Actor Neal McDonough has carved out a unique bond in recent years with faith and family audiences despite his many villainous roles.
Several months after playing another bad guy in the faith-based film Left Behind: Rise of the Antichrist, he portrayed the lead antagonist in the new Angel Studios film The Shift. He had a role in the family movie Sonic the Hedgehog and in the superhero film Captain America: The First Avenger. He also appeared in the faith-centric, football-themed movie Greater.
McDonough credits God for his success.
"How can I be the light for Him? How can I do whatever it takes for Him? Is God first -- those are the tenants that we give to our kids," McDonough says.
Crosswalk recently spoke with McDonough. Below are five questions, with his answers edited lightly for clarity:
You've mentioned previously that you would not kiss anyone on screen. When, during your career, did you begin taking that stance?
From the beginning of my career, I said I would not. [But the ABC series] Scoundrels wanted me to do it. And I said no. And they said, "Well, we'll fire you." And that didn't end well. So, for a couple of years, I couldn't get a job after that because everyone thought that I was this religious zealot. I lost everything.
How did you get it back then?
It was really a hard time. And at that point, I was drinking quite a bit because I couldn't understand how it got so bad so fast. And I remember dropping to my knees and saying, "Why have you forgotten about me, God?" And as soon as that came out of my mouth, I realized I'm making this all about me. And I wasn't making life about Him. And 30 seconds later, I got a phone call from Graham Yost, who wrote Band of Brothers and Boomtown. He said, "How would you like to be a villain for an episode on Justified?" I said, "Yes, I'll do it." And after the first take, he looked at me, and he says, "Your plan was to come in here and get the villain role for the whole year, wasn't it?" I'm like, "Yeah, you know, I was." He was like, "Alright, you're going to be the villain for the whole year." And then all of a sudden, there was this kind of seismic shift in my life that for the last several years, I've been sober, clear-minded, driven to do what is the right thing for Him -- in every aspect of life. But I wouldn't trade it for nothing. The greatest thing about giving up alcohol was that I literally had to spend so much more time with myself that I found out how much I really enjoyed myself. And it wasn't until I had that clarity that I could really spend time with myself and say, "Well, why was I drinking?" And I'm so blessed to have the life that I have.
Tell us about your faith journey.
I always had a great relationship with God, and my parents were always in church, always. So from a young age, I was always just praying a lot and talking to Him a lot. And then, when I got to high school, I did this thing called Echo, where you go away for the weekend, this Catholic retreat. And it was awesome. It made me really focus even more on how can I have the best relationship with Him for the rest of my life? And how can I then be a conduit for Him? How can I be the light for Him? How can I do whatever it takes for Him? Is God first -- those are the tenants that we give to our kids. If you live by those rules, you'll stay out of trouble, and you'll actually be doing honor for Him. That's what life is supposed to be about.
You're in a new Angel Studios movie, The Shift, which is a modern retelling of Job. Tell us about your character.
They called me and asked me if I wanted to play the devil in this movie called The Shift. And I talked to them a little bit about it, and I said, "You know what? I don't think I can." So I went home, and I spoke to my wife, Ruve. She's like, "Okay, let's talk about it. Let's pray about it." And we talked more, and she said, "You're probably the best villain in town, whether you like it or not. And you're probably the only guy who's that great [of a] villain who also has a phenomenal relationship with God. So you kind of have to play this character." And I'm so grateful that she put it that way. I'm so proud of this film.
Why do you enjoy working with Angel Studios?
I have Homestead coming up for Angel Studios and other projects down the pipeline with these guys because they're making films that I can bring my whole family [to] and have a discussion after. You can talk about dark issues, you can talk about death, you can talk about addictions, you can talk about all these things -- [and] if you amplify it with light by the end of the piece, then families can watch the film together. Families don't get to watch films together anymore. It's either a little kid's film or a really dark film. [But with Angel films, we can] sit around the table and talk about: What did you learn from that film?
Photo credit: ©Angel Studios; used with permission.
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.