How Clint Eastwood inspired me to write ‘Reagan’ for Hollywood

Clint Eastwood told me the secret to his success On the set of “Space Cowboys” in 1999. It was my first studio film, and he was kind enough to let me stay with him and watch him make the script he had written. For a new Hollywood writer, it was a life-changing experience, and I would ask the master filmmaker questions like these whenever I had the chance.

“Easy,” he shrugged in typical Eastwoodian fashion. “Find the best people, give them a mission, then get out of their way so they can do the job.”

His advice was all too familiar. Ronald Reagan’s life is famous By similar words:

‘Reagan’ movie exceeds box office expectations in opening weekend

“If a man does not care who gets the credit, there is no limit to what he can do or how far he can go.”

Twenty-five years later, I saw Dennis Quaid on the big screen, The 40th president lives again In “Reagan,” the movie I had the privilege of writing. And I think about both of these iconic men; one I worked with, one I never met. How their words and their work have inspired, influenced and impacted my own words and work, and my life.

My relationship with Reagan was a difficult one. I am the son of a Kennedy Democrat. As a teenager, I worked on Jimmy Carter’s 1976 and 1980 campaigns, and like many in our (diminished) United States at the time, I dismissed the Republican man as an “amiable fool” who had been a “B-movie actor,” as was widely reported. I never actually listened to him, or bothered to fact-check these claims.

They were completely wrong. He was in fact a critically acclaimed A-list movie star in his time, a very good governor of California, had a high IQ that was brilliantly disguised with a modest, self-deprecating wit. And a better writer than me, I discovered after studying his speeches, essays and books for 14 years.

I didn’t know any of that back then, and I didn’t care. That was on the “other side.”

Then on March 30, 1981, six weeks into his presidency, he was shot. And none of that mattered anymore. The world stood stunned while our new president lay at death’s door with a bullet wound just centimeters from his heart. That was all that mattered.

As they were taking him into surgery, he whispered to the doctors, “I sincerely hope you’re all Republicans.”

“Today, Mr. President,” the chief surgeon replied, “we are all Republicans.”

In the middle of that night, Reagan opened his eyes and saw his political enemy, Democratic Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill, watching him. There were no sides anymore. Just two friends. They prayed and read the 23rd Psalm together.

Dennis Quaid and Ronald Reagan (Getty Images)

Six weeks later, when the Sergeant at Arms of Congress shouted, “Mr. Speaker, President of the United States!”, both sides—both sides!—stood in the aisle. When he stood with them again, they cheered, laughed, and cried for ten minutes.

Thousands of miles away in my college dorm room, I cheered, laughed, and cried just like the rest of America. Even if only for a short while, the cynicism, prejudice, and bitterness that defined our generation had melted away. We were a family again.

And Ronald Reagan attracted me just by greeting me.

On the set of “Reagan,” we would often joke when something went wrong – which is almost a daily occurrence in filmmaking. “Hey guys! We have to save a country!” It always caused a laugh.

Funny. It doesn’t seem like fun anymore.

Now, of course, a movie can’t save a country, and our movie doesn’t pretend to do so. But it’s fair to say that there’s a growing feeling all around that a little relief for our families wouldn’t be a bad thing.

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From day one of this film, it has been the deep desire of all of us making it that the story of this real, flesh-and-blood human being’s life, filled with the mistakes and failures common to all of us, would at least begin to erase the lines that divide us, and take us back to something like that night in 1981. And maybe play a small role in the long-awaited healing of some wounds.

I never had the chance to ask Mr. Reagan the secret to his success. But I think, having lived, breathed, thought and written about my main character these past 14 years, I know what his answer would be. It wasn’t charisma, policies, smarts or even luck. He had them all, though.

Dennis Quaid and Penelope Ann Miller star as Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan. (Rob Batzdorf/Rawhide Pictures)

I believe the reason we remember and honor this man and his times is love.

Ronald Reagan loved people, even those who disagreed with him. He loved his family, and of course Nancy. He loved God. And he loved his country.

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That’s what we all felt that night. Love.

And hopefully, after watching this film, this American family will be able to feel like that again.