Dean Cain Defends ‘American Sniper’: ‘Chris Kyle Is An American Hero’

Seth Rogen compared “American Sniper” to Nazi propaganda on Twitter, and Dean Cain immediately fired back.

Dean, who co-starred on the 2012 NBC reality series “Stars Earn Stripes” with the subject of “American Sniper,” Chris Kyle, Tweeted, “Seth…I like your films, but right now, I wanna kick your ass. Chris is an American Hero. Period. Go to war. Then we’ll talk.”

On Wednesday, Dean visited Access Hollywood Live to discuss his reaction and remember his late friend.

“It’s a hard thing. It’s like when someone insults a family member,” Dean told Kit Hoover and guest co-host Holly Robinson Peete of his Twitter smackdown. “So my first reaction was anger. I really was ticked off, so that was what came out of my mouth, very quickly on the keyboard.

“I like Seth’s films, stuff like that, but Chris Kyle fought for his right to be able to be able to say those things, for Michael Moore to say those things, for Bill Maher to say those things,” he continued, referencing other public figures who have made disparaging remarks about the late sniper.

Political feelings aside, Dean said it’s impossible to deny Chris’ heroism and the countless lives he saved while serving the people of the United States.

“You can couch it anyway you want to, Chris Kyle is an American hero. He didn’t make the decision to go to war, but he was the best there was at what he did, and he did it to save other American lives,” Dean said. “Everything in our military is volunteer. Every single person who does go out there and volunteers to protect my freedoms and your freedoms and everybody out there’s freedoms, those guys are heroes, and it’s difficult and sometimes in war, things are ugly.”

The former Superman said he receives “knocks” on Twitter, with users saying he hasn’t been to war. However, the actor visited U.S. troops in Iraq in 2005, and gained an entirely new sense of respect for the men and women of our armed forces.

“I was [in Iraq] for… of all of May, and it was something I wasn’t prepared for,” he shared. “It was very difficult to be there, and I, every time I landed and I was at three or four bases a day – operating bases –and I saw a lot of our young men and women in very compromised positions and had to sit there and talk to them.

“I do tons of work with our veterans now,” he continued. “No, I didn’t have to pick up arms and face off against somebody, I didn’t do that and I didn’t have to make that decision that Chris had to make a lot of times, but I respect these guys… My grandfather was a commander in the Navy, my uncle was a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force, I come from a military background and these guys have my full support.”

However, Dean admitted he wasn’t prepared for the frightening level of danger he faced during his overseas visit.

“I wasn’t prepared for the feeling of vulnerability ’cause we took a lot of mortar attacks and a lot of rocket attacks. I wasn’t prepared to see what I saw,” he said. “I saw a lot of people injured. War is ugly.”

The actor attended Chris’ funeral in 2013, and recently watched “American Sniper” with his 14-year-old son, which became an emotional experience.

“We finished the entire film and the first thing [my son] said to me – and I was crying at the end – he said, ‘I don’t want to go to war.’ And I want that, I don’t want him to go to war,” Dean said, fighting back tears. “I don’t support war, it’s horrible. And Chris Kyle didn’t want [war] – war sucks. But this is a guy who was a hero. You watch a Western, you watch ‘Taken,’ you watch something like that, you want this guy to get the answers, you want those things to happen. You may not approve of it, maybe it’s not the right thing politically, but if your child or your family member was in danger, you might bend the rules. And Chris is one of those guys who’s a hero, he was out there doing the right thing. And maybe it’s ugly, but he’s a hero, period.”

And when Chris was honorably discharged from the military after numerous injuries, he made it his life’s mission to help soldiers suffering from PTSD.

“The reason we did ‘Stars Earn Stripes ‘ was to help our returning veterans,” Dean said. “All the money went to first responders, law enforcement personnel, and our returning military veterans, that’s what we wanted to promote and that’s what Chris’ mission in his life had become.”

“American Sniper,” starring Bradley Cooper and Sienna Miller, is in theaters now.

— Erin O’Sullivan