Conservatives less than thrilled by Will Ferrell playing Reagan with dementia
Actor Will Ferrell will portray Reagan as a dementia-stricken old man in a satirical biopic.
Will Ferrell is taking another swing at impersonating a Republican president.
The actor, who spent a good chunk of his time on SNL playing President George W. Bush, has signed on to play Ronald Reagan in a satiric film called "Reagan," Variety reported Wednesday.
Specifically, he's portraying late-career Reagan as an old man afflicted with Alzheimer's and rapidly descending into dementia. In the script, an ambitious intern is tasked with convincing the commander-in-chief that he's an actor playing the president.
The screenplay was written by Mike Rosolio and got a lot of buzz when it landed on the Black List, an annual rundown of the best unproduced movie scripts. It was so popular that a live reading was staged in March, starring Lena Dunham, John Cho, Paul Scheer and Josh Brolin, who played the former president.
As you might imagine, conservatives are unhappy about the prospect of the later career of one of the Republican party's icons getting played for laughs.
Ronald Reagan's son Michael took to Twitter on Wednesday afternoon to blast the concept.
Reagan's daughter, Patti Davis, published an open letter on her website criticizing Ferrell for making fun of the disease.
"Alzheimer’s is the ultimate pirate, pillaging a person’s life and leaving an empty landscape behind," she wrote. "Perhaps you would like to explain to them how this disease is suitable material for a comedy."
Conservative talk radio host and former Republican congressman Joe Walsh wasn't thrilled about it either.
Amy Lutz of the Young America's Foundation, which runs Rancho del Cielo (the Reagan Ranch) in Santa Barbara, said she attended the live reading of the movie and described it to conservative website The Blaze as "detached from reality": Reagan is depicted "as a caricature that college professors often paint of him ... a bumbling, forgetful man, wrestling in the throes of Alzheimer’s and beholden to ‘devious’ advisors."
The movie is currently in the very early stages of production: It doesn't have a director and is still being shopped to movie studios. Will Ferrell will produce it along with Gary Sanchez Productions.
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