LOS ANGELES—At 53, Dennis Quaid still has the all-American looks that helped him to play almost every iconic American character Hollywood has to offer. The list includes soldiers, cowboys, astronauts, detectives, football heroes, baseball heroes, a U.S. president, and American legends Sam Houston (The Alamo) and Doc Holliday (Wyatt Earp). His latest role, in Vantage Point, which opens in Vancouver on February 22, is that of a member of the Secret Service’s presidential detail who is returning to duty a year after taking two bullets in a successful effort to save the president’s life.

In an L.A. hotel, he says that in
recent years he has been happy not to be cast in too many leading roles. “I think that in our 20s and 30s, men take ourselves too seriously about this whole career-building thing. I feel now that I’m doing it for the same reasons that I did it when I started out back in acting school and college, and I am having fun with it. I think I am better at it than I used to be. You certainly hope that you are. If you are a plumber, you learn certain tricks as you go along that make you a better plumber, although this is certainly not a real job, for God’s sake.”

Quaid’s career has been going well in the past few years, and 2008 will see him appearing in five films, including Vantage Point. He is currently filming the 2009 summer megamovie, G.I. Joe, in which he will portray General Hawk.

His off-screen life has been a little more complex. Having survived his breakup with Meg Ryan over an alleged affair she had with Russell Crowe, he remarried and became the father of twins. In November, the children almost died of an accidental drug overdose while in postnatal care at L.A.’s Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Things are better now with the twins, he says, and the only difficulties are those that one would expect with two newborns. “I am more sleep-deprived, but everyone is doing great. They are healthy and happy kids. Last night was a great night because it was the first time they slept all through the night.”

He’s also happy with his relationship with son Jack, who is now 15. Not surprisingly, this son of actors wants to act. Quaid says that he is encouraging but notes that he wouldn’t want to be starting out in the business today. “I have been there for him because I think it’s important that these times for him are exciting. It certainly was for me when I started out. But I was fortunate to have cut my teeth on films of the ’70s. The films were great and it was an exciting time in Hollywood because you thought the inmates had taken over the asylum in terms of the mainstream movies and the way American cinema was being shaped. Of course, from his point of view today is exciting because that’s all he knows, and that’s fine too.”