On a recent morning in one of those generic high-rise hotels in Buckhead, Dennis Quaid is sporting jeans and a navy jacket, the collar absent-mindedly still turned up behind the neck —- like he'd gotten dressed in a hurry and hadn't looked in the mirror. His fingernails are manicured and very shiny, his skin deeply tanned. Flashing that sly, big-budget smile, he radiates charm; furrowing his brow as he speaks, he's the picture of concentration and determination. He's prepped. He's ready. He comes off as a genuinely nice guy.
He's in Atlanta for a Falcons practice session later in the afternoon, but first he's booked for a couple of media interviews to help promote his new football-as-social-history movie, "The Express."
Set in the late 1950s and early '60s, "The Express" tells the story of Ernie Davis (played by Rob Brown), an all-star half-back at Syracuse University and the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy. (Metro Atlanta resident Justin Martin plays the young Davis.) Quaid portrays the hard-driving coach, Ben Schwartzwalder, who'd also fledged the great Jim Brown —- an arguably stronger player, also black, who'd been controversially bypassed by the Heisman committee.
As he talked about the film, Quaid joked that growing up in Houston he was "too small for high school football, and that pushed me into the drama department."
Q: "The Express" is about adversity and humanity through the lens of college football, but a viewer can't help but be stung anew by the blatant racism of our culture, just a couple of generations back.
A: Yeah, my character, Ben, was part of the status quo, and he followed those unwritten rules of a segregationist society. Today you'd call him a racist. We tried to approach the issues honestly, without varnishing it or make excuses for it.
But [Schwartzwalder] was also one of the first major coaches to actively recruit African-Americans in football —- Jim Brown had been there just before —- and ultimately Schwartzwalder and Davis developed almost a father-son relationship. It's not a story that you can wrap up neatly with a bow tie on top.
Q: Are the politics just as central as the drama?
A: It's not meant to be political, it's human. But it does speak to how far we've come, how we're out of the dark ages. In Texas, I remember the separate restrooms and when blacks had to sit in the balcony. My generation was the first to become aware of it, of the injustice. Now it's subtler where it still exists. We're afraid to offend each other, the fear of the race card being played.
Q: So do you see Hollywood and the arts shaping attitudes, say, by helping overturn lingering racism?
A: Yeah, a movie can help advance a cause, but maybe it helps frame what people are already thinking about. It's got to be more than just a sports movie, or a political movie, if you want people to come see it, it's got to be universal. Now we're coming to the point of having a black president, but there's still a feeling people have of "the other" —- we're not a color-blind country. I don't want to make a film that's strictly timely for today, but one that stands the test of time. This film hits me in an emotional way.
Q: What are those emotions?
A: It hits me in a place that I have no words to describe. It's emotional for me.
Q: OK. You've gotten a lot of attention in the past year for the hospital mistake [a life-threatening dose of an adult blood thinner] with your newborns, speaking out about it and your testimony in Congress.
A: The twins? I'm hesitant to talk about the twins when I'm selling a movie here. Look, it's about medical errors, where 100,000 people die a year from human errors that can be prevented with better labeling [of medicines], better packaging, more training. Too many hospitals are still set up like it's the 1920s. It's getting away from what needs to be talked about. We set up our own foundation. Most people have no idea. It's about informing people what's right, what needs to be done to better society.
About the Author
Keep Reading
The Latest
Featured
