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Prayer Was Followed by Opportunities
After Neal McDonough was blacklisted, he explains that his prayer that reminded him of all God had provided for him, was followed up shortly with a call from screenwriter and star, Graham Yost.
The actor explains, “I remember, a few minutes later, I was sitting there at the kitchen table with Ruvé. Graham called and said, ‘Hey, you want to play the villain in the first episode or two of ‘Justified?’”
After a few difficult years of not getting acting work, this call was long-awaited. “I said, ‘Yes, yes I do.’ And after the first take, he came up to me and said, ‘You want to play the villain for the whole year?’” McDonough recalls. “I joked, ‘Didn’t you know that was my game plan? That’s what I’m going to do.’”
It seems that Graham Yost’s welcome into the case of Villain was what ended the acting drought after Neal McDonough was blacklisted. He explains, “And after ‘Justified,’ everything was kind of forgotten.”
But the ousting didn’t sway Neal McDonough in his convictions. He explains, “I won’t mention the Lord’s name in vain, and then I won’t kiss another woman.”
The drought only motivated him to become an even greater actor.
“I was determined to give a really great performance and I did,” he explains. “And, you know, I realized that perhaps I was taking some of my acting for granted. I was working all the time, but perhaps I wasn’t dialed in enough in terms of what I could really do as an actor.”
Since then, he’s had plenty of acting work to keep him busy, and he’s thankful to God for it. “I’ve been working so much in the last several years, and I couldn’t be more thankful,” McDonough said. “I thank God every day for all the blessings I’m given, even during challenging times.”
He credits God for his success. “God gave me this gift of being an actor, and I’m not going to waste it,” he says.
Despite his passion for acting, his greatest passion is still his family. As IMBD puts it, “But Neal’s most prized accomplishment is his relationship with his wife Ruvé, their five children, and with God, as a devout Catholic.”