Penelope Ann Miller Talks Playing Nancy Reagan in 'Reagan' Film

For Penelope Ann Miller, who has had an extensive film career for the past 40 years, there was definitely a discovery process stepping into the role of Nancy Reagan opposite Dennis Quaid’s Ronald Reagan in the biopic of the former president, Reagan.

“A lot of people’s image of her, including my own, was of this very sort of stoic, maybe slightly icy, just not warm or funny type,” she says with a smile in an exclusive interview with Woman’s World. “She had a very protective shield and you don’t think of her as an approachable person. Maybe cold. Those were the images I had in my mind.”

Images that gradually evolved through the research process, allowing her to discover an entirely different side to the former First Lady and the depth of the connection between she and her husband.

“There’s was an incredible love story between Ronnie and Nancy that I found,” Miller explains. “Really fascinating and interesting and unusual, in a good way. And that her friendships were very real, that she was very loyal and really cared about the people that she cared about, mainly her husband. She was fiercely protective of him. But she also had a playful side.”

Which, Miller learned, was allowed to shine by the fact that Ronald Reagan was actually a charming, disarming guy, bringing out her playful, giddy persona. “She obviously laughed at his jokes and loved his humor,” she says. “There was [also] that warmer and vulnerable side. She was vilified in the White House a lot and called the Dragon Lady and all of this stuff, and that really hurt her a lot, but you wouldn’t know it. She was willing to let him shine—she was the woman behind the man.”

It was, Miller believes, Nancy’s belief in her husband that propelled him to become the governor of California and later President of the United States, fueling him with the strength and confidence that he needed to accomplish those goals. All of which led the actress, after having filmed Reagan, to feel much greater admiration and respect for her on-screen alter-ego, with a greater understanding of why so much of the Reagan-era is held in such nostalgic high regard.

“We have a 98% approval rating from audiences,” points out Miller, “because it doesn’t matter what political side you’re on, or even if you’re a young person who doesn’t remember the Reagans or didn't live through those years. There's something incredibly nostalgic about those Reagan years, whether you even liked him or not. I mean, I grew up during the Reagan years and my family was Democrat, liberal, the whole thing. And yet I remember living through those times and having a great childhood. I have such great memories of those days.

“And I think to go back there and say, ‘Wow, look at what America was like,’ and the person running our country was very well-spoken. He was a great communicator. He was charming, he was funny. He was able to cross the aisle, and people could interact and have a dialogue and talk to each other. It wasn't so divisive. So, I think that's another takeaway.”

Reagan, she emphasizes, is about us; about a culture and a time in this country that she believes people desperately want to get back to. “Maybe there’s faith that we can get back there,” muses Miller. “I think we all desperately want to. I think that’s why this movie has hit such a nerve in audiences young and old, because they feel that sort of patriotism and they see him like a father figure in some ways or this leader who was able to handle it all with a lot of grace.”

A genuine highlight of the film for Miller was working opposite Dennis Quaid, his Ronald Reagan to her Nancy, the two of them generating a natural chemistry.

“It was very important to that story, and I hope we did them justice,” she closes. “I hope they’re looking down on us from heaven and are proud of what we did, because the story has never been told. You want to do them justice and for the people that know them, cared about them and live through them, you want to do it justice. I hope we did.”

Reagan is still in theaters, but it will be available for digital download on October 15, video on demand on November 1st and then on Blu-ray November 19.

PENELOPE ANN MILLER QUICK FACTS

• She had a recurring role on the television series Men of a Certain Age (2009 to 2011)

• A friend of Elisabeth Shue, her second film role was in the comedy Adventures in Babysitting (1987) 

• Miller played the girlfriend of Al Pacino in Carlito’s Way (1993) 

• Matthew Broderick was her co-star in Neil Simon’s Biloxi Blues in 1988

• Some of her other movie credits include the horror film Relic (1997), Along Came a Spider (2001), The Artist (2011) and The Birth of a Nation (2016) 

• She attended Menlo College and studied theater at HB Studio

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