FORT WORTH, Texas — Neal McDonough didn’t know much about bull riding before starring in his latest film.

The 59-year-old Massachusetts native stars in Angel Studios’ “The Last Rodeo” as Joe Wainwright, a retired rodeo star who enters a bull riding competition to fund his grandson’s emergency medical operation. The film hit theaters on May 23.

McDonough is a veteran actor, with more than 140 credits on IMDb, but didn’t know much about the sport that’s based right here in Fort Worth. He grew up riding horses and around Western culture, although his bull riding knowledge was limited until he saw a PBR event in New York a few years back.

“It starts with a prayer and ends with a cheer, and it’s all family,” McDonough said. “It’s the heartland of America that I love so much.”

Ahead of the release of “The Last Rodeo,” and the film’s subsequent world premiere in Fort Worth in mid-May, McDonough spoke to the Star-Telegram about the film. The conversation delved into bull riding, his love of Fort Worth and why he’s grateful to “Yellowstone” creator Taylor Sheridan.

[This interview has been edited for clarity and length.]

Q: “The Last Rodeo” premiere is coming to Fort Worth in May. Have you spent much time in Cowtown? [Editor’s note: This interview took place in late April.]

A: I was just there a couple days ago. I love Fort Worth. PBR’s offices are right there in the middle of the Stockyards. My suburban is a Fort Worth edition Suburban. The truck before I had that was a Fort Worth edition Suburban. I buy all my Chevys out of Fort Worth. Yeah, I love Fort Worth.

Q: The USA Film Festival in Dallas also recently happened and you had the movie there, right?

A: Yeah, that was great. It was beautiful. I mean, the the film was so well-received. A big, massive ovation at the end of the film was such a good feeling, because we never seen it really in front of a big audience. I’m so blessed and happy that everyone’s loving the film as much as they are.

Q: I watched the movie recently and its a heartfelt tale about redemption, perseverance and one man’s fight for his family. What drew you to the project?

A: Well, at the time, I was doing another film called “The Warrant,” another Western. When I’m away from Ruvé and the kids, I get kind of melancholy. I’m working, it’s fine. But when I’m not working, when they call wrap for the day, I’m like, “Wish I were home. Gosh, how are the kids? What’s Ruvé doing?” This one day in particular, I had to pull over to the side of the road because I was kind of like gut-punch sad, because this thought went through my head. That was, “What would happen to me if anything ever happened to Ruvé?” Then this other thought came into my head, which I know wasn’t for me, was a gift from from Him above: “Write a film about “Rocky” on a bull. We have to go back and ride to save your grandson’s life because he’s dying of the same tumor that your wife died of.”

Within 24 hours, I kind of outlined it. Then a week later, my writing partner and I had our first draft. A week later it was all set up through Angel and we find our financing and here we are now.

From two years to that day that we were talking about, it’s kind of incredible. It’s almost impossible to make a film, but to make a film that quickly and to have the caliber of people involved, John Avnet, one of the greatest directors in Hollywood. From “Up Close and Personal” to “Fried Green Tomatoes,” all the TV that he’s done that I’ve been part of, “Justified” and “Boomtown.” “88 Minutes,” that we did with Al Pacino together. He’s just my favorite director, and I’ve worked with some great directors. He’s my favorite director there is. To have him on board, really kind of made the film get its teeth. To have the cast with Mykelti Williamson and Christopher McDonald, who are two of my best pals.

Then to have my wife Ruvé — look, Brayden, I’ve never been the hero of a film before. I’ve never gotten to kiss the woman at the end of a movie. I’m always the villain, because I won’t do kissing scenes. When I wrote this, I told Ruvé, “Honey, you have to play the actress in this film, because I have to kiss the woman in the end. There’s no other woman I’m going to kiss, so it has to be you.”

She’s like, “I don’t act.” And I’m like, “Well, you do now. You’re a producer on this film and now you get to act in it too.” So, we had an awesome time. I had a lot of extra takes that day in the kissing scene. I was milking it because I had the best time ever. I’m very proud to finally have had the opportunity to play the John Wayne in the film, the lead guy who gets to kiss a woman in the end and overcome his problems. The redemptive qualities of this film is something that I’m so incredibly proud of.

Q: I was going to ask about playing the hero for once. Does playing these villain roles weigh on you?

