Outspoken Trump critic Jeff Daniels has taken on the role of the president’s favorite president.
Daniels, 71, plays Ronald Reagan, whom Trump declared was his favorite growing up, in the new trailer for The Brink of War. The film will be released by the controversial “values-based” production company Angel Studios.
In the trailer, Daniels plays the 40th President at the height of the Cold War, during the 1986 nuclear summit with Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev, played by Chernobyl star Jared Harris. The Brink of War is Daniels’ first film role since 2020.
The project appears to mark a sharp redirection for the Emmy winner, who has been a vocal critic of President Trump, 79, and the Republican Party at large for more than a decade.
The Dumb and Dumber star has repeatedly appeared on networks like MSNBC to criticize the president.
In October, Daniels played a song he wrote in support of the No Kings protests, aimed at Trump. In a 2019 interview with the network, Daniels lashed out at “worthless” Republicans who were enabling the MAGA president. He said at the time that a second Trump term would be “the end of democracy.”
“You are all worthless to me right now. I need people to stand up and be heroic. Who are you? Because democracy is at stake,” the Newsroom actor said of Republican congressmen afraid to take a stand against the president.
In joining Angel Studios, Daniels works for a production company whose “value-based” films are frequently praised by right-wing pundits.
The Utah-based studio has drawn controversy for pushing conservative and Christian ideals in its programming, including the libertarian-focused kids’ show Tuttle Twins. Its top-grossing film, Sound of Freedom, fueled QAnon conspiracy theories that dramatically overinflated the statistics of child sex trafficking.
The film earned more than $250 million at the box office from a crowd-funded budget of $5 million. Trump even hosted a special screening of the film at the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey.
Daniels joins a growing list of A-listers to star in an Angel Studios production, including Mark Hamill, Oscar Isaac, Uma Thurman, Tommy Lee Jones, and Owen Wilson, among others. Many of these actors have also been vocal critics of the president and his party.
According to its mission statement, Angel Studios creates films that “amplify” its “North Star,” which it describes as “true, honest, noble, just, authentic, lovely, admirable, and excellent.”
The studio funds and chooses its films through equity crowdfunding, sourced from everyday citizens. The Angel Guild promises funders an average return of 120 percent of their original investment.
The studio also announced the release of Andy Serkis’ Animal Farm, an origin story for Hershey chocolate, and a biblical epic from the controversial director and lead actor of Sound of Freedom.
