Dennis Quaid: ‘I Have a Personal Relationship With’ Jesus
By Movieguide® Contributor
REAGAN actor Dennis Quaid recently joined Pastor Greg Laurie at the 2024 Harvest Crusade to share how his faith impacts his life.
“The most important thing is to be authentic,” Quaid began. “I’m a Christian. That’s who I am…I have a personal relationship with [Jesus].”
The crusade packed out Angel Stadium, and Quaid could feel the Holy Spirit among the 50,000 people who attended.
“I could feel right now in this big stadium — can’t you feel the Holy Spirit right here, right now?” he said.
Quaid and Laurie continued to discuss the actor’s faith, specifically his role in I CAN ONLY IMAGINE, “a 2018 biopic about Bart Millard, lead singer of Mercy Me. Quaid portrays Millard’s late father, who was abusive before finding Christ and reconciling with his son,” per Faithwire.
Laurie felt Quaid should have been nominated for an Academy Award, however, Quaid is pleased with the outcome.
“I got all the accolades I needed for that…that’s the accolades that I really love,” Quaid explained. “I can see it in people’s eyes. I can feel it in their hearts.”
Quaid’s next movie, REAGAN, releases next month, but the actor almost turned down the role when he was offered it six years ago.
“I didn’t say no, and I didn’t say yes because, really, fear,” Quaid told Fox News. “Reagan was my favorite president personally, and he was also such a recognizable figure around the world, sort of like Muhammad Ali…It was about feeling like I was going to be judged and feeling unworthy. He was the great communicator and all that. But I didn’t want to do an impersonation of him. I wanted to really kind of get to the core of who he was as a person. So, I put off saying yes.”
Movieguide® recently reported on Quaid’s preparations for REAGAN:
“It was a very daunting role for me…I voted for him,” Quaid told Crosswalk Headlines. “But I didn’t want it to just be a love letter, either. You always want to try to get to who he was. It was a very interesting journey in playing that role. In a way, the great communicator was kind of unknowable, to even the people who knew him, who were in his world. I think Nancy was the only person who really knew him. There was a very private side to him.”
Quaid was given roughly a year to prepare after being offered the role. He spent that time going deep into the history of Reagan’s life, trying to get a feeling for the qualities that were not always seen by the public. Quaid also spent this period getting to know Reagan’s childhood and his time in Hollywood along with his political career.
Ultimately, Quaid hopes the film will unite Americans.
“We’ve got to get to a place in this country where we could talk to each other across the aisle…because we need each other,” he explained. “Republicans, Democrats, we need each other. We keep each other from going out too far this way or that, and we’re all Americans.”
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