Martin Sheen & Melissa Fitzgerald on Morning Joe - 8.19.24

and you can help lift up this nation and all its people to that place where the heart is without fear and the head is held high where knowledge is free where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls where words come out from truth and tireless striving stretches its arms towards Perfection with a clear stream of Reason has not lost its way into the dreary Desert Sands of dead habit where the mind is Led forward by thee into ever widening thought and action into that heaven of Freedom dear father let our country awake thank you dear father let our country awake that was Emy awardwinning actor Martin Sheen in Washington DC this past weekend reprising his role as President Jed bar from the hit TV show The West Wing that presidential sermon took place at an event for the new book in which Sheen figures prominently titled What's Next a backstage pass to The West Wing its cast and crew and its enduring Legacy of service and Martin joins us now along with the co-author of what's next Melissa Fitzgerald she appeared in all seven seasons of The West Wing as Carol Fitzpatrick an assistant to the fictional administration's press secretary CJ Greg thank you all both so much for being with us Martin it's always such a tremendous honor having you here and uh so moving uh when you said dear father LED our country awake I I want you if you could talk to us about this his historic time this this troubling time that we find ourselves passing through as a nation well first of all thank you so much for inviting us to come and and be part of the show at this historic time truly uh the words that you played earlier that I did at the synagogue Saturday night were not mine or Aon sorin uh but were from the Indian po Laureate Ramen donth tagor he was one of the uh great poets from India and I learned that poem many years ago while I was working in India but they are so appropriate so that whenever I speak in public I always whatever remarks uh I'm giving to whomever I'm giving them to with that poem so I'm glad you played that yeah uh yeah I think that you know clearly there is a ground swell in the country uh I'm thinking back to uh Reagan's uh first run when he said it's uh it's a new morning in America and he called America The Shining City on a Hill that's the New Jerusalem from the from the Old Testament and that's what's happening in the whole country right now and it's so rewarding and so refreshing and so exciting to have joy back in our political uh uh life and our our conversation Martin uh i' I've been a real fan of the show in fact I have on my uh uh traveling uh iPad all the seasons I watch it over and over it prepared me for when I started having access when President Obama I almost knew the rooms from watching the show yo so wow I'm asking you this when you decided not to run uh again because of in the show health reasons and then we saw President Biden uh take a real Statesman position and not run again uh this time both of you deferring uh one fictional one in reality uh and supporting a person of color for the first time becoming president in the in the script's case a Latina in this case a a black black uh Asian woman did you think of any of the parallels when you heard what Biden would do and and where we are as a country now dealing with something that in fiction you had to get people to adjust to and we are adjusting to in reality that we're talking about a woman and a woman of color for the first time in American history well when we were doing the show we we filmed that in our last season uh in 2006 and so we had no idea what was what was in store but the show has always been relevant since we began in 1999 and it's still relevant today to a lot of new viewers that are that are finding it uh on uh streaming uh on various networks and so it's still a source of inspiration and there are so many areas not just you know this the historic time we're living through with the transfer of power the passing of torch uh to a younger more vibrant candidate in this case vice president Harris but um there they you know somebody said this the other day when we were at the White House that with the possible exception of Jimmy Carter no president in our lifetime has ever made a more courageous patriotic and and and and selfless uh decision and you're going to see a ground swell tonight of course at the convention that that phrase thank you Joe is going to be resounding throughout the nation throughout the world thank you from a Grateful Nation from a grateful World your courage uh your Insight and your laying aside your personal uh ambition to the country to the people and his legacy has grown enormously so we had a chance to thank him in person and uh gosh I'm just Tongue Tied even talking about him even though I'm a windbag but oh no uh Melissa um in the book you talk talk about the show's overarching message and you write in part this from the start a commitment to service was in the bones of the westwing in its DNA it was the ethos of a show designed to be in the words of Creator Aaron sorin a love letter to public service that said you can't get people interested in service if they're not watching as Aaron has sold countless journalists countless times it was an hour a week devoted telling good stories but between the smart interwoven narratives the periodic flourishes of workplace romance and the back and forth Banner Erin also managed to offer up a weekly Civics case study one Lac with inspiration a robust Spence sense of patriotic optimism and a bold ambition too on top of all this his story seemed to steer the conversation toward the better angels of our nature and I'm reminded of Bobby Kennedy saying that public service is an honorable profession and that really is in the DNA of the westwing isn't it it absolutely is and it's in the DNA of our book what's next and it's part of what inspired us to do the book the way we did it too it is a fun fan book with behind the scenes insights and stories that I think you could won't get anywhere else but but really it it also ties in the service our friendships we're really a family and our friendships have been strengthened over the years and inspired by Martin's March towards social justice for sure but we are all on a text chain together we come together to support each other's issues and causes every single day and in the book we really lay out all the different issues and causes that the actors care about and there are ways that people can support them because the West was a love letter to public service and what's next is a love letter to the westwing the army of people it took to make it the fans who loved it and the people who were inspired by it and you know we all know so many young public servants who have been inspired to go and live this life because of the westwing and I can think of nothing that makes us feel better than to see that people who are here to do the most good for the most people Melissa as you look at uh Kareem jeanpier now and think of the character of CJ do you have any type of uh ways that you identify feel that they are treated her unfair as press secretary at the White House and and and look at some of what CJ as a character had to deal with back and forth with journalist uh during the the The West Wing shows absolutely I I've seen a many parallels and she's done a phenomenal job I think um and I would have loved to have worked for her too yeah I think she's gonna keep her job by the way I think she should yeah I I think so Martin finally I just want to ask you a general question um you know I am uh I'm an optimist I remain an optimist sometimes my wife asks me why am so optimistic but I am I am I believe you know Paul McCartney had a quote one time when they asked why he was optimistic he goes well you know I look around and in the end I think we got him outnumbered the good guys got him outnumbered I look I look though at you and I look at your faith I look at your life and I just sense that you have this this Inner Light this inner optimism that sees the best in people that sees the best in our country and sees the promise of America talk about that well you mentioned that Paul McCartney there was another Englishman before him uh that during the uh the worst part of the Nazi Blitz on London uh Mr churchi was always upbeat no matter what and after a particularly horrific bombardment uh he was still upbeat one of his AIDS said uh excuse me sir but how under the circumstances can you be so optimistic and he said under the circumstance what's the alternative exactly we don't have we really don't have any choice we're either going to turn the light on or you know live in the darkness I'd rather live in the darkness sometimes you're a Target and sometimes you're a lighthouse so I choose to be a lighthouse but I I I agree completely what other choice do we have the new book what's next a backstage pass to the West swing it's cast and crew and its enduring Legacy of services on sale now co-author and westwing actress Melissa Fitzgerald and the westwing actor Martin Shane thank you both so much for being with greatly appreciate it