We want to make Texas the film capital of the world: Dennis Quaid
Actor Dennis Quaid explains why Hollywood is leaving California for Texas on ‘Jesse Watters Primetime.’
Residents of California have been leaving the state in droves over the last few years due to radical policies and high prices governing the state. Many former residents have been settling in more politically red states, such as Florida and Texas, which have seen immense population growth.
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California is the home of Hollywood, the center of the film industry. Actor Dennis Quaid explained to "Jesse Watters Primetime" why there is a push from actors to move the film industry out of California to Texas.
"We want to make Texas the film capital of the world. That's what Texas used to really have – a great film incentive program and a great film crew base. About nine or 10 years ago, I made some great movies there and [I] love working there," he told host Jesse Watters.
Quaid shared how there is "more business friendly" legislation brewing in the Texas State House to increase film funding from $40 million to possibly $300 million. Quaid further explained how bringing the industry back to Texas would bring a lot of film people back to the state.
Dennis Quaid visits "The IMDb Show" on April 17, 2019, in Studio City, California. (Rich Polk/Getty Images for IMDb)
"It would bring back a lot of people who moved to other states like Oklahoma, New Mexico, Louisiana, surrounding Texas, actually, and Georgia," he said.
"I can't remember the last time I made a film in California, to tell you the truth. You know, they still do their game shows there and talk shows and stuff that. Everybody films in Georgia or Oklahoma or whatever – because it doesn't matter where it's supposed to take place cause – it's cheaper," Quaid said about filming outside of California.
After the pandemic, when the industry had moved to filming in Georgia and Oklahoma due to California's COVID lockdowns, Gov. Gavin Newsom called on the film industry to return to the state. The governor had critiqued the Republican-controlled states and their stance on abortion in an ad targeting the film industry last year. "Choose freedom. Choose creativity. Choose California," the ad read.
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"You know, 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," Quaid said.
Quaid emphasized the opportunity in Texas because there are a "lot of people" there, and having money to pay for crew members like carpenters, painters, hotel workers and others will "rev up the economy there."
The actor also made the point that Texas' lack of state income tax makes it attractive to the industry. If the migration of the film world happens, it will not be the first industry Texas has stolen from California.
"Texas did a really good job at taking a big share of the tech industry away from Silicon Valley. 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," he said.
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"Think of the California gold rush, you know? 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 who were doing other things besides mining for gold. And that's kind of what happened here."