A: Well, the villain roles are fun to play because they’re all make believe. It’s absurd situations, really, when you’re playing villains. But when you play the hero, as a method actor, the heroes are basically torn and they have to overcome something, some obstacle, to get to the end where they win. I have to really delve into who I am as a human being to get through these things.

It’s a lot harder to slough off Joe Wainwright, he’s still stuck in me. I can’t only kind of like Buck Compton from “Band of Brothers.” I can’t listen to the the score of “Band of Brothers” without getting choked up, because it brings me exactly back to the exact thought that I had at a certain scene. It’s painful as an artist. It’s painful to draw from those things. I drew from some pretty tough things, dealing with cancer and dealing with death and dealing with loss and such in my own personal life. Also, having everything taken away in my own personal life.

That’s what happens with Joe Wainwright, so when I wrote it, I really kind of wrote it a lot about my personal life. I infused that into the character. This is a great film about bull riding. If you love bull riding, you’re going to lose your marbles, because it’s so action-packed. The PBR backed us 100%, Sean Gleason gave us the bulls, gave us the real riders. We got to use the real rider’s names to give it that kind of legitimacy to the film.

But to me, that’s all great, but it’s the family values. It’s talking to the heartland of America of how you overcome family situations. Because we all have family situations, I don’t care who you are. For Joe Wainwright to overcome these family situations and get through it in the end, through his faith, which he lost. We all lose our faith at times, but it’s the times where we find our faith that we do magnificent and fantastic things, not for ourselves, but for someone else, and for Him. Those are the times that we’re doing our best and that’s what Joe Wainwright finds in the end.

Q: Bull riding gave Joe a career and purpose, and he loses some of that when he gets injured while doing it. Then his grandson starts getting into and there may be something there, then he gets sick. This sport took so much away from Joe and now he has to get back into it to save his grandson. There’s something there about the legacy you pass down to younger generations. How important was having that redemptive story?

A: Yeah, because I think everyone has to go through some redemption at some point in their life. We’re all human, we’re all flawed. We all sin daily. We all do stupid things that we’re not proud of. To have a film that talks about the real things, about being a human being, those are the films I’ve always gravitated towards. Those are the films I’ve always loved watching. As a kid, “The Cowboys” was my favorite movie. I just loved how John Wayne had to overcome something. When all my farm hands are gone, I have no one to help me drive this cattle. All right, I’m gonna go to the school and get these little 10, 11, 12, 13, 14-year-old kids. They’re gonna help me drive cattle through the badlands. What? That’s not possible. Then overcoming things and what happens to John Wayne during that journey.

I love those simple motifs of the Western world. I’ve always just loved Westerns, so now that I get to from “The Warrant,” The Warrant: Breaker’s Law,” “Yellowstone,” “Tulsa King,” “Homestead.” Here we are with “The Last Rodeo,” an $8.5 million budget, with this massive rodeo backdrop that’s full of action and full of suspense, but at the core of it is to really talk about the American family and its dynamics. I’m telling you, Brayden, I’m so proud of this film I can’t even tell you.

Q: What does bull riding as a sport mean to you? I know you recently invested in the PBR’s Austin Gamblers. What’s your relationship to the sport?

A: Two years ago, when I started writing the film, I didn’t really know anything about bull riding. I’ve been riding horses as a kid. My parents are both from Ireland. My dad grew up on a horse farm in Ireland. Horses and the Western culture has always kind of been in my blood. When I went to my first PBR event with Ruvé, it starts with a prayer where everyone takes their hats off. We’re in Madison Square Garden in January, this is where the whole Austin Gamblers thing came in, these hardened New Yorkers taking their hats off at Madison Square Garden and all bowing their heads to say a prayer. How awesome is that, me being a faith-based guy. I just love seeing that. That alone got me going on bull riding.

PBR is different from most professional sports in that when you go to most professional sports, half of the people in the audience hate the other half of the people in the audience. There’s fights, people are drinking, it can get ugly at times. But in PBR, everyone in the whole arena is rooting for that guy, every guy to reach eight seconds. Then there’s the bull riders themselves, that if you don’t get to eight seconds, they’re helping you off the dirt and pulling you over the fence and patting you on the back: “Don’t worry, you’ll get it next time.”

