Neal McDonough is a “simple guy” who tries to take every day to better himself.
“Whatever you do in life, it’s your mental state,” the “Guns N Moses” star told Fox News Digital. “What do you want to be? What kind of person do you want to be for Him? What kind of person do you want to be for your wife, for your kids? So I always kind of pride myself on trying to be the best version, but you can’t. We’re all idiots at times, we’re all sinners. We all do stupid stuff. But it’s forgiving yourself. Once you start to forgive yourself for your flaws, you say, ‘Okay, I’ve got some flaws.'”
McDonough mentioned that once he quit drinking, he was able to pour that time back into himself.
“Years ago, I had a problem with alcohol. I had to stop drinking alcohol to actually fall in love with Neal McDonough again. Because once you stop drinking, and all that time of sitting in a bar, or all the time going to the store. All that, I just get tired of thinking about it, all that energy now is geared towards, Okay, ‘I’m all by myself right now. I’m not leaning on the crutch that I usually do. This is a lot of extra time with me. I may not like me very much right now, but at some point, I’m gonna figure out how to fall in love with myself again.'”
NEAL MCDONOUGH BREAKS HIS NO-KISSING RULE FOR ‘THE LAST RODEO’ SCENE
“And that’s what I did when I gave up drinking, I started to actually like me again. And I forgot how blessed I am and all the gifts that God has given me. I’m a great actor. I can’t pound a nail. I can’t tell a joke, but I’m a great actor. That’s a gift from God. That doesn’t make me special. That’s just a gift that I figured out early on.
“So I’m going to keep running with that and do the best that I can and entertain as many people as possible. And hopefully, if they leave the theater or leave a TV show, if it says the McDonough Company on there, and it has our print on it, it’s our job to make you feel a little bit better about your life or test you a little bit and think, okay, how can I be a little better myself?” he concluded.
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WATCH: Neal McDonough’s decision to quit alcohol allowed him to ‘fall in love’ with himself again
The “Yellowstone” actor gave up alcohol in 2016. In August 2017, the actor took to Instagram to publicly thank his wife, Ruve, for helping him reach one year of sobriety.
During his interview with Fox News Digital, the actor spoke about his latest project, “Guns N Moses.” The movie follows a small-town rabbi who becomes a gunslinger after his community is violently attacked.
McDonough explained that he’s always drawn to scripts that are centered around faith, and “Guns N Moses” was no different.
“Whether I’m the good guy or the bad guy, I want to be a part of a story that talks about faith. And I thought, well, you know, we’re talking about faith that America is really built on a Judeo-Christian belief and alignment and such. So I thought, well, there’s so many things going on in the world that really aren’t right and are kind of just unfair for everyone involved,” he shared.
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“I’m not the most political guy in the world, but I am a big believer in God. And I always say, ‘since God made all of us as his children, and we’re all brothers and sisters, we’re one family.’ The best families root for each other and if the families on earth rooted for each other a little bit more, we wouldn’t have all these problems. We wouldn’t have problems in the Middle East.
WATCH: Neal McDonough on his latest project ‘Guns N Moses’
“We wouldn’t have problems in our own hometowns. We wouldn’t have problems with fentanyl. We wouldn’t have a problem with, you name it. There’s so many problems that are going on right now,” McDonough pointed out.
The actor preached unity during times of conflict.
“And if everyone worked together as a team, if we really are the United States, let’s lead with our chins and work hard to provide for, not just ourselves and our own lives, but lives of others who aren’t as fortunate as ours are being born in the United States.
“Could you imagine being born in Israel, living in Israel, living in Kuwait, living in Iran, living in Iraq, living in any of these other places? It’s hard. So my heart bleeds for people who haven’t had the opportunities that my parents looked for as immigrants that came to the United States.
“They wanted to start something new. So there are lots of problems in the world, but I chose this film because it talks about the problems and how we can get through them,” he concluded.
McDonough emphasized that the world is “a massive mess” right now, mostly due to misunderstandings.
“Jews don’t understand Muslims, Christians don’t understand this, but the original core of every belief is to love each other, love your neighbor, enjoy your time on earth, be good and honor God, right? We’re not really honoring God when we’re killing each other. We’re really not honoring God, when we are hating on each other,” he said.
“Guns N Moses” also stars Mark Feuerstein, Dermot Mulroney, Mercedes Mason, Christopher Lloyd and Alona Tal.
“Guns N Moses” is out in theaters on July 18.
