. i've been told i better get a pretty good head start. >> that's very irish of you. you plan on going 10 rounds every day, that's how we do things here. >> just remember every day at 6 p.m. . >> what do you mean by that? >> after 6, we are not political enemies, just two irish men having a beer. >> tell us a little more about that. what went into the scene and what did your research tell you about that? >> that scene really happened. tip o'neill was over at the white house more than he had to be because they were friends.

in advance, tried to figure out a compromise and come closer to each other than my way or the highway, compromise was what america was built on and reagan had a great way of saying it. she would say just because he disagrees with me about 20% of this issue that doesn't make -- is not about 20% in may, he's an 80% friend. they had a way of coming together. emblematic of -- way i wish we could be like and we still can be. to get back to working together as americans. >> well said. [applause] >> important to note that

ronald reagan never had both houses of congress. if anything, he had to bring democrats on board, he and tip o'neill would do kid out but at the end of the day, there were major legislative victories that require democrats coming along. >> tip o'neill was also the first person to visit him in the hospital. >> let's go to that, last clip, number 4 and we will invite you to comment on that. clip number 4 please. >> he will do anything to get that damn tax-cut. >> specific orders on the charts. >> you will have to grin and bear it. how are you doing, pal? >> i don't recommend getting shot. >> i think there was a reason for all this. there's a big job left to be done.

whatever time i have left belongs to him. yay though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death i shall fear no evil for the art with me. surely goodness and mercy will follow me all of the days of my life and i will dwell in the house of the lord forever. [applause] >> for those who may not have the context, in the immediate aftermath of president reagan being shot, 80 days into his presidency. tell us a little about the scene, there is so much in there. >> reagan said he would be the first person to see him in the white house, in the hospital

and they prayed together, democrat and republican, protestant and catholic. and they worked together. after reagan got shot he really did believe his life was no longer his own. god's purpose for him, was what he was going to work for. that is what he did. tip o'neill raked him over the coals over iran contra and other things. they were better political enemies but they kept an open mind about each other. the 10%, 20% of an open mind, you can learn from the other one, the saying reagan used to say, you can get a lot done in washington if you don't care who gets credit for it.

they worked that way as well. >> they have a plaque in the gift shop that has that quote. let's listen up a little bit. some lighthearted moments, filming the movie, anything, what was your experience like doing a very serious historical film like this? >> it was a completely separate movie because all my stuff was in the 20s and 30s and we had the model ts and everything, the costumes and everything, your costumes were period piece costumes too but i felt like the stuff about i got to do was really cool to see what they brought in and the costumes and i enjoyed that. fast and furious. my portion was shot for maybe

10 days in oklahoma. >> we came back here and shot a little bit, air force one, how cool is that? i had to pinch myself. >> for context, you were in the plane that -- 200 yards from where we are sitting. >> doing a scene with nancy, penelope and miller who is so fantastic in the movie and i am wearing reagan actual jacket, it's very eerie. what a feeling. i hardly knew how to describe that. we are doing seems that happened there, actual events that happened there and we are standing in the same place they

happen during those scenes that i don't think ron and nancy imagined. >> it has been said one cannot possibly understand ronald reagan and the reagan presidency without understanding the role that mrs. nancy reagan played. how did you and penelope work on that? >> there wouldn't have been a president ronald reagan without nancy, their love story is central to the movie and central to their lives, the support and strength that they drew from their love story. it was a love story. it truly truly was. i can't begin to say enough about it. he wrote her love notes every day.

their relationship taught me about an example of want is a true love story. you can't manufacture that. >> the two of you had an amazing connection. sending christmas cards, and -- >> she channeled nancy. even in the lunch line, she was protecting -- >> the fear of god. >> really made it so much easier. >> as you reflect on the film a do any of you care to share a

favorite scene that was fun to shoot? >> i haven't seen the film. >> you have to stick around afterward. >> the berkeley riots in the 60s. that was just a really fun day, >> for context, when ronald reagan was governor there were very significant campus protests and unrest. more parallels between that era and this era. when ronald reagan tells us, that was one of the questions that i think his answers to me seemed as you remember, to be answers that had time to change

over the decades. his mindset behind the riots at berkeley and how it was then. and adapting the answer to the question. i was trying to internalize that mindset rather than his mindset today rather than he feels responsible for the decision he made or not. >> that was one of my favorite scenes. >> california governor reagan, something about him that would where brown suits that he would where so great. like the sheriff and tom reagan.

