Actor Dennis Quaid, who portrays Ronald Reagan in an upcoming biopic, says Facebook keeps removing videos of him as the Republican icon because they might help Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

The social media platform’s aggressive political content filters have surprised the 70-year-old registered independent because, he jokes, “Ronald Reagan hasn’t been on the ballot for 40 years.”

“My point about Facebook is that them banning or censoring materials from [the movie] is itself an attempt to influence an election,” Mr. Quaid, who has also portrayed President Bill Clinton on film, told The Washington Times in a video interview.

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Mr. Quaid’s four-decade career as a leading man stretches from Disney and Steven Spielberg productions to Christian dramas. He stars as the 40th president in the independent film “Reagan,” scheduled for theatrical release on Aug. 30.

He said Facebook’s automated filters purged advertising posts about the movie again on Monday after the platform apologized for “an automated mistake” in removing earlier materials because they might interfere with November’s election.

Facebook parent company Meta has moved to limit political posts to reduce their influence on the presidential contest between Mr. Trump, the Republican nominee, and Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic counterpart.

The Times has reached out to Facebook for comment. In a statement last week, the platform said it was working to prevent its filters from repeatedly taking down “Reagan” posts. 

“This happened because our automated systems mistakenly determined that content about Ronald Reagan required prior authorization in accordance with our policies for ads about Social Issues, Elections or Politics,” a Facebook spokesperson said. “This was a mistake and the restriction on the ads has been lifted.”

Mr. Quaid, who said he has voted “pretty equally” for both parties over the last 50 years, endorsed Mr. Trump in May.

“I believe in the pendulum of what our country needs at the time, according to what I think, and I express that in the voting booth,” he said. “And it has nothing to do, really, with a political party.”

However, he said “Reagan,” which he filmed during the pandemic in 2020 as a sympathetic take on his favorite president, is not political and was not made to promote the Trump campaign.

“The movie is about America as well as being about the life of Ronald Reagan and the principles and views that he espoused,” Mr. Quaid said.

The film was originally scheduled to hit theaters in 2022 before pandemic restrictions delayed things.

Mr. Quaid is a Method actor who internalizes the perspectives of his characters. He famously gained 35 pounds to play Mr. Clinton in “The Special Relationship,” a 2010 made-for-television movie that depicted the Democratic leader’s friendship with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

He prepared for his latest role by visiting the Reagans’ ranch in California, known as the “Western White House,” and said the trip helped him overcome his fear of “being judged” for playing such a recognizable figure.

The conservative Young America’s Foundation, which now owns the ranch, has preserved it exactly as the Reagan family left it. Reagan died in 2004 at age 93.

“You could really feel that man there,” Mr. Quaid said. “I found out he wasn’t a rich man.”

The actor noted that the ranch house was “maybe” 1,100 square feet and that the king-sized bed “was two single beds that were zip-tied together.”

Mr. Quaid, who has said he voted for Jimmy Carter and Reagan at different times, said the film wrestles honestly with Reagan’s flaws.

“There was those who called him ‘war monger,’ a third-rate actor who never made it, but he was also everybody’s dad,” Mr. Quaid said.

“That meant, for better or worse, you really admired your dad or you rebelled against your dad,” he added. “Those kinds of feelings about him have still, I think, hung around with people, and that’s what makes him interesting.”

The upcoming movie pays special attention to Reagan’s courtship of his future wife Nancy, played by Penelope Ann Miller, and his staunch opposition as a rising 1960s conservative figure to Soviet communism.

Key scenes include a recreation of the 1981 assassination attempt in which John W. Hinckley Jr. shot Mr. Reagan as he left a speech at the Washington Hilton.

The film also covers Reagan’s transition from Hollywood actor and president of the Screen Actors Guild to Republican governor of California.

In the interview, Mr. Quaid said the former president “loomed large” in his life.

“He was the guy who, along with Lech Walesa and Margaret Thatcher and the pope, defeated communism and won the Cold War in the end,” Mr. Quaid told The Times.

He said Reagan’s two terms as president “made this world a much better place” for people like him who grew up hiding under their school desks during nuclear safety drills.

Because of the personal connection he felt while making the film, the actor said “Reagan” has become his favorite acting experience.

For the previous 40 years, Mr. Quaid said he preferred his role as astronaut Gordon Cooper in “The Right Stuff,” a 1983 historical drama about the launch of the U.S. space program.

Far from adding to election year divisions, he said he hopes “Reagan” brings people together to “remember how great this country used to be” and “how great this country still can be if we learn to get along and start talking to each other again.”

“Just because we disagree on 30% of something, that doesn’t make us a 30% enemy, it makes us a 70% friend, according [to] and quoting Ronald Reagan,” the actor said.