went from a local theater in chicago to nationally recognized theater. when you do a play in new york, you get reviewed by the new york times, and international publications, so all of a sudden we went from something small to something a little bit bigger, and i was recognized as somebody who s, you know, can direct and that started the next series of events for us. but then i went out to california. mark: the rest is history. let me ask you about this. i don t even know if this is a fair question. what is your favorite movie that you were in? everybody knows your main movies. but what would you say for you, the most challenging role, the most fulfilling role? well, fulfilling, there s a bunch of them. most mark: i ll give you mine, one of mine. okay.
mark: and this is almost counterintuitive because you know i m pro cop. ransom. you scared the hell out of me in that movie. the cop run amok. mark: the cop run amok, that was a scary movie. it was really, really well directed by ron howard. very tense thriller. i originally didn t not want to play that part, ron asked me to do it, and i just couldn t see myself doing it. i had small children, it s about a guy who takes a child, and i just hated the character when i read it. i kind of passed on it and then it came around again and i took it, and then it was fun to be evil, fun to be the bad guy and, of course, i get paid back in the end of the movie. mark: right. that was a good one, certainly. i think forrest gump was a life changing film in many ways. veterans work and i hadn t done that many movies when did that. mark: you hit a point right there.
work for the foundation, to help support our fund-raising, our events activities, our awareness raising campaigns, all the different things we re trying to do to keep people focused on the freedom providers. we can never take for granted what they do for us. mark: you give concerts now, your band, is that correct? well, my band, i started doing uso tours, i would just go overseas and shake hands and take pictures and just sit down with the troops like this and have lunch with them, i just wanted them to know that somebody from the entertainment business, you know, who they saw on television or movies, was thinking about them. and came over there to say thanks and to make sure that they were you know, felt appreciated and supported, and then i got the uso to let me take musicians on a tour, and i played music as a kid and picked it up again in the late
were doing. and he made a movie called brothers at war and won the best documentary feature that year, and he s actually doing a lookback now. he s doing a fund-raising campaign and he s going to kind of look at brothers at war and the people that were featured in it ten years later and follow up. mark: that s great that there is this creative pushback, it was very much necessary. we ll be right back. coppertone sport. proven to protect street skaters and freestylers. stops up to 97% uv. lasts through heat. through sweat. coppertone. proven to protect. so let s promote our summer travel deal on choicehotels.com like this. surfs up. earn a $50 gift card when you stay just twice this summer. or, badda book. badda boom. book now at choicehotels.com
mark: and you ve pretty much moved on to what is your passion. the troops, the police, the firefighters, the vets. before we get into that, does that mean you are forever abandoning acting? no, no, i can t say that. i m going to do a small part this sumner a film that a director is doing that i wanted to work with, very small part. but it s in hawaii, so i m going to go there. mark: do you have another part? i ll come with you. [ laughter ] but your real focus now is on the other, correct? yes. yeah. mark: and you and is that a determination you made or this just sort of came about or some point in your life you said i really want to focus on my foundational activity and so forth and so on and can do a little bit of acting but can t do a whole lot of both? well, there s a blessing that i ve had which is some