‘It played a major role’

Hollywood actor Gary Sinise has opened up about being “one of the relatively few conservatives in Hollywood” and whether it has affected his Hollywood career.

Sinise, who was nominated for an Oscar for his role as Lt. Dan in 1994’s “Forrest Gump,” appeared on an episode of “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?” on Friday, delving into how he’s aligned his service dedication with his acting.

In the episode, the 67-year-old actor — who has founded several groups, including Friends of Abe, a conservative group for Hollywood figures — was asked whether he thinks his career would have been better if he had focused purely on acting, responding by saying he “can’t complain” about his acting career.

“I’ve had a blessed career in the movie and television and theater business,” the “Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders” actor said. “I’ve done amazing things, I’ve worked with amazing people and it really played a major role, if not the key element, in what I’m doing today on the service side.”

Along with Friends of Abe, the actor also founded the Gary Sinise Foundation in 2011, a charity that organizes services and events for wounded veterans and support for people in need recovering from injury, loss or trauma.

Sinise — who grew up near Highland Park, where a shooting occurred during an Independence Day parade on July 4, 2022 — was also questioned on his thoughts about America’s gun laws, calling it a “complicated situation” and that he doesn’t believe can be easily solved.

“Guns are here to stay. They’ve always been a part of the American story,” he said. “So what do we do now that we seem to have this easy access to guns when we shouldn’t? Or people that get guns that shouldn’t have them?”

America needs “multiple solutions, clearly,” Sinise added.

“There’s no one solution for this terrible problem that we have,” he said.

Sinise reflected on his career, explaining he began selecting acting roles that “fit” with what he was “doing on the service side.”

“For example … I had done nine seasons of ‘CSI: NY.’ Now, I had this public platform on television every week. I’m playing a character who is not only a police officer, but he was a veteran and he was a 9/11 family member,” he explained. “That gave me an opportunity in a public way to honor the men and women who we lost on Sept. 11 and the firefighter we lost.”

Sinise said he is now at the stage of his career where he can “pick and choose very specifically” based on what life is about and what he wants to support.

“Now life is so much more about giving back and trying to serve our veteran community and our first responder community,” he said.