Reagan Star Amanda Righetti on Her Career Evolution, The O.C and More

Amanda Righetti has graced the small screen on some of television’s most cherished shows from The Mentalist to North Shore and glossy teen juggernaut The O.C.

Today, over 20 years after the cultural phenomenon made TV history, Righetti is part of another kind of historical event — starring alongside film legends Dennis Quaid, Jon Voight and Penelope Ann Miller in the highly-anticipated biopic Reagan as Nelle, the mother of the 40th president of the United States.

The actress talks to Us Weekly about portraying the woman who influenced and inspired the actor turned politician and she opens up about the early 2000s cult hit that launched her acting career and where she would like to see Hailey Nichol today.

US: I always love a good, historical drama and biopic. Is there a particular movie genre that you like? 

AR: I do like this genre. I am kind of a sucker for period pieces as well. I just, I love the idea of stepping back in time.

US: What was it like working with icons Dennis Quaid and Jon Voight?

AR: Epic, epic actors, and I wish I could say that we were actually in scenes together, but we weren’t. I play Reagan’s mother in the ‘20s. So it was sort of broken up into three different segments, and it was shot a little bit out of sequence, and there was some shutdowns from Covid. Unfortunately, the production just got plagued by shutdowns between Covid and then the actor’s strike.

I met Dennis very, very briefly on set, and I’ve actually gotten to know him a little bit better doing the press circuit and working with him that way.

I kind of have to pinch myself, to be honest. It’s a little bit of a dream come true. I’m working with really fantastic actors. I’m a part of a project that has A-list actors in it. And they’re really wonderful in the film. I’m really grateful to be a part of that and honored to play his mother.

US: What did you learn about Dennis from this experience?

AR: I have recognized that, you know, Dennis is really unapologetically himself and there’s something kind of really refreshing about that. And aside from him being just an amazing actor, he’s just really confident and convicted in his opinions and his viewpoints on things.

US: I think this will be a very different role that people aren’t used to seeing him portray.

AR: Absolutely. Well, he’s a dead ringer too! It really amazes me how he transforms and just resembles so much of Reagan in the film. There are moments where it’s like you don’t know where Dennis ends and Reagan begins, and vice versa. And I think it’s a testament to his greatness as an actor.

US: You play Ronald Reagan’s mother Nelle. How did you prepare for the role? 

AR: I learned a lot about her and a lot about Ronald Reagan that I wouldn’t have really sought out if this role wasn’t put in front of me. There wasn’t a lot about her in terms of photographs or videos. A lot of my research was reading materials mostly from Ronald’s hand directly in his autobiography. There was also a book called God and Ronald Reagan. And it sort of dives into his upbringing and his religious beliefs and how it sort of shaped his presidency and his life.

So most of my research was based on what was written about her. And then from there I had to kind of fill in the gaps and bring my own idea of who she was to it. But also still I wanted to make it real and not deviate from who she was. And not only who she was as a mother, but who she was to him and how she inspired him.

US: What did you learn about her along the way?

AR: So, she was a writer. She was a performer. This was before talkies had hit the scene in the ‘20s. And so entertainment came by way of live stage, and she would do performances, whether it were reading poetry or speeches or blips from plays. She was very much a leader in that regard. And I think Ronald Reagan kind of got that performance bug from her.

But she also dedicated her life to the poor and helpless. That was so much about how she carried herself and her dedication to that she would put others before herself, always. And that sort of very selfless way of living was really humbling. And I think was really insightful and [were] kind of the ways that Reagan took on and was convicted about certain things within his life and his leadership positions.

US: You were young in the Reagan era.

AR: I was born during the Reagan era. So, you know, my knowledge of him on a personal basis was sort of really limited. And, you know, it wasn’t until this role came that I just started to learn a plethora about his life and who he was as a person, and then how that applied to his politics and his leadership skills.

US: These are real people. So when you’re playing such a pivotal role in history, how much pressure is there to get it right?

AR: I think there’s a lot of pressure. They’re pretty big shoes to fill. and because she was such an inspirational piece of his life, you know, I really wanted to get it right. But also because there wasn’t a whole lot to go off of it was really sort of building from the ground up in terms of what her upbringing was and the societal norms at the time, and how that played into just being a woman. During that day and age, you know, things were very different back then.

US: In a way you could make her your own.

AR: In a way, yes. I was able to kind of make it my own. And, and at the end of the day, I had to throw off the chains of pressure and just stay connected to the truth of the moment. And I felt at the end of the day, that was the most important, to just be truthful in these moments on screen and trust the director and trust the producers that as they cut it together, they were going to fill in the gaps of that narrative.

US: I’d love to go down memory lane and talk about some of your most nostalgic TV roles. One of your well-known shows was North Shore. It premiered 20 years ago in June. It only aired for one season and I loved it. Do people still come up to you and tell you they wanted more of it? 

AR: Occasionally. I think it has become such an obscure piece of my work and has, you know, been so long ago now. I don’t even know that it airs anywhere or is receivable in any streaming capacity. So I feel like unless you were living in that time and were able to tune in live, I don’t know that it really has legs outside of that time period. So anybody that does come up to me or, you know, mention anything about it they were basically watching it unfold as it was being aired weekly.

US: Do you think it was ahead of its time? It seemed to have all the elements to really work. 

AR: It did. I felt like it kind of had all the elements too and it’s hard to say what makes a show a hit and what holds it. And I think the standards are much different now than they were 20 years ago. You know, 20 years ago if you didn’t have 20 million viewers in the first, you know, four episodes of an airing, you were in trouble. And now, you know, if Hulu gets 5 million on a show, it’s considered a huge success.

