Dennis Quaid Voices Support For The ‘Good For Texas’ Campaign And Its Push To Bring The Film Industry Back To The Lone Star State: “We Want To Make Texas The Film Capital Of The World”
Dennis Quaid, the actor known for such movies as Enemy Mine and The Day After Tomorrow, recently opened up about the ‘Good for Texas’ movement and how this particular initiative is seeking to turn the state of Texas into the new Hollywood.
Seeking to “bring back the film industry to Texas and create opportunities for economic growth and job creation,” the Texas Film Incentive is an element of the Good For Texas campaign currently being promoted by such Hollywood actors as Dennis Quaid, Matthew McConaughey, Owen Wilson, Billy Bob Thornton, Glen Powell, and Woody Harrelson.
“We shine a spotlight on the importance of the Texas Film Incentive and how it positively impacts our great state,” declares the initiative. “Texas is not just a land of beautiful landscapes and iconic locations; it’s also a hub for talented film professionals and a thriving film industry.”
“However, over the years, funding for the Texas Film Incentive has diminished, leading to the migration of film productions and jobs to neighboring states,” it continues. “We address the misconceptions that the film incentive only benefits bigwig Hollywood producers and actors.”
The movement’s mission further clarifies, “The truth is that supporting the Texas Film Incentive means supporting real Texas jobs. It benefits not just the actors and directors but also the electricians, carpenters, drivers, makeup artists, hair stylists, and countless other Texas-based workers who make film productions possible.”
“Together, we can make a difference,” the statement concludes alongside a call for individuals to get in touch with their respective state representatives and senators and “let them know about the Texas Film Incentive during this legislative session.”
Elaborating about this new initiative during a recent appearance on Fox News’ Jesse Watters Primetime show, Quaid declared “We want to make Texas the film capital of the world.”
“Texas used to really have a great film incentive program and a great film crew base,” he explained. “About nine or 10 years ago, I made some great movies there and love working there, as well as my cohorts, and there is legislation right now, in the Texas State House to increase that fund to make it more business-friendly to make films in Texas for 40 million to, hopefully, 300 million.”
“We want to get it done and it would bring back a lot of people who moved to other states like Oklahoma, New Mexico, Louisiana — surrounding Texas, actually — and Georgia, that have these incentive programs and [have] taken our crew base away, really,” Quaid elaborated, adding, “We want them to move back.”
“I can’t remember the last time I made a film in California, to tell you the truth,” he then admitted to Watters. “You know, they still do their game shows there, and talk shows and stuff that. Everybody films in Georgia or Oklahoma because it doesn’t matter where it’s supposed to take place because it’s cheaper.”
“They’re getting 30%… up to 40% of their money back, you know, through tax credits there, and we want Texas to compete with that and, at the same time, build an industry,” Quaid added.
“There’s a lot of people in Texas, and I don’t blame them, that look on [this project] as a Hollywood giveaway, as a welfare program for them, but it’s not,” the actor clarified. “The money is brought from the outside [and] it’s spent in the state.”
Quaid further clarified that the money isn’t being spent on actors, but rather crew members like “carpenters and painters” and service industry members, including “hotel workers [and] restaurant workers” —a a spending strategy which, according to the actor, will “rev up” the economy of Texas.
What’s more, the actor does admit that the lack of state income tax makes Texas a “very attractive” place to start this endeavour, comparing the current situation to that of the California Gold Rush.
“Texas did a really good job at taking a big share of the tech industry away from Silicon Valley,” said Quaid. “You go down to Austin and you can see that really clearly. And the same thing can be done with movies and television shows — it’s a great place to shoot.”
“Think of the California Gold Rush,” he ultimately concluded. “It’s like a few people did strike it rich, but the people who really made money were the shopkeepers, and people selling shovels and spades, and stuff like that, [people] who were doing other things besides mining for gold. And that’s kind of what would happen here.”
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