When I learned from my friend that he would be producing a movie on Ronald Reagan’s life and that he wanted me for the role of Leonid Brezhnev, the leader of the Soviet Union, my ego thought "oh a small cameo," but the artist in me said “yes!“ I was intrigued about playing Brezhnev so even before reading the script, I began my research I found him fascinating, and I wish the film had more in it about him.
As an actor, I never comment on the morality of someone I am to portray. In fact, I may loathe what they stand for. What interests me is to humanize the character and let the audience decide. I prefer nuance to caricature.
Any actor who is serious about a role will do some detective work. Brezhnev, at least as revealed in media accounts, was something of a Romantic. He loved fast cars, and he had a surprising friendship with Richard Nixon.
After Nixon gifted him with a Lincoln Continental in 1973, the two took off for a joyride, much to the panic of the Secret Service.
Brezhnev was all Russian, kissing other political figures. He was wounded in the war when he was younger which later in life lead to his use of painkillers and pills as his health declined. He had a towering political ambition like his predecessors for the Soviet Union and its expansion.
Like all political leaders, many times the bureaucrats slip in their agenda and in his later years they took advantage of Brezhnev's declining health. Thus greatly increasing the Soviet Union’s nuclear forces, brutally put down a revolt in Czechoslovakia in 1968, and unbekownst to Brezhnev invaded Afghanistan in 1979 He also helped the Soviet economy.
Being interested in learning about the man himself, I poured through video and articles and Leonid began to take shape for me.
What I learned about Brezhnev’s friendship with Nixon led me to an even deeper exploration of that relationship.
We always think of the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, as Reagan’s partner, and they did effectively end the Cold War as the Soviet Union dissolved a couple of years later. But had Brezhnev lived beyond 1982, he might have been the one to wind down the communist empire. He and Nixon apparently wanted detente´ and worked toward it until Nixon was forced to resign in 1974 following the Watergate scandal.
Vice President Gerald Ford, who took Nixon’s place, was a kind of placeholder until Jimmy Carter won the 1976 election and took over the White House in 1977. However, Carter did not develop a rapport or working relationship with Brezhnev. It wasn’t until Reagan won the presidency in 1980 that a potentially worthy opponent and working partner for Brezhnev emerged.
Having studied all this, I was very interested in conveying that relationship somehow in “REAGAN.” I got the chance to persuade the film’s producer that there was a mutual understanding between Reagan and the Soviet leader. Reagan had been known since the mid-40s for fighting communism in Hollywood and then the larger world. It would be unlikely that Brezhnev was unaware of Reagan’s strength and purpose and would underestimate him, as the original script indicated.
But I needed some proof, so I found a video of a 1973 summit in San Clemente between Nixon and Brezhnev and showed it to the filmmakers. Near the end, a couple approaches the podium and shakes hands with the Soviet leader. It was Ron and Nancy Reagan, and it made perfect sense for them to be there since he was at the time governor of California.
The scene I was doing for “REAGAN,” which was not set at the California summit, originally had Brezhnev laughing off the possibility of someone like Reagan becoming president and a threat to the Soviet Union. I thought this was unlikely. The filmmakers listened and rewrote the scene.
In 1968, an assassin tried to kill Brezhnev. So, when Reagan was shot in 1981, during a time when Brezhnev and Reagan were trying to arrange a summit, it was likely that Brezhnev called Reagan to commiserate. It was not long afterward that Brezhnev died. He was followed in power by others until Mikhail Gorbachev took over in 1985. After Reagan unveiled the Strategic Defense Initiative anti-missile system, popularly dubbed “Star Wars,” Gorbachev introduced reforms that brought down the Soviet Union in 1991, freeing the Eastern European countries from communism.
Would Brezhnev, had he lived, gone along with this? There is no telling. All we do know is that he respected Reagan as a man of his word, and Reagan promised to win whatever the cost. And he did.
Robert Davi is an award-winning actor, screenwriter, director, producer and jazz vocalist. He is one of the film industry’s most recognized tough guys and has starred in “The Goonies,” “Die Hard,” “License to Kill” and many other movies.
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