he has such great humor. he would disarm people with his humor but through the crowd of student protests, having silence, got tape over there mouths. cracked them up and made them laugh at themselves. it was really disarming that way. not many people had that ability. >> the way he was telling jokes, a great performer. >> the second debate, i will not, for political purposes take advantage of my opponent's

youth and inexperience. it was set up and you can see he was such a great actor. he and jack benny told jokes because he did a jack benny. he's laughing and he knows the election is over. reagan said it and he took the water and slipped the water to elongate a little bit. a cagey thing to do. that was jack benny. >> any other thoughts. >> you were always on top of

it, you were flying around, pulling off a miracle every day. kudos to you for that. [applause] >> it was a thing when country is so divided. >> we don't want to this to be a political movie. i definitely did not want it to come out during an election year. it is going to get lost, and now it came out and it turns out turns out what do i know? it is the perfect time to bring it out. [applause] >> and again, you could never

have predicted that the parallels were so striking from campus protests to a presidential candidate. a former president getting shot or getting shot at. in a moment we are going to go to audience questions, they end in a? . a quick lightning round for anyone who cares to comment. short statement. given that we are at the point demographically where half the population roughly has no memory of ronald reagan because they were born, what do people need to know about ronald reagan and what would you like them to come away with?

>> those born after 1980, they will have a chance to see what this country was like and what it can still be. those of us born before 1980 have a reminder, wanted to entertain and inspire people, we go to the movies not to see things but to feel things. i hope it is a uniting thing. ♪♪ >> i think he made america great again. [applause] >> to underscore, that was a ronald reagan campaign slogan in 1980. make america great again. it was.

>> you summed it up earlier when talking about tip o'neill and president reagan, democrat, republican, just an amazing amount of hostility between the two parties right now. i would love if anything for people to remember how it was in those days and learn from that and work together issue by issue and not be so hung up on which party you are. >> and personality. >> what that means. >> it is a human story with politics as a backdrop and what i appreciate about the film is you see reagan as a human being but touches on the love story between him and nancy and i think there's a human element to it is that we don't really

see in politics and offers the opportunity to see what it was like for him. >> to wonderscore your point as somebody who watched the film, there's a real struggle. you mention how they moved around a lot. he came from the struggle with alcoholism. ronald reagan the actor had great times and not so great times and the movie exposes the audience to that. >> he also had a lot of failures in his life and it's the story of getting on the horse and ride with the white flag of hope and reagan offered that. >> let's go to questions which we have folks with microphones and some hands raised and we are going to go to the fabulous phyllis corby first to is sitting on the front row and we will go to dave next.

>> thank you for being here. i enjoyed the presentation. as you are very well aware, hollywood, the media, and the political parties have really i think added to the division. i wonder if you are expecting or have you gotten any blowback from hollywood, anything that you feel might occur once the movie comes out? >> there were two attempts to cancel me when i was doing the movie in fact. i don't know if i would say that was because of reagan, but

reagan was like everybody's dad back then at least for my boomer generation he was our dad. that was for better or for worse. if you were for him, didn't want to hear his discipline or wherever you were in life back then, he was the dad of the nation, people had strong feelings just like they do about their dad. there are people out there that still carries those strong feelings with them. overwhelmingly more great feelings than there are bad memories about him with people. a lot of those student protesters, dropouts of society, drop in and all that,

they round up on wall street and made a bunch of money. reagan had a slow acting affect on people. he grew on them as well. >> to the front row. >> congratulations, wonderful film. as you were studying for your roles, what did you learn about the character you were playing that surprised you the most about them? >> what surprised me the most was the great communicator, so many people that knew him always remarked how there was a private place in reagan that

you could not penetrate and that was the challenge for me in playing him, to get to the human that was there and i think because he was the great communicator, there was a private place in him that had a lot to do with the relationship he had with his mother, and god. about who he was listening to. it really formed, i think it formed the core of who he was there in that silence, i think. >> any other surprises? >> i was most surprised at the humble beginnings and how

economically the hardship of the reagan family, his father being an alcoholic those were all aspects of him that i never knew about and so the film was presented to me and i learned a lot about reagan through the process of learning about nelly. >> there are some remarkable firsts. he was the first president who had been divorced. many folks were privileged back then to become president but he grew up when money was very tight, dad struggled with alcoholism. >> the alcoholism also affected the ability to live. they were moving constantly because of the economic hardships on the family and that was really, jack's contribution to the reagan

family, but nelly really tried to protect the children from that demon that jack would have to find at the bottom of a bottle. that made them stronger in some ways but also taught the kids a valuable lesson. >> all the way in the back. handle it. >> born and raised in the soviet union. i was a student in the cold war. in the movie, what did you learn about the relationship between reagan and gorbachev? >> what happened, that first meeting started with that first

meeting, never really happened, in a summit where i was really surprised to learn about how managed presidents were, scripted and managed as far as communicating, have to be chaperoned and reagan invited gorbachev into the next room by the fire and just getting to know each other on a basic level talking about their mothers, how they have grown up. they began to see each other as humans for the nuclear exchange

