Penelope Ann Miller, Dennis Quaid wanted authentic 'Reagan,' not 'SNL' parody

NEW YORK, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- Penelope Ann Miller and Dennis Quaid say they worked hard to capture the essence of Nancy and Ronald Reagan, not simply mimic the former first couple of the United States, in the new big-screen biopic, Reagan.

Opening in theaters on Friday, the film follows Ronald from the time he was raised as a boy in Illinois through his colorful life and careers as a lifeguard, sports broadcaster, U.S. Army soldier, movie star, Screen Actors Guild president, governor of California and eventual 40th American president, who died in 2004 at the age of 93.

Nancy (nee Davis) Reagan was an actress and Ronald's beloved and trusted second wife. She died in 2016 at the age of 94.

"It was a daunting task to take on these really iconic figures," Miller, 60, told UPI in a recent Zoom interview.

"We didn't want to do an impersonation, like a Saturday Night Life skit," she said. "In characterization, we wanted to make them real and human, flaws and all, multi-layered people."

Miller -- whose credits include Biloxi Blues, Adventures in Babysitting, The Freshman, Chaplin, Carlito's Way, Riverdale and Dahmer -- said she did an enormous amount of research to prepare to play Nancy Reagan.

"I read her autobiography, which I carried around the set, which is all now torn-up and dog-eared, but I wanted to capture her essence, and I feel like I owed it to her -- as a human being who lived in this world -- to honor her legacy, good, bad or indifferent," Miller said. "I wasn't going to judge her. I was going to be her."

Quaid, 70, is renowned for his portrayal of historical and cultural figures such as aerospace engineer Gordo Cooper in The Right Stuff, rock 'n' roll pioneer Jerry Lee Lewis in Great Balls of Fire, Doc Holliday in Wyatt Earp and U.S. President Bill Clinton in The Special Relationship.

"I try to play real people from their point of view, and it's very important to me," Quaid said. "It's a responsibility."

The actor also said he wanted to get under the surface and show sides of Ronald Reagan that some people might not know existed.

"Within Reagan, was a very private place that I heard from everyone who knew him. The great communicator had this very private wall [that] I think was only opened up with Nancy," Quaid added.

"She even talked about how it was hard to penetrate his private persona," Miller chimed in.

Miller thinks it was Nancy's belief in her husband's greater purpose that helped him navigate treacherous geopolitical waters during his two terms as a Republican president of the 1980s.

"He trusted Nancy the most. I think this love story in this movie is really beautiful to watch and to see evolve. As they grew in age, their love just continued to get stronger and stronger, and I think it's what made him the man he was,"Miller said.

"She really believed in him and was willing to do whatever she could to [back him up]."

Asked why this is a good time for this film to be released, Quaid laughed and quipped, "It's an election year!"

Miller said it was "very, very, very strange" that this movie was filmed almost four years ago and will finally hit theaters just as former President Donald Trump and current Vice President Kamala Harris are competing for top office of the United States.

"The movie's not political," Quaid said, to which Miller agreed, "We didn't want it to have an agenda."

"It's about a man's life and the love story between [him and his wife], as well," Quaid added. "But, then again, it comes out now, and, so, what do I know. There's a lot of interest in it."

Miller emphasized the film's cast didn't have anything to do with the release date.

"There's some people who are like, 'Perfect timing, perfect timing.' A lot of people, actually, I've heard that from," she said. "But I think, in a way, maybe it's just the time that people need to see a story about what it was like in the 1980s."

The film also shows Ronald Reagan -- who was a Democrat for decades before he became a Republican -- as a symbol of the era's concepts of freedom, confidence and optimism.

"If you see this movie, you could see and feel what this country was like back then and what it still can be, by the way," Quaid said.

"People could talk to each other [then]," Miller added.

"They could be on different sides of the aisle, but they would be able to interact and have a dialogue and we have to get back to that," she said. "It's so divisive and so negative. Hopefully, people can get back to being able to say your opinion. It's my opinion, but, at the end of the day, we're human beings and we care about [each other]."