Actor Will Ferrell is set to play Ronald Reagan, America’s 40th president, in the upcoming comedy called “Reagan,” and Reagan’s daughter, Patti Davis, is none too pleased with the announcement.
Davis wrote an open letter to Ferrell on April 28 about her disapproval of the actor playing her father in his later years during the time he suffered with Alzheimer’s.
The upcoming comedy is written by Mike Rosolio and is about an intern who’s tasked with convincing Reagan that he’s an actor playing the president in a movie, according to Time.
However, Davis feels that it is a total mockery.
“Perhaps you have managed to retain some ignorance about Alzheimer’s and other versions of dementia,” Davis wrote in a letter published online at the Daily Beast. “Perhaps if you knew more, you would not find the subject humorous.”
“Alzheimer’s doesn’t care if you are President of the United States or a dockworker. It steals what is most precious to a human being—memories, connections, the familiar landmarks of a lifetime that we all come to rely on to hold our place secure in this world and keep us linked to those we have come to know and love.”
Davis then recalled how difficult it was for her over the course of years.
“I watched helplessly as he reached for memories, for words, that were suddenly out of reach and moving farther away.
“For ten long years he drifted—past the memories that marked his life, past all that was familiar … and mercifully, finally past the fear. There was laughter in those years, but there was never humor.”
Friends Read Free