US: And, of course, we have to talk about The O.C. The fandom is pretty intense. You actually came onto the show halfway through season one. So what was it like to join the cast right as the show was exploding?

AR: It was a little surreal. And I think especially because it was sort of my first mainstream gig. And I was also working with people that I came up watching. [Like] Peter Gallagher, I was a huge fan and I was embraced in such a lovely way. And being a young actor, I mean, I had these very seasoned actors that were giving me advice and I was really appreciative of that. But it was also, it was strange because it was like operating inside of a small bubble. Inside the hair and makeup trailer it was funny, they used to post all of the press [and] all anybody was doing. So the inside of the trailer, it was amazing. There are all these articles posted on the walls and which kind of put it in perspective. I don’t think I recognized how big of a cult hit it was at that time until that. And then Paris Hilton coming on set and it was like, oh wow, OK, this is really kind of a big deal.

US: It was a phenomenon!

AR: As a pop culture phenom, it being on location, there were occasionally like crowds of people that would gather to just get a glimpse. And because it was my first sort of mainstream thing, I guess I didn’t really know any different. I thought this was sort of a norm. And then came to recognize later in my career that no, that’s lightning in a bottle. And not every show gets that.

So I think, you know, with that time and space from it, it really kind of put it in perspective for me later down the line and not as much in the moment.

US: Your character Hailey Nichol dated Tate Donovan’s character Jimmy Cooper on the show. So there was sort of this younger, older cast on the show. You were sort of in between both groups. Did you gravitate more toward one or the other? 

AR: Well, it was the way that I was cast. I mean, that’s what’s interesting is I think given the experience that I had in my life up to that point, I was a lot more mature than my age. And so I would sort of naturally be cast for older things. I was, I think like right in the middle, I was on the younger side, because I was 19 playing 27. So I guess I could have been plugged in on either side, but it just so happened that when the audition came in, I went in for it and they bought me as being that age. And I think it was lovely because I got to play with both the kids and the adults. So it was a perfect storm of events with the character and being able to be plugged into both types of the storyline.

US: Over the years the cast has been candid and honest about The O.C. and that it occasionally wasn’t always the easiest set to be on. Was that your experience?

AR: You know, it wasn’t, and I think probably because I was a guest. For me, I think it was a little bit more sheltered. I came in halfway through, I wasn’t a regular and with them. It was like, let’s see how this one episode goes, and then if the episode goes well, maybe. You know, so it was initially a three-episode arc. And then I didn’t think I was gonna be back. And they came back around and they wanted to sort of, you know, work on the storyline and figure out where the character was gonna go. And so there were a lot of moving parts. I wasn’t plugged in like a regular, so I wasn’t as exposed to drama that may have been happening on set. Or if it was happening, I was so oblivious to it because I was a little bit like wide-eyed about the whole experience anyway that I just wasn’t really attuned to that kind of drama.

US: Were you hoping for a longer stay on the series?

AR: I absolutely was.

US: Were there other storylines you would’ve liked to see Hailey have?

AR: I think the intention initially was to see where the Jimmy [and] Hailey storyline was gonna go. And I was sort of really excited to see what was going to happen with that. And then, you know, it kind of took on a different shape because I was under a holding deal with FOX during that time period. And The O.C. didn’t fall under the holding deal, but North Shore did. And North Shorecame up during The O.C. hiatus between season one and two. And I originally had gone to North Shore as a guest, and then they offered me to become a regular before The O.C. had started up. And so we kind of had this, well, hey, O.C., what are we gonna do? Like, you know, is Hailey coming back? Should I sort of move forward with this? I think they may have had the intention to have Hailey more featured in the second season [of The O.C.], but my scheduling was too hard to thread the needle because North Shore was shot in Hawaii. And trying to go back and forth between the two shows just became too difficult scheduling-wise. So I felt like her storyline was prematurely ended because of that.

I would be so curious to know like what [creators] Josh [Schwartz] and Stephanie [Savage] had in mind for it.

US: Did you have something in mind?

AR: I think I would’ve loved to have seen them — Jimmy and Hailey — get together and then see the clashes that may have started to happen because of the age difference and the ideas about how to proceed with life and, you know, the kind of the dramas that could have come along with that storyline. I was excited to kind of explore that stuff. But we didn’t.

US: Do you have any favorite behind the scenes memories from the show? 

AR: Gosh, you know, coming to set to Peter [Gallagher] tap dancing and singing in the mornings was always a highlight. And then doing, I think the episode was “The Strip.” It was the one when they find Hailey in the strip club. That was one of those episodes where now the show has really taken off and there were crowds around our location filming. And that was just a trip. It was just such a trip. It was like nothing I’ve ever experienced before.

US: I love that you have all these memories that can be very rare for an actor to get to experience.

AR: For certain. Yeah. I think when you’re in the moments of it, you don’t recognize, you know, all the pieces of the puzzle and how it’s going to carry with you [and] what you’ll nostalgically look back at and be like, oh, that was a really amazing thing. You know, I think with time I look back with such fond memories of being a part of such an iconic piece of work.

US: And it catapulted the careers of so many, including yourself, Olivia Wilde, Mischa Barton, Ben McKenzie, Adam Brody, and Rachel Bilson. 

AR: Absolutely. But I think it’s also a real testament to the casting and the studio and network really getting behind what they believed in and giving the show that chance — because if they hadn’t, it wouldn’t be what it was.

Reagan opens in theatres nationwide on Friday, August 30.