Gary Sinise speaks candidly about how his political beliefs have influenced his career in Hollywood.
The actor, best known for his Oscar-nominated role as Lt. Dan in 1994’s Forrest Gump spoke on Friday’s episode of Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace? with Chris Wallace.
Sinise has been open about his political views publicly, even founding Friends of Abe, a conservative group for Hollywood figures, in 2004. He said it was established “in the early days of the Iraq war.”
“I think so much was motivated by … what happened to our Vietnam veterans and the lack of support they received and the way they were treated and then we later regretted it.” , he added. “I didn’t want our Iraq war and Afghanistan veterans to fall victim to things like this. I just wanted to come in and support them. So I started looking for people who were in the same camp as me on this topic. And I’ve found other people in the film and television industries who were happy to get together.”
In 1974, after Sinise graduated from high school, he also founded the Steppenwolf Theater Company in Highland Park, Illinois. It is the same city where a mass shooting took place during an Independence Day parade on July 4, 2022. The actor told Wallace that he lived a few blocks from where it was held and actually attended the parade as a kid.
The actor has been outspoken about his support for the Second Amendment, and when addressing gun control, he said: “We clearly need multiple solutions. There is no solution to this terrible problem we have.”
“I’m not the type to know exactly what to do with all of this. … The only thing I know is that you can’t get rid of guns,” he added. “Guns are here to stay. You’ve always been a part of American history. So what do we do now that we seem to have so easy access to guns when we shouldn’t? Or people getting guns they shouldn’t have? What do we do? It’s a complicated situation. I don’t think there is a solution.”
When asked if he could have had a bigger Hollywood career had he focused on acting, he said he’s had “some great opportunities” and he “can’t complain about my acting career.”
“I’ve had a blessed career in film, television and theater,” Sinise said. “I’ve done amazing things, I’ve worked with amazing people, and that really has played a big part, if not the key element, in what I do on the service side today.”
The Apollo 13 actor founded the Gary Sinise Foundation in 2011, which offers programs like Relief & Resiliency Outreach that help people in need recover from injury, loss, or trauma. The nonprofit also has a program called RISE, which creates smart homes for injured US veterans.
Explaining that during his career, Sinise eventually began to select projects that served his larger mission, saying, “There were a couple of projects that I took on because they fitted right in with what I was doing on the service side. For example… I had done nine seasons of CSI: NY. Now I had this public platform on TV every week. I play a character who is not only a cop, but also a veteran and a 9/11 family member. This gave me the opportunity to publicly honor the men and women we lost on 9/11 and the firefighter we lost.”
“And then came Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders. … I did this because it fits into the mission,” he continued. “I get to be very specific about what life is about, and now life is so much more about giving back and trying to serve our veteran community and our first responder community.”