Actor Neal McDonough is on a mission to tell stories of faith and inspiration.
McDonough’s latest film, “Guns & Moses,” in theaters now, is about a rabbi who runs a small synagogue in California alongside his wife and five kids. The faith leader “becomes an unlikely gunslinger after his community is violently attacked,” according to an official description.
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The actor, who portrays Mayor Donovan Kirk in the film, said the movie is “about honoring God and loving your neighbors.” It’s a mission of kindness and understanding that one could relate to McDonough’s own struggles of losing out on Hollywood jobs after standing by his own Christian faith.
“I had this great career and then it kind of got taken away from me for a little bit because of my faith and my love of my wife,” McDonough said. “I didn’t wanna do kissing scenes because I didn’t wanna put [my wife], Ruve, through that kind of stuff ’cause it’s just odd.”
McDonough previously shared his journey with CBN News. He made a media splash a few years ago for his longstanding policy of declining to kiss castmates, something that caught media attention during his time on the TV show “Desperate Housewives.”
“I wouldn’t kiss a woman on that show years ago,” McDonough said. “And then I got blackballed.”
He continued, “I lost my house, and I lost everything — cars, you name it. I went bankrupt.”
McDonough said he ended up with a “massive drinking problem,” spending two years consuming alcohol to cope with not being able to land a job. Eventually, he overcame those struggles and has since been making powerful movies with redemptive storylines.
In his most recent interview with CBN News, McDonough offered advice for those who have faced similar struggles after standing up for their ideals.
“For people who have gone through what I went through, you gotta keep having your faith,” he said. “You gotta believe that, if you have a God-given talent like I have, I know that if I have faith in Him, He’s gonna get me through anything.”
McDonough continued, “I think when I fell through those problems, I made it about me, and I wasn’t making it enough about Him, and there was a two-year period where I was just wallowing in self-pity, and alcohol, and everything else, just trying to get myself through this horrible time in my life.”
He said he finally put the bottle down and got back to the Lord, finding healing. He now sees his redemptive filmmaking as a way to honor the Lord. And this is what he’s trying to accomplish by “Guns & Moses.” When asked about making a film dealing with antisemitism at a time when anti-Jewish hatred is unfolding around the globe, McDonough said people need to learn to love and understand one another.
As for the current dynamics, he said the “press certainly isn’t helping,” with the media making it look like “everyone hates each other.”
“It’s just awful and it’s doom and gloom,” McDonough said. “Well, that’s not the truth. There are tons of amazing, beautiful, fantastic, wonderful people in the world, and you don’t hear from them, but you do hear from the people who cause these hate riots and all these other things that go on.”
Ultimately, the actor said he wants films like “Guns & Moses” to show people how to love their neighbors better.
“It’s OK to have different thoughts,” McDonough said. “It’s OK to be different. That’s part of what life is.”
Find out more about the film here.
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