Reagan Interview: Jon Voight on Playing a KGB Agent in Biopic

in this movie you're playing a KGB officer Victor um kind of a two-part question for you first of all I'm curious kind of what Drew you to the character what kind of appealed to you about him and secondly um Victor's based on a real person I'm curious did you have to do any kind of like research for this movie to look into what the real life Victor was like and anything like that well I I I did a lot of research but I didn't do any Research into the specific fellow Victor but I did a lot of research into uh some people who were associated with the Soviet Union and there's a fellow primarily uh that I took a real close look at was named Yuri bezmenov who was a former spy for the Soviet Union and came to the United States and warned us about what was going on uh that there was a a planned takeover from within that the the people in the United States would be attacked with with uh propaganda from an early age and in different places the the um there would be focused to take over education system the Press uh Hollywood all of this this plan you know that they had and they had a like a three-part plan and the first part was uh like 20 year a 20-year plan so and it and it took root and we're experiencing the results of that today in our universities you can see they they have a very high opinion of socialism which is and communism is the next step and this kind of tyranny is not looked on as a danger but that's what the kids are are are ingesting and this anti-Semitism that came forth is a product of propaganda too these kids are not given the right attitude toward many things and not given information and attitude proper positive attitude about our country which is a great country our country is founded on the most extraordinary principles and uh when we get away from them we get into trouble sure gotcha um I'm curious kind of also in your preparation for this role you have a Russian accent in the movie I do yeah oh my God surprise um how did you kind of go about developing that was that a challenge at all did you have to like work with well you know I I I I think of myself as pretty good with accents and and I and I do like to change myself physically too so those aspects of my enthusiasm are taken care of with this character because I have to do that you know uh I have to play myself older and then I have to play myself 35 years younger y so uh um so then you'd say well thank God for CGI but I did most of it just through makeup with a very talented makeup followed by name is Scott wheeler uh and I hope he gets the word that I said this on television to you I will put that in the interview but but a really good guy yeah it looked great too I that's it didn't even look like CGI at all it looked like makeup everything I thought it was awesome it is it is mostly makeup yeah yeah um so you're working with director Sean mcara again and I know you just worked with him not too long ago on the dangerous game movie what was it like to kind of retam not only with him but you're doing something that's totally different totally different kind of movie well we were very fortunate to have Shawn mcnamar as our director because not only have I worked with him but Dennis has worked with him and we know that he's very flexible and uh and very professional I mean he knows everything about the camera and and he's he keeps a positive attitude we were we were facing uh shooting in times of covid when you would have to the set would have to close down if anyone got Co well we have a huge crew you know and if one of them got sick that would be it we'd have to be take 10 days off or whatever do you see so we were on and off all the time during that and it really slowed down our our process but also interfered with the pace of the piece you know and uh and and nothing bothered Shawn Shawn was uh always positive on the set everything you know what I mean he just took the took the uh blows as they came and and just kept moving and uh we all you know picked up some of that energy that positive energy too uh because of him but anyway there there was um the there was a lot to there was a lot to do in this film and and and Shawn was the kind of guy that that really has a tremendous energy can you know nothing seems to stop him and he's interested in everything and can read everything and get along with people it was a we were very fortunate sure yeah definitely it sounds sounds like it was probably challenging but think he came together well he would always say at the end of every take you know when he liked to take he say brilliant there you go brilliant and you felt so good really it was that good [Music]