Oscar-winning actor Jon Voight has had (and is still having) a legendary career, starring in numerous classics ranging from emotionally powerful, thought-provoking films like “Coming Home,” “Midnight Cowboy,” and “Deliverance” to Hollywood blockbusters like “Mission Impossible” and “National Treasure.” His latest is the highly anticipated movie “Reagan,” starring Dennis Quaid as the Gipper, and it’s hitting theaters nationwide on August 30.
I was honored to interview him Monday, and I asked about his character, Viktor Petrovich, a composite of several KGB spies, and how that character is used to frame the film. He also spoke about the messages he took from the biopic—and from Ronald Reagan himself.
Watch:
Voight first explained why the KGB would have some young Hollywood actor on its radar during a time when the Cold War was heating up and the threat of another world war loomed over mankind.
VOIGHT: Here’s what happened: the KGB was interested in taking down America. Right? And so they were focused on prospective leadership, right?
It’s like a like a scout going to a high school when they hear about a basketball player that seems to have possibilities to come to their college or whatever. But in this case it’s much more serious stuff.
So they assigned a guy like the character Petrovich in the film to report on what he’s doing, you know, what he’s saying and his influences and how other people see him and all of that stuff. Right—so very thorough.
Reagan was one of the prominent early voices calling out the evil and corruption of the former U.S.S.R.:
VOIGHT: And he became president of the Actors Guild, and he was saying things against Communism, from a young time, you see, and he saw that the unions, the [actor’s] union was being, it was an attempted takeover by Soviet people of the union.
And he fought against it. And that was the time in the ’60s, you know, when the schools were having these riots and stuff like this, all this big leftist stuff that was happening for the first time in our country in these schools… And he confronted them. He was very strong against them.
He went and he said to the dean of the school, he said, “who’s the adult in this room? You’re going to allow these people to damage your school? Who the hell are you if you don’t stand up against this?!”
The president of the college saying, well, we’re negotiating with them. You don’t negotiate with the people who are trying to damage your school! …
…they [the KGB] reported back different things and he [Reagan] escalated into the governorship. And then after that he was touted to run for president. And that’s the way it went.
And and all along the way, this man who I play in the film, kind of spots him and watches his maneuvering and watches his statements and reports them. And then eventually he kind of sees that the guy’s doing the right thing and he’s impressed with him, right?
Related:
There They Go Again: Dennis Quaid Says Facebook Censoring Marketing for Reagan Movie
Dennis Quaid Says He’s Voting for Trump: ‘He’s an A**hole, but He’s My A**hole’
Missing the Gipper: Reagan Foundation’s Moving Commemoration on the 20th Anniversary of His Death
SPOILER ALERT: Stop now if you don’t want to know about plot details.
Voight continued, explaining that over time, Petrovich realized his country was wrong—and the Gipper was right to be fighting against the Dark Empire and battling for our freedom:
VOIGHT: And at the end, he’s very grateful for the fall of the Soviet Union. Because the Soviet Union… for any kids who are watching this program, I say socialism is, is—a disease. It’s a problem. It creates communism, it creates tyranny. It’s an evil. Don’t be so complacent and think it’s something benign.
It’s not. It’s a danger.
It’s that danger, the conservative actor maintains, that still threatens the United States of America and the vision our founding fathers had in mind. Huge swaths of our education system have become cesspools of indoctrination:
VOIGHT: So that’s why I did the film.
So I [would] have some way of reaching people because the kids, our kids, have been attacked by this propaganda. You can see from the way they’ve behaved with Israel—this antisemitism that’s sprung up out of nowhere. Where does it come from?
Well, because these kids have been taught these things against our country. And against Israel, too. That’s where you’re sending your kids—to get these kinds of programmings; people say it, and you don’t listen to them.
That’s what’s going on in the classrooms.
It’s a dire warning, and one we should pay heed to after we watched pro-Hamas zealots overtake numerous campuses in the spring and in the fall of ’23—events we’re likely to see repeated as classes resume around the country this autumn.
As Voight points out, many of our nation’s educational institutions have become hotbeds of socialism, communism, radical gender theory, divisive DEI/social justice activism, and more. We have to continue to speak out against the threat, and Jon Voight deserves a tremendous amount of credit for being one of the few Hollywood heavyweights who isn’t afraid to fight for what’s right.
In the meantime, I’ll be headed to the theaters to watch this movie on August 30, as I bet—and hope—many of you will as well.