and empathy for each side. that surprised me about how personal it was. in iceland, we all thought there were going to be no more nuclear weapons, when reagan walked out, he turned into an old codger and missed his opportunity. >> and ronald reagan, giving up the strategic defense initiative? >> offered to share the

technology that didn't exist by the way. at the time. >> willing to play the game, not a game, that was where he said no. the soviets always figured we would cave, appease and that was the moment. the cold war was won. [applause] >> that was an absolutely critical pivotal moment in the cold war. the question over here, right there. >> as an actress who is a

political thriller, i'm having fun listening to you all and i wanted to ask you, i'm actually a uso person, reagan saw ufos and i am married to a professional astrologer. i'm curious as someone who doesn't fit everyone's box did you bring up any of the more metaphysical or those kinds of things as far as his ufo sighting or interest in astrology? >> we did bring up the preacher who met with reagan when he was still governor and they held hands to pray in a circle, he had a vision, i guess you could call it tongues, you will reside at 1600 pennsylvania ave. going into a translate state.

and they did deal with that. they make a big deal about what that was, when they responded to that. there were other things, a complete love letter to reagan, his response to aids came upon us, was not what it could have been but it was about the times that we were in. he did come around as well with that. it is not a complete love letter. it was a human being.

but i do think he was the greatest president of the 20th century. >> we have time for one or 2 more questions over here. to the microphone, here it is. >> i just wanted to know how you picked a composer but i worked in the film business for 30 years and there aren't many republicans around. >> you would be surprised. [applause] >> has been answered the. on the aisle. >> thank you very much. i'm a native california several years.

i remember pat brown driving around with my father, ronald reagan, if he were alive today, would he be the kind person he was back then championing conservative causes and trying to get california back on the map as a commonsense state? >> he was all about common sense, wasn't he? he invented commonsense. that's what he was all about when he came to office. are you better off than you were four years ago? very simple question. don't look behind the curtain over there. people could feel that and that is what he tapped into. he tapped into every day people and appealed to commonsense.

the common sense, the solutions are not as difficult as things we choose to put our focus on. >> a question by the aisle over there. >> have you heard from the reagan family and what do they think about the film? >> very supportive, haven't seen michael since we shot the film but i understand from way back, when mark sat out the family and sought out the library, to make sure we got a voice, because it is important

about the way he was portrayed, it was mostly right. the truth, it is more authentic as anything else, reagan was so authentic. >> i'm going to ask you to tell the audience when and how they can see the film a but as we close, why should somebody who doesn't know much or anything about ronald reagan, maybe that person was in a blue city or blue states, why should they see the film? >> there were a lot of reagan democrats too. funny how in a way after 40

years, even like with roosevelt who i consider the second greatest president of the 20th century or really up there, don't really member the politics. you remember the deeds, and what we all did as americans and how we came together, democrats and republicans were at each other's throats, behind each other's backs doing things and whatever. the politics fade. amazing how we make peace with the ghosts of the past. what we remember is the man, and we remember the story of us. and thank god for ronald reagan that he came along. i heard it said one time. [applause]

>> america deserves the president that they get. it reflects the president reflect what's going on in our society, not the other way around. it is we the people. that is why this is such an important election. [applause] >> everybody needs to take a side in this election and not be afraid to talk, speak up. we don't speak up, freedom can be gone in a generation, that is for sure. we need to speak up and teach young ones how to speak up.

how to converse and argue and work it out. republican or democrat, pick a side and vote and let's get on with it, right? [applause] >> how do people see the film? >> they could see the film starting august 30th, right? let's open it up in a bunch of theaters. i am hoping this will be the biggest baby boomer movie at the theaters. [applause] >> go see it in the theaters with an audience that has the experience. you can always watch it on

streaming later on. the abc movie of the week. and >> if the business does well there will be moral movies like this. >> that's the idea anyway. go see it and tell your friends about it. don't take my word for it. tell your friends about it because you your self have an opinion of it whether you liked it or not and i think you will. i'm very proud of it. i think we all are. it has been the honor of my life and it has become my favorite movie i ever made. my but at the right stuff was my favorite movie before this. [applause] >> the honor of being able to spend my time thinking about reagan every day is the honor

of my life. so thank you so much. [applause] >> can't think of a better note to end on. thank you for spending your time with us. [applause] >> nonfiction book lovers, c-span has a number of podcasts for you. listen to best-selling nonfiction authors and influential interviewers on the "after words" podcast and on q and a, here wide-ranging conversations with nonfiction and others and others who are making things happen. book notes plus episodes i weekly hour-long conversations that regularly feature fascinating authors of nonfiction books on a wide variety of topics. the about books podcast takes you behind the scenes of the nonfiction book publishing industry with insider interviews, and bestsellers lists. find all of our podcasts by downloading the free c-span now apps or wherever you get your

podcasts and on our