FEATURE INTERVIEW - January, 2019
Gary Sinise
FastForward Spends An Afternoon With Gary Sinise
WRITERS/REPORTERS: Kylie Sebastian, Zadie Winthrop and Jackie Chin (FROM: Freshman, San Domenico, Urban High and Convent Sacred Heart Preparatory)
"Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.”
TTom Hanks’ unforgettable character, Forrest Gump, uttered that famous line as he sat on the very bench we saw before us. We were at the Gary Sinise Foundation office in Los Angeles, and our eyes scanned not only the bench and the box of chocolates but the accolades, letters, posters and photos covering the office’s floor-to-ceiling walls. We could see Sinise as Lt. Dan Taylor in Forrest Gump and as astronaut Ken Mattingly in Apollo 13, detective Jimmy Shaker in Ransom, George in Of Mice and Men and as Mac Taylor in the long-running TV series CSI: NY.
While helping veterans has long been a part of Sinise’s life, it was his performance in Forrest Gump which set him on his path to the work he does today with his Foundation. In that movie, he played a veteran who lost his legs in the Vietnam War and sank into resentment and depression. But after joining Forrest on his shrimping boat and then investing their earnings in a tech startup called Apple, his life turns around dramatically. The message: Always look for good, cherish your friends, don’t give up. There’s one scene where Dan/Gary jumps in the water, swims and floats and looks to the sky, letting go of the hate and anger he’s been carrying, reaching for something new. It encompasses what we’re about to learn about Gary Sinise: His life is a journey of gathering new perspectives and reaching out to give back to others.
Sinise certainly found the lucky chocolate, but lots of struggle and self-doubt led up to it—something his upcoming autobiography “Grateful American,” which will be released in February 2019, goes into great detail on. Through luck and hard work, he achieved success in show business and then used it to shine a spotlight on people who experience pain and tragedy every day in the aftermath of war and their service to our country. He had a dream that came to fruition—the Gary Sinise Foundation, a charitable organization for veterans where we met him for our interview.
He arrived wearing a navy jacket and dark jeans, offering a warm handshake and smile and looking every bit the human being we imagined from his work on behalf of others. But looking at vintage photos of Gary as a bedraggled teenager, it’s hard to imagine him growing up to be a film star. Music was his focus—in fact he was the lead singer in a band called Half Day Road. If it wasn’t for a random encounter with a high school teacher, his life would have been entirely different. “I was in a hallway at school standing there with a couple of the other band members and we were looking pretty ragged, like rockers, and this little lady walked down the hall, this powerhouse of a lady. She just walked down the hall and then she turned around and did a double take and looked at us. She asked us, ‘Do you know the play West Side Story? It’s about two people from opposing gangs who fall in love with each other, the guy and the girl. And there’s a lot of fighting on stage. You guys look perfect for the gang members, so come in and audition for the play.’” Gary auditioned and at the age of 16 began his acting career. “She cast me in the play and that changed my life. That turned everything around for me. I was a struggling kid at the time...all the sudden I found this thing that I just fell in love with and could do. From that point on I was in every play I could be in.”
(Left): Gary playing guitar.
(Center): Gary Sinise as a Highland Park High School senior with his band, the Half-Day Road Band, named after a street in his hometown.
(Right): Gary Sinise as a high school senior.
Gary Sinise as a Highland Park High School senior.
Gary playing his guitar
Gary Sinese with his band, the Half-Day Road Band, named after a street in his hometown
After high school Sinise helped found Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company with a group of friends. He pointed to a photo of the original nine-person Steppenwolf ensemble: John Malkovich is in the middle with an actual head of hair; next to him is Jeff Perry, the evil chief of staff on “Scandal,” and there’s Laurie Metcalf of “Roseanne” (now “The Connors”) fame. Despite this promising beginning, Sinise had “a lot of self-doubt” as he struggled to kickstart his acting career. He moved to California, found little success, returned to Steppenwolf, and eventually caught the attention of Hollywood.
How would his 14-year-old self react to his numerous future accomplishments? “Dang, you’ve done a lot of different things over the years. Slow down!” Over the course of an acting and directing career spanning 40-plus years, Sinise has earned an Emmy®, a Golden Globe® and an Oscar® nomination while starring in over 20 television programs and 30 films. He’s played President Harry Truman as well as George Wallace, the segregationist governor of Alabama. “Apollo 13 was a real mission, Harry Truman a real president, the governor of Alabama a very controversial figure.” He believes in doing ample research to prepare for difficult roles. For his performance as Lieutenant Dan, Sinise watched veterans and soldiers with missing legs, studying their movements. “I also read Fortunate Son: The Autobiography of Lewis B. Puller Jr., which was about the son of United States Marine Chesty Puller, who lost both of his legs during the Vietnam War. I like to do research. It helps me to feel much more prepared.”
