Actor Dennis Quaid admitted Thursday that his roommate declared him “kicked out of the hippies” when he learned he had voted for former President Ronald Reagan.
Quaid joined ABC’s “The View” to promote his upcoming film about the former actor-turned-president, and he revealed that he was drawn to the project because Reagan was one of his favorite presidents. (RELATED: Dennis Quaid Slams ‘Cancel Culture Media’ After Coronavirus PSA Becomes ‘Politicized’)
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Meghan McCain brought up the Reagan film, noting that he was one of his favorite presidents and asking Quaid what it was like to take on that role.
“What drew you to him and how does this movie look at his life and was it difficult to play, I mean, such an icon, someone who is just, you know, beloved and really respected in a way, you know, that is iconic?” McCain asked.
“He was my favorite president of the 20th century,” Quaid replied. “I voted for him — first time I voted for him was the 1980 election and I came home and my roommate, who was kind of a rebel, said, ‘Who did you vote for?’ I said, ‘Reagan’. He said, ‘You are kicked out of the hippies.’ That was it.”
Quaid went on to say that Reagan had been the kind of leader who could truly speak to both parties.
“I heard Whoopi say he inspired a generation of Republicans. There were a lot of what they used to call Reagan Democrats who voted for him … He was a unifier in so many ways, of this country,” Quaid continued. “He brought us back from — we were going down a road that was — America was going downhill, and he made us feel good about being Americans again.”
After a short preview of the film, Joy Behar pointed out that a lot of the filming had been done on location at the Reagan Ranch in California.
“Yes, it was, wow, what a feeling to be up there, it’s not a tourist spot,” Quaid replied, noting that friends of the Reagans had bought the property after the former president passed away and had kept everything just as it had always been.
“Ron and Nancy’s clothes are in the closet and you expect them to be coming back at any second,” Quaid continued. “One thing I realized from going up there is Reagan was a very humble man, actually. He was not a rich man. They had a king-sized bed but it was two single beds that were strapped together with zip ties and the house is a small house, basically, a one-bedroom house with no guest house and they still had the television remote from the ‘70s that goes ‘kaprong, kaprong’ when you change it, with a handwritten note from Nancy on how to use it with the two-channel changers you had to operate a TV back then.”
Quaid also mentioned Reagan’s library, which he said contained every book he had kept even from childhood that had inspired him throughout his life.
“This is where Gorbachev had come and where the Queen of England had come, up that five-mile bumpy road to pay their respects,” he said.