Hollywood, Communism, and Reagan’s Presidency | Jon Voight

joining us on line is the star of the new film Reagan along with Dennis quaade John voy John plays former KGB agent Victor petrovich whose life becomes inextricably linked with Ronald Reagan it's basically through his eyes that you see Reagan story John thanks so much for joining the show really appreciate it it's great to be with you Ben so John why don't you tell me how you first got involved in this project I know this one has been years and years in the making yeah well they came to me a couple of years ago they were this was supposed to come out a year and a half ago I guess but uh but the co hit and and then there was the strike and and then there was some difficulty with getting the CGI right because the it's tough on a on a certain kind of budget you know you have to uh get get everything in place before you go back the CGI so it was pushed back to this date and it's it's a very good thing it was really because it's much more relevant at this time quite amazing ly relevant in in a way because of C certain events that happened so so why don't we talk about the relevance of the film obviously you know there there people like me I was four years old when Ronald Reagan left office obviously I know a fair bit about Reagan because I've read about Reagan but for many voters they they don't know the Ronald Reagan Era they don't know Ronald Reagan's story so this may be their first introduction to Ronald Reagan as a man and as a president why do you think that's so relevant to people today well first of all it's a story of a a good president fellow who really did things quite well and but it shows the it shows the uh the the ups and downs that the uh the real weight of the presidency and how you deal with these serious issues on a daily basis how how does one keep one's head and uh you know make the proper decisions and and just uh you know you're going to go through a a tremendous amount of very serious stuff as a president of the United States and uh this fellow did it with great grace and he's he never took his eye off the ball and uh and and we see how he confronted these very very serious issues uh we also see the people around him most especially his wife Nancy who was almost a partner they had a wonderful love relationship and a wonderful friendship uh and and working relationship too so uh so that that that's part of the story and the movie shows all of this uh the love story is very beautiful and it's a very moving piece uh but also it it gives people a very good perspective on what must be the kind of character you have to have to be president the United States and John one of the fascinating things about your character is obviously because the the movie is done sort of through your Vantage Point as a former KGB agent reviewing the story it's a reminder I think to a lot of Americans who really don't remember the Soviet Union just how evil the Soviet Union was and the size of the enemy that the United States had to take on from from the rise of the Russian Revolution all the way until the fall of the Soviet Union maybe you can talk a little bit about that threat well that threat is still with us and you know a lot of people we're talking about all the damage that's been done by the KGB and and they attack the very uh very very clever really uh attack on our country uh through through the insertion of of people into our society trying to and there's a menu that was explained in a in a book by Ben Carson recently and uh a book that came out in 1958 by a former SP FBI agent who put that put out the menu of the KGB nobody paid much attention to it apparently although it was in the Congressional Record all these things that they intended uh let me give you just a small list they intended to take over the universities they they their intention was to take God out of the schools uh to create dissension between people on based on race based on gender based on age uh to take over both parties both the uh political parties if possible uh uh to uh take over the press to take over Hollywood and uh all of this was laid out and and if you read some of some it's awfully clever they know our situation they know our our society very very well and they know how to damage it so that's what they set out to do as early and it was explain and we were on it or somebody was on it this F FBI agent who wrote This Book uh the naked communist in 1958 we knew about it but we didn't do too we we didn't find our our way to doing too much about it and so we're left when I look at it and I did a lot of research of course to do this role when I see it now I see well they' pretty much accomplished everything but the these were long-term objectives that they had they were they they had a three tier objective to take over the United States and we're at we're we're seeing almost you know they must be amazed that they accomplished so much but then of course Reagan came along and uh dissolved the Soviet Union so that was put on pause but they'd already set it in motion and many many uh you know of the of the villains we see today are standing on those on on that menu right now and and delivering it and John one of the fascinating things about your character obviously again you're playing a former KGB agent who's sort of viewing Reagan's life because you're following him throughout his life from his rise as head of the Screen Actors Guild all the way to the presidency but one of the things I mean you're you're an amazing actor obviously and what that means is that you have to inhabit the part it can't just be a caricature and so there are very few people in the world on planet Earth who have ever thought of themselves as evil while doing evil what did it mean to actually play a KGB agent how did you get yourself into that role well I I I figured that this I visited the Soviet Union at the end you know 1991 when it was falling apart uh and uh I had a great I I had I had a great uh way of connecting with the people because I was working on a film there the first film that they had allowed in to film and we filmed in Moscow and we filmed in Ukraine actually where Chernobyl happened was part of the the Soviet Union at that time and I saw the terrible state of of this communist influence on Russia and I met a lot of the people and and the people were really suffering I would say that communism brings misery this is their basic product uh the people walking in the streets I walked on red square right and people don't look up they wouldn't engage you they wouldn't look in your eyes they were frightened perhaps or just uh sad had and uh and I felt for the people and I got to know a few people and and I said you know this will turn around I said to this woman lovely woman who who SP who spoke English taught English in a Russian school and she was very unhappy with the State of Affairs and was uh explained said to me you know uh this is never going to change John and I said oh no it's going to change you'll see she said no you don't know it'll never change I mean this the S I felt for the people so I I made some friends there you know and they were all in the same boat the same suffering and uh and so I knew what was going on when I played this character I knew this complexity of this character now if he signs on to do this work uh he's he's having to appeal to a lot of people and he has whatever he has of questions of what's going on he has to keep to himself and all of that but uh but this is a young man who is in the Soviet system and when he starts and then he becomes influenced by this person that he's uh he's focused on that he's been given the responsibility of of reporting on the rise of this fellow because they see his talented they see his against communism he's very outspoken and he then he shows some leadership ability so so he he became a future danger perhaps and that's why they assigned people like this fell to uh to to to gauge his progress and and uh report so my my thought was I I think I knew pretty much what was going on in the Soviet Union at that time and I also went to went to school on a on a very um interesting fellow by the name of uh Yuri bz basmanov who was a spy for the Soviet Union and became disturbed by what he saw and and left the Soviet Union became a dissident and wound up in the United States and then because of some conscience he felt he had to explain what was really going on and warn people and you can look him up you know Yuri bezman off uh and and see what his uh his description of what really the Soviet Union was doing in the United States and uh so we've had some warnings but we haven't been able to deal with them as well as we should and now we're in this situation so so anyways a lot of the things we're we're seeing now are are directly responsible to these plans to bring down our country John Voit the movie is Reagan it is out in theaters this weekend go get your ticket John gives a great performance Dennis Quaid gives I think maybe the the best performance of his career in Reagan it really is an astonishing attempt to channel Ronald Reagan and it really it really succeeds John thanks so much for the time and the movie is great congratulations thanks P thank you very much great to Great to talk to you bye are you tired of the lies and the twist of the mainstream media talking points yeah me too join me in my newest series fact where I dismantle and bring truth to this tiring mainstream agenda