Latest / Crosswalk Talk: Celebrity Christian Interviews / The Villain Who Almost Found Redemption and Walked Away From It

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The Villain Who Almost Found Redemption and Walked Away From It · Crosswalk Talk: Celebrity Christian Interviews

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  Speaker 1: Life Audio.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks for joining me. Neil McDonough, actor and filmmaker who
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  Speaker 2: stars in a new movie, Angel and the Bad Man.
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  Speaker 2: The plot summary says, a wounded outlaw finds unexpected mercy
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  Speaker 2: in the care of her rancher's daughter. Also stars Zachary Levi,
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  Speaker 2: who portrays the outlaw on the run. It's an Angel
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  Speaker 2: Studios movie. Neil, you portray Laredo, a man who is
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  Speaker 2: chasing after the outlaw. Court Evans, you're also executive producer.
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  Speaker 2: Tell me what attracted you to this film.
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  Speaker 1: Angel Studios. You know, when Angel says, we've got this
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  Speaker 1: great Western we want you to play the bad guy in,
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  Speaker 1: I just got so excited. You know, and then they said,
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  Speaker 1: Zach Levi and Tommy Lee Jones. I was like, come on,
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  Speaker 1: are you kidding? And we had the greatest time here
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  Speaker 1: in Santa Fe doing the film. And, you know.
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  Speaker 2: I love Westerns.
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  Speaker 1: I'm a big horse guy. I've always been that way.
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  Speaker 1: And to be part of the Angel family where I
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  Speaker 1: get to stay with all the Western motifs in what
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  Speaker 1: I write or what I act in, it's just, you know,
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  Speaker 1: my wife, Revae, and I had a pretty... four films
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  Speaker 1: for them now. We've got two more coming out very soon.
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  Speaker 1: I couldn't be happier. I'm so blessed to be part
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  Speaker 1: of Angel Studios, what they put out there, and to
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  Speaker 1: be part of that family is just incredible.
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  Speaker 2: What is it about Westerns, Neil, that attracts our souls?
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  Speaker 2: I mean, it's almost like I watch that movie and
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  Speaker 2: I just want to sit on the couch and watch
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  Speaker 2: it for hours and hours, but there's something about it.
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  Speaker 2: What attracts you to Westerns?
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  Speaker 1: I think it harkens back to our childhood where, you know,
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  Speaker 1: there were so many Westerns made so many years ago.
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  Speaker 1: So I was saying earlier, whenever I come back from
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  Speaker 1: church on Sunday, it would be Three Stooges and Straight
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  Speaker 1: into some John Wayne film. And that was my Sunday
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  Speaker 1: afternoon of watching television. And I just loved it. And
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  Speaker 1: I love playing in the motifs of this black and
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  Speaker 1: white characters, but they're really dealing with gray areas. And
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  Speaker 1: the gray areas of life, to me, that's the dramatic
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  Speaker 1: part of life.
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  Speaker 2: You know, there's a hero, but that hero isn't always perfect.
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  Speaker 2: He has problems. He has baggage.
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  Speaker 1: And this one, this is a fantastic Western because there's
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  Speaker 1: Kurt Evans, this outlaw. And he gets shot up and
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  Speaker 1: he lands at this rancher's house. And they fix him up,
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  Speaker 1: they bandage him up, and he starts to realize, wait
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  Speaker 1: a minute, there's so much more to life than being
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  Speaker 1: an outlaw and shooting people. There's also family and love
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  Speaker 1: and all these other things. And he finally has something
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  Speaker 1: to stand up for, something to protect in his life
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  Speaker 1: for the first time. And to see films like that
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  Speaker 1: where you get to say, okay, I may have been
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  Speaker 1: a knucklehead in some things in my life, but there's
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  Speaker 1: always a chance that I can be better. I can,
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  Speaker 1: I can do the right thing starting right now at
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  Speaker 1: this moment. And those are the things, those are the
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  Speaker 1: motifs that Westerns play with. And I, and I just
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  Speaker 1: love it. And then of course the big backdrop, the
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  Speaker 1: vistas of Westerns and that, and the mountains and the
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  Speaker 1: horses and everything else. I just, it's always my favorite
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  Speaker 1: and I'm so blessed to be part of them. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: I think, I think folks who live in cities watch
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  Speaker 2: Westerns because they, they want to be in that location.
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  Speaker 2: I think that's one thing that happens sometimes. You know,
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  Speaker 2: that this, this, Westerns often deal with justice, forgiveness, and redemption.
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  Speaker 2: Themes grounded in scripture. How does Angel and the Bad Man,
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  Speaker 2: how does that film wrestle with those themes in this movie?
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  Speaker 1: Well, one of my favorite things about Angel Studios is
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  Speaker 1: that they do kind of, I call it faith adjacent.