If they do hit eight seconds, they’re high-fiving each other. What other sport roots for the other athletes to do great, I don’t know one. It starts with a prayer and ends with a cheer, and it’s all family. It’s grandpas and grandparents and kids and grandkids and babies, and everyone’s there. So for me, it’s the family environment. It’s the heartland of America that I love so much.

God gave me this idea and planted in my head to write a film about that culture, about who we are as Americans. What a blessing that was, and here we are now. I’m guilty of being a part of a lot of the dark stuff in movies, but I have to have a career. I need a career to provide for my five kids and my wife, but now I get to do things on the other side of it. I finally get to be the hero in films.

Q: Part of the camaraderie comes from the real bull riders in the film, like Daylon Swearingen, and Joe’s relationship with Charlie, played by Mykelti Williamson.

A: Mykelti absolutely crushes this. Here’s a guy who’s played Don King, he’s played everything. But this role, when I wrote it for him, I wanted it to really sing for him. I wanted him to be able to really sink his teeth into a character and crush it. He destroyed it. He was so good in this movie. It’s just remarkable what Mykelti brought to this film. He’s such a gifted actor, but such an amazing human being, and he’s been one of my best friends for a very long time.

Q: My favorite parts of the movie are those road trip scenes with you and Mykelti’s character. They have a long history with each other, and you feel that.

A: They were in Afghanistan together. They bull ride together. They know each other. Then, since [Joe’s] wife died, [he] shuts it off and just holes up and does nothing. It’s kind of like what happened to me when I wouldn’t do that kissing scene in that show 12, 13 years ago. [Editor’s note: McDonough was fired from “Scoundrels” in 2010 for refusing to do sex scenes in the series.]

For about two years, I just pushed everyone away and stayed at home and drank. I was like a really bad country song. It was painful. God got me through it finally. I will never, ever take anything for granted again. I’m blessed to be where I am. Blessed to be able to sit here today and talk to you about this amazing film we have coming up that I’m so proud of.

Q: This is your third project with Angel Studios after “The Shift” and “Homestead.” What is it about working with Angel that’s been good for you?

A: We’re both kind of on the same path. We want to do films to give glory to Him and amplify light, kind of simple. “The Shift” was the first one we did together, that we helped produce with Angel, and I played the devil. I knew that I had to go to a certain place to make it really work, so Kristoffer Polaha’s character could really be amplified by light.

Then we did “Homestead” that little $5 million film that made $23 million at the box office. Then we started to deal with each other, that the McDonoughs and Angel are going to keep doing films together for a long, long time. So my goal, I want to do one film a year for the next 20 years that the McDonough company produces alongside Angel. We tell great films that that are actually great films, not just faith-based films. But great films that also have a faith backdrop to it.

That, to me, is important, because I want to do films that preach to not just Christians, but to Jews and Muslims, agnostics, Buddhists, I don’t care where you’re from. To go to a cinema, take your whole family, and then after that talk to the family, say, “So what’d you think?” To call you out, to think maybe I can be a little bit better of a husband, I can be a better dad, or I can be a better co-worker. Can be better whatever, but I need faith to get there. That’s what our films are about. Going and supporting these films, we get to make a lot more of these for y’all for a very long time to come.

Q: Last thing for you: You are what I would call a Taylor Sheridan guy. You’ve been in “Yellowstone” and now “Tusla King.” “Landman” is filming Season 2 in Fort Worth at the moment. Can we get you in that show?

A: I’m back on “Tulsa King” again now for Season 3, and probably Season 4 it seems. I’m now the governor of the great state of Oklahoma in the show, and I get to team up with [Sylvester] Stallone and do some really fun, crazy stuff. Taylor has been so good to me.“Yellowstone” was one of my favorite things. Obviously, to work with Kevin [Costner] again was just a joy and a ball. To work with Sly [Stallone] now, that dude is a beast. He’s so prepared. He knows his lines. He knows your lines, he knows where the camera should be. He knows everything. He’s the professional’s professional. I love him, not just as an actor, but I love him as a friend. He’s just a great family guy like myself. His wife, Jennifer is on set now, she’s a producer. His daughters are always there, like my family. My wife, Ruvé, we produce together, obviously, as we did here. Our kids are always around, so it’s it’s been a blessing to hang out with those guys. I owe a lot to Taylor Sheridan, so Taylor, if you’re watching, thanks pal.

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