Photo: Chuck Hodes; Photo Illustration: Jamie Divecchio Ramsay

Recently, we sat down with Dennis Quaid to ask about his new film, The Express, a biopic about Ernie Davis, the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy; Quaid and his wife’s lawsuit against Baxter Healthcare, which produces the drug that almost killed their newborn twins last year after hospital staff confused two similarly labeled bottles; and Meg Ryan’s recent claim that, during their marriage, Quaid’s infidelity preceded her affair with Russell Crowe—or, at least, we tried to ask about that last one.

Time Out Chicago: You were just in Atlanta watching the Falcons practice. Are you a fan?
Dennis Quaid: I’m a Saints fan. I have nothing against the Falcons.

TOC: Sorry—the Saints?
Dennis Quaid: New Orleans.

TOC: You see how much I know about all this. I read you were too small to play football in high school—but you’re not a small guy.
Dennis Quaid: I was a late bloomer. I tried out for the football team, and I got locked off the field. That’s how I wound up in drama.

TOC: What’d you think of The Express?
Dennis Quaid: Usually when I see a film I’m in, it’s very technical for me. This one hits you in the heart and the gut. Have you seen it?

TOC: Yeah, I really enjoyed it.
Dennis Quaid: See, you really enjoyed it, but you’re not into football. That’s my criteria for doing a sports movie. It’s gotta be about something more than football. This movie is about living your life in grace.

TOC: You play real-life Syracuse coach Ben Schwartzwalder—how’d you research him?
Dennis Quaid: Jim Brown [the former NFL running back] was already a friend of mine. Jim played for Schwartzwalder, so he was my greatest resource in finding out about him and Ernie Davis, too. He gave it to me straight: He respected Schwartzwalder but thought he was a man of his time in terms of racial issues, and Ernie was, not a saint, but one of those people who made people better.

TOC: You say “not a saint,” but the film does kinda deify Ernie Davis.
Dennis Quaid: Well, he was a really good person. Like he said, he did his talking on the field. His flaw, if anything, was his naïveté.

TOC: In the film, Texas represents the ultimate prejudice the integrated Syracuse team faces. Does that resonate with you as a native Texan?
Dennis Quaid: I grew up in Houston, and I remember we had separate drinking fountains, and black people sat in the balcony of the theater.… We had an African-American housekeeper growing up who was really like my second mother. I thought it was silly—hatred just because of the color of somebody’s skin.

TOC: Where does the lawsuit against Baxter Healthcare stand?
Dennis Quaid: I don’t want to talk about the suit. But I will say the twins are doing great. And I’ll talk about medical errors in this country, which are killing a hundred thousand people a year.

TOC: You and your wife, Kimberly, want to prevent federal preemption, right?
Dennis Quaid: Federal preemption is coming up before the Supreme Court. We already have federal preemption for medical devices: If you are injured by a medical device approved by the FDA, you can’t sue for damages. Now that same question is coming up with pharmaceutical drugs: If you’re injured by pharmaceutical drugs, if you receive a thousand times the dose because of similar labeling—

TOC: Which is what happened to your twins.
Dennis Quaid: Yeah—then you can’t sue. So a lot of people would just be left out in the cold. And there would be less impetus for a drug company to change its product.

TOC: You finished production on Legion, G.I. Joe, Pandorum, The Horsemen—why are you working so damn hard?
Dennis Quaid: It appears that I am, but actually between doing The Express and G.I. Joe, I had eight months off. When was the last time you had eight months off?

TOC: Infancy, I think.
Dennis Quaid: Yeah. I have lots of time.

TOC: Meg Ryan’s recent interviews for In Style, Good Morning America—
Dennis Quaid: I’m not gonna comment at all about it. She—I’m not gonna comment.

TOC: Are you surprised she’s coming out now with all that?
Dennis Quaid: I’m not gonna comment at all about anything that has to do with her. That was eight years ago. It’s a long time.

TOC: Back to sports, then: I don’t know if you’re also into baseball, but—
Dennis Quaid: Are you a Cubs fan?

TOC: A fair-weather Cubs fan.
Dennis Quaid: I really want to see the Cubs in the World Series. I really do.

TOC: Coming out for the Cubs? That could cost you fans in this town.
Dennis Quaid: Whatever. I’m coming out for the Cubs.

The Express hits theaters October 10.