Neal McDonough is one of those actors who has appeared in so many movies and TV shows that his face is almost immediately recognizable to anyone that has watched their fair share of either in the past 10 years.
Check out this Minority Report still, for example. He’s not Tom Cruise. And he’s not Colin Farrell. But I bet you’ve seen him before, and can recognize him as “that guy who usually plays military characters.” Or maybe “that guy from Band of Brothers.” Or perhaps “the strange Tin Woodman from that weird SyFy production.”
Sadly, almost no one knows him by name, despite his frequent appearances and nearly-universally stellar performances. Such is life for countless character actors throughout the industry, who take great pride in their work, even if the accolades they receive are significantly less than Brad Pitt-levels.
Orthodox. Faithful. Free.
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Now, however, thanks to Nikki Finke — wait, did I just put those words together in the same sentence? — I’ve found yet another reason for liking him:
But, in fact, McDonough was sacked because of his refusal to do some heated love scenes with babelicious star (and Botox pitchwoman) Virginia Madsen. The reason? He’s a family man and a Catholic, and he’s always made it clear that he won’t do sex scenes. And ABC knew that.
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“It has cost him jobs, but the man is sticking to his principles,” a source explained to me. You can’t help but admire McDonough for sticking to his beliefs, even if he’s poised to lose as much as $1 million in paydays for Scoundrels…
I’m a bit confused by the way Nikki used the word “even” there, as though we’d respect him more if the payday was smaller. It seems to me that the $1M+ “pricetag” on his principles makes him more impressive, not less so.
It also reminds me of an interesting issue. Certain amounts of sex and violence in film and TV seem more acceptable than others, depending (in some cases) on the individual viewer as much as on the things being portrayed. But what about the actors themselves?
There’s always the question (and the moral repercussions) of how one’s audience is influenced by what you’re doing. But at some point, it seems that an actor will be asked to perform something that will have an impact on him as a human, rather than as an actor. Some are probably serious sources of temptation in their own right. I wonder if that’s what lies behind McDonough’s refusal.
Whatever the cause, I find myself liking him even more now than I did before. And may God continue to give him strength; I’m sure this will not be the last time he suffers for his principles.