When I was offered the role of Ronald Reagan’s longtime confidant Edwin Meese in the upcoming film “Reagan,” playing opposite Dennis Quaid as the 40th president, I was excited.
I asked our producer, Mark Joseph, if it would be all right if I reached out to Meese and he replied, “We can set that up.” I was pleasantly surprised and immediately started to prepare my questions for the interview.
The outcome was that Reagan’s former counselor and U.S. attorney general spent an hour with me on a Zoom session. His insights were helpful and as I prepared myself for the role, I read as much as I could about him from both fans and detractors and watched any YouTube videos I could find.
It was particularly interesting to gain Meese’s perspective on events that I previously only had read about. Even more interesting were the small adjustments in his…