Forrest Gump not only launched his career, it influenced his personal life. “Little did I know at that time that Lieutenant Dan would play a bigger role in my life when I started more actively working with our veterans.” Between an extensive family military history, roles in several war films and the devastating events of 9/11, Sinise found passion and purpose serving veterans, especially the wounded, the first responders, serving soldiers and their families. “Prior to playing Lieutenant Dan in Forrest Gump I’d been involved with supporting Vietnam veterans.
Having Vietnam veterans in my family, I was keenly aware of how they were treated when they came home from war. During that time, they went off to war, and it was a very difficult period in our history. Our country was very divided about whether we should be fighting the Vietnam War. There were some people supporting it, others not supporting it. Our soldiers, the people that were fighting the war and going to war, were caught in the middle of all that. Many were treated badly when they came home. When I met my wife and she introduced me to her brothers and her sister’s husband, who all fought in Vietnam, I received this education from them about what it was like to serve and what it was like to go to war and come home and have the nation turn its back on you.”
The 9/11 attacks deeply influenced his calling to give back. “That was a terrible day. I dove in, full on, to help our wounded, to go to the war zones, to go wherever I could to help the people that were trying to defend our country, and to try to prevent that from happening again.
“When I walked into my first hospital and the wounded soldier in the bed recognized my face and looked up and said, ‘It’s Lieutenant Dan,’ I realized he didn’t know what my real name was. He saw me and recognized Lieutenant Dan from the movie. However, he’s the real Lieutenant Dan. He’s lying there with both his legs missing. He’s missing part of his hand. His eye is shot out. And he wants to talk to me about my movie character. I’ll never forget it—first guy, first room, first time, sitting there for 45 minutes just talking to this wounded vet about Lieutenant Dan, watching his face light up and his whole mood change. He’s on drugs and he’s in pain, but he’s smiling and he’s happy as I’m telling him this story about playing Lieutenant Dan. I reminded him what happens to Lieutenant Dan at the end of that movie, which is, he’s okay. Lieutenant Dan’s walking at the end of the movie. He’s looking good. He’s married. He’s happy. He’s successful. He’s a businessman. He’s making money. Anybody who serves in war and makes sacrifices for our country, goes off, experiences real pain, real war—they deserve to have a happy life going forward. They deserve what happens to Lieutenant Dan. They deserve to be able to move on from their war experience.”
“We all live in freedom because we have people that are willing to fight for it and defend it—if I can do something with the blessings of freedom that I’ve been given to do something to support them and help them, then that’s the way that I can serve.”
The Foundation Sinise founded in 2011 umbrellas many programs in connection with servicemen and women. One involves building homes adapted for mobility-challenged veterans; another offers performances by Sinise’s Lt. Dan Band. A bass and guitar player, he’s been making music since childhood, and the band has performed in USO shows for over a decade.
"I always point all the way back to the beginning, to the first moment that I experienced what acting was. I’ll never forget it because it was the first moments on stage doing a play with people and having an audience there. I’ll never forget the impression that made on me because it hooked me. All I wanted to do was be an actor after that. It’s hard to say that the later things are more important than the beginning because the beginning is what started me out. I ended up starting a theater company that is now 45 years old and doing well. We’ve built buildings and all kinds of wonderful things have happened, but none of that would have ever happened if I didn’t happen to stumble into a play in high school and start doing it. It’s hard to point to one thing; there’s too many wonderful things along the way. It’s a long journey."
“I love the live experience of being onstage in front of an audience,” he said. “The shows give us the opportunity to impact more service members and their families and give me personally a chance to speak directly to them at the concerts, and thank them for what they do for our country.”
Sinise will never give up his work with veterans, saying “I’m continuously inspired by our nation’s defenders and the families who sacrifice alongside them. Their experiences and resiliency inspire me every day.” Life for the women and men who have encountered the horrors of war may not always be a happy one, but it’s the little things people do that provide healing and strength. “In many ways, I feel like that high school kid, trying new things, trying to do more. Some of those same things, while I’ve learned a lot over the years from a lot of different people and from many mistakes, still there’s that sort of wonderment thing, the high school kid.”
And if Gary Sinise says, “We can always do a little more,” we can.