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  Speaker 1: It's really just more to amplify light than it is
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  Speaker 1: to hammer home or be preachy. But by doing so,
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  Speaker 1: in the background, There's subliminal messages going on about through God,
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  Speaker 1: everything is possible. You can do the right thing if
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  Speaker 1: you have faith. And instead of hammering the audience, they
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  Speaker 1: let the audience kind of find these things themselves. And
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  Speaker 1: by doing so, it allows the characters to really find
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  Speaker 1: themselves and find true redemption in the piece. And sometimes it's,
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  Speaker 1: you know, the villain finds some redemption as well. You
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  Speaker 1: see Laredo three quarters away through this film, you think, oh,
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  Speaker 1: This poor guy, I kind of like him. And then
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  Speaker 1: all of a sudden he just says, nah, I don't
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  Speaker 1: really need the redemption. And he suffers because of it.
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  Speaker 1: I love playing in those areas. And to do it
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  Speaker 1: with Angel Studios, I'm the luckiest guy I know because
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  Speaker 1: I get to produce these films alongside my wife, Revae,
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  Speaker 1: and play with some of the greatest actors like Zach
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  Speaker 1: Levi and Tommy Lee Jones.
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  Speaker 2: But the theme of people can change for the better,
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  Speaker 2: that's a powerful theme. I mean, I don't know if
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  Speaker 2: you have any thoughts on that. And I think a
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  Speaker 2: lot of films that you've been in have been grounded
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  Speaker 2: in that theme, even though, of course, you've played the
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  Speaker 2: villain many, many times. But yeah, that's powerful. This is
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  Speaker 2: a remake of the 47 film starring John Wayne. Do
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  Speaker 2: you know if there are any differences in the plot?
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  Speaker 2: I haven't yet to watch the 47 film.
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  Speaker 1: No, it's pretty darn true to it. The difference is
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  Speaker 1: John Wayne's performance is one way, and Zach Levi, the
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  Speaker 1: thing that Zach does, as well as any actor in Hollywood,
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  Speaker 1: he figures out a way to bring this kind of
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  Speaker 1: levity or humanity in a time where it really wasn't
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  Speaker 1: supposed to be in the script or in the, in
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  Speaker 1: the film. And by doing so the audience gets to
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  Speaker 1: really like him more or actually care for him more
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  Speaker 1: and root for him more. Zach's an incredible, you know,
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  Speaker 1: when it comes to technique on camera, he knows exactly
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  Speaker 1: what he's doing and he did such a phenomenal job
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  Speaker 1: in this film. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: He was in a movie in the past couple of
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  Speaker 2: years that kind of was, was set in the West.
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  Speaker 2: I forget the name of it, but it was really good.
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  Speaker 2: So I think, That's it. That's it. Yeah. And it
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  Speaker 2: was incredible. If folks like that, maybe they're going to
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  Speaker 2: love this one, I think.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: You've been a producer on several films now, Neil. What
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  Speaker 2: do you enjoy about being on that side of the
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  Speaker 2: creative process and having a greater role in the stories
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  Speaker 2: that are told?
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  Speaker 1: Oh, it's simple. I get to work alongside my wife
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  Speaker 1: every day, you know, so it's, For Ravay and I
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  Speaker 1: to build our company together, now we're about to produce
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  Speaker 1: our 15th and 16th film in the last five years,
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  Speaker 1: whether executive producing or full-on producing. If we're going to
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  Speaker 1: put our names on a film, we want to make
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  Speaker 1: sure that we can find the best cast, we can
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  Speaker 1: find the best directors, find the best distributor, whom obviously
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  Speaker 1: is Angel Studios, who we have our first look deal with.
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  Speaker 1: We don't take that lightly, and we don't take the
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  Speaker 1: Guild lightly. We want to make sure that the Guild
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  Speaker 1: is happy with what we're writing. or what we're producing,
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  Speaker 1: or just what I'm acting in, whether I'm the good
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  Speaker 1: guy or the bad guy. So I love Angel Studios,
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  Speaker 1: and there's an importance to what we do to make
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  Speaker 1: sure that the audience is, in fact, entertained and learns
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  Speaker 1: a few things and they watch our projects.
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  Speaker 2: Many people get into filmmaking because it's something they're passionate about.
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  Speaker 2: Others get in it because they think that what needs
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  Speaker 2: to be made isn't being made. In other words, Hollywood's
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  Speaker 2: not making products that we need in our society. Where
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  Speaker 2: do you land on that? Is it a both... are
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  Speaker 2: both of those answers where you stand?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess that there's the validity to both of those.
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  Speaker 1: I don't really think that way. I think, okay, I
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  Speaker 1: have one boss and that's God. So what can I
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  Speaker 1: do to make my boss happy? What can I do
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  Speaker 1: to spread his word through entertainment? And, you know, always
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  Speaker 1: trying to come up with new ideas, always trying to
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  Speaker 1: come up with what's the right idea, always trying to
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  Speaker 1: jump on board projects that have those thoughts. It's important
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  Speaker 1: to me. It's important to my wife, Revae, that we
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  Speaker 1: make sure we give glory to him in our projects.
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  Speaker 1: And again, it isn't just for Christians. It's for Christians
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  Speaker 1: and Jews and Muslims, agnostics, Buddhists. We want to have
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  Speaker 1: morality plays so people can sit there in the theater
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  Speaker 1: with their popcorn and their Coke, watch a great movie,
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  Speaker 1: and then talk to their family after and say, okay, son,
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  Speaker 1: what did you think of that? Daughter, what did you
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  Speaker 1: think of that? Honey, what did you think of that? Husband,
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  Speaker 1: what did you think of that? And that's what cinema
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  Speaker 1: is supposed to be. Cinema isn't supposed to be, I
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  Speaker 1: want to see a movie, I'm going to go home
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  Speaker 1: and not talk about it anymore.
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  Speaker 2: No.
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  Speaker 1: Cinema is supposed to be let's go watch a movie
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  Speaker 1: together as a family or as a bunch of friends.
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  Speaker 1: Let's go watch the movie and then go have a
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  Speaker 1: cup of coffee after and talk about it and see
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  Speaker 1: what were your thoughts. What did you pull from that?
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  Speaker 1: What were the things that you really liked or didn't like?
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  Speaker 1: That's a forum that we're supposed to do as humans.
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  Speaker 1: We're supposed to get together and do things as a community.
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  Speaker 1: And movies are one of the true things where you
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  Speaker 1: can be a community and be in a theater with
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  Speaker 1: a bunch of people you've never met before and you'll
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  Speaker 1: never see again and laugh and cry and enjoy. And
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  Speaker 1: it's kind of an escapism.
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  Speaker 2: So I love film.
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  Speaker 1: I love what Angel Studios is doing. And I love
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  Speaker 1: that we have the opportunity to tell the stories that
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  Speaker 1: we want to do that give glory to him. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: And we need elements in society in which people who
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  Speaker 2: disagree on other things can agree and they can get
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  Speaker 2: together and watch and enjoy something together. I think that's what...
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  Speaker 2: You know, streaming movies is great.
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  Speaker 1: Don't get me wrong. But you can't compare sitting in
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  Speaker 1: front of a big theater screen, sitting there with everyone's excited, right?
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  Speaker 1: Everyone's getting ready. Everyone sits in the event and there's
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  Speaker 1: no talking. There's no cell phones for two hours. There's
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  Speaker 1: nothing but you watching a movie. They used to do
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  Speaker 1: that at home. The cell phone rings or the kids
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  Speaker 1: are doing something. The dogs run around. You don't ever
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  Speaker 1: really get to concentrate and you don't get to talk
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  Speaker 1: about it after. That's the beautiful thing about cinema. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: When I watch a movie at home, I end up
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  Speaker 2: going downstairs and washing my clothes. I want to watch it.
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  Speaker 2: I want to watch it in the theater and have
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  Speaker 2: no distractions. Quickly, in our final seconds here, give me
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  Speaker 2: a preview of the movies that you and Revae are
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  Speaker 2: working on because you have a production company. partnership with Angel.
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  Speaker 2: What's coming down the pike?
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  Speaker 1: We're doing this wonderful film in Poland next, this Catholic
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  Speaker 1: film about Sister Faustina back in the 1940s. Then right
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  Speaker 1: after that, we go into a New York Minute. John
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  Speaker 1: Abnett's directing it again, again for Angel Studios. And then
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  Speaker 1: right after that, we have Riker's Ghost that Neil Jordan
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  Speaker 1: is directing me, and I'm starring in, and again for
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  Speaker 1: Angel Studios. And we have a bunch of other films
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  Speaker 1: that we've worked on, and we've got Jimmy coming out
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  Speaker 1: in November, the Jimmy Stewart story that we helped produce,
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  Speaker 1: and I played Jimmy's dad. So We're very busy. We're
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  Speaker 1: very blessed and go angel. If you liked today's episode,
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  Speaker 1: please subscribe and leave a five-star review. That's how we
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  Speaker 1: help more people just like you.
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  Speaker 2: Find the show. A big thanks to the team at
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  Speaker 2: Life Audio for their partnership with us on the podcast.
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  Speaker 2: If you go to lifeaudio.com, you will find dozens of
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  Speaker 2: other faith-centered podcasts in their network. See you next time.