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Interview with: Neal
McDonough Interview date: 9/01/04 Interviewed by: Judy Gaultney/ OnSat Magazine This interview was a conference call; Judy participated with other journalists. Good morning, Neal. Neal: Hi, how are you? I'm good; thanks for doing this call. Neal: Thank you very much. I liked the pilot; you're really very good in it. How did it work out that you're doing this show? Did somebody have you in mind from day one or did you come along way after the fact? Neal: From the very beginning, Jeff Zucker (NBC Universal Television Group President) had the idea of me doing this show. He sent the script over and I jumped all over it. After doing Boomtown, a lot of people thought, 'Why would you want to go back and do network television again? You were doing lots of films, and things were going in that direction.' For me, to work with Jeff again and also to work with Kevin Riley at NBC (President, NBC West Coast) and the people at Paramount also, that was a no-brainer for me. Plus, to play a character that's got so many dimensions like Connor does and to work with the people we were rounding up, it has been such a fantastic thing thus far and I'm having a wonderful time, not just playing this part but also being a part of the family I just talked about. Did you happen to meet or shadow real-life counterparts in preparation? Neal: Absolutely. I was fortunate enough to meet and talk with Don Francis a bunch of times. And the Band Played On and Outbreak were basically based on his life. Don was the first guy in on Ebola and HIV and so many other things. He is basically who I base my character on. He's such a wonderful guy. There was a great moment with Don. Here's a guy who's been all over the world and saved literally millions of lives and stopped the outbreak of diseases in so many different places. Yet he's so myopic in certain things. He can figure out how to do that but he can't literally figure out how to boot up a computer. At the end of our conversation, he said, 'Call me any time on my cell phone.' I said, 'What's your cell phone number?' He pulls out his cell phone and he turns it over and his number was written on the back of his cell phone. I go, 'Don, how long have you had that cell phone number?' He goes, 'Oh, about three years.' That's exactly the stuff that we thought Don would be like, and that's exactly how we're playing Connor. You never see Connor with a computer. He's with his cell phone a lot because he talks to certain people on the phone back in the labs, but he's not really good at the New World stuff. He has this kind of sixth sense to figure out how to simply put things together and come up with the answer to these puzzles. That's really funny. An insider, Kelli Williams, tells me you're a woos about needles. Neal: My wife Ruve just cracked up when she said, 'OK, how are you going to play an epidemiologist when you can't stand the sight of needles and blood and such?' Being a hockey player and a baseball player and such, you can bash me in the head with anything and I won't complain about it, but as soon as you show me a needle, I get so like giggly, like a little boy. I get so nervous around needles, it's really funny. In fact, the first day in the pilot, Kelli had to take blood out of Michael Nouri. Obviously it was fake and it had nothing to do with reality whatsoever, and I still got queasy. Yeah, it's something I'm going to have to get used to as the show goes on over the years. I talked to an ER doctor, too, who's queasy about fake blood, so you're not alone. Neal: Yeah, one of my best friends back home is a lobster fisherman, and he can't swim, and he's scared of the ocean. Go figure that. I just bought the Boomtown DVD set. Was the premature death of that series a bummer? Neal: No. I mean, to be honest, I never even thought the pilot was going to get picked up. When we got picked up, that was the bonus in itself. That we got to do 24 episodes of a really terrific show and to get to know Jeff and to work with NBC, it was such a great experience for me and a great achievement in my career that I've gotten to that point where I get to play characters like this on television. If it weren't for Boomtown, I certainly wouldn't be sitting here talking to you all this morning. I was very blessed to be able to do 24 episodes of that show. It was a wonderful experience. In the same way, do you not allow yourself to have big dreams for this show (Medical Investigation)? Neal: I'm a simple boy from Cape Cod. I never think, 'Well, is this going to be picked up? Is this going to go for five years? Is it going to go for this? Is it going to go for that?' My outlook is there are 100,000 guys out there who would love to be in my position, so I'm going to enjoy the heck out of coming to work every day, doing the best I can, being positive. The big man upstairs has been really nice to me to give me all of these great gifts, so who am I to say, 'Can I have more?' You know what I mean? It's been really terrific. If they shut it down tomorrow, I had a great time. If they shut it down in 10 years, I'm still going to have a great time. A bio I read said you had considered leaving acting just before you got the role in Band of Brothers. What had led to that decision, and what was your alternative career? Neal: Well, what happened was, I had done for several years lots of independent films or episodes on TV shows or a couple of big feature films that kind of flopped. Ravenous (1999) or some other ones that really didn't do too well. I wasn't making a living at it. I was living check to check, and I didn't think I was moving forward in my career. Little did I realize that some people were watching, like Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks were watching. In hindsight, I'm so happy that my career went that way because for years I really worked on my craft. But it wasn't making me happy at the time, because I wasn't making any money at it really. I was having a great time doing what I was doing, but it didn't seem like my career was really going to go anywhere. So I went back to Cape Cod and worked with my dad. He has a motel on the Cape, and I was working with him for the summer, and I said, 'Maybe I'll just stay here and work with my dad and be in the motel business the rest of my life.' It wouldn't be such a bad thing. I could do theater back in Barnsville, the local theaters and stuff, and was kind of set to do that. Then I got a call from a very good friend of mine, Glenn Rigberg, who is now my manager. He said, 'I have an audition for you for this thing called Band of Brothers. They would like to see you this week.' I was like, 'What's Band of Brothers?' 'Well, it's this new miniseries for HBO.' I'm like, 'OK, I'll come on out.' So I pretty much hopped on the next plane and came out here and auditioned and in the room was Tom Hanks. Here I am auditioning for this teeny part in Band of Brothers and Tom Hanks is in the room and 15 other producers, and it was really kind of like this amazing experience. As soon as I said, 'OK, which casting director am I reading with?' Tom raised his hand and said, 'No, you're going to read with me.' Right then and there it gave me such an appreciation for, not just Tom Hanks, but for my craft and my business and certain people who are in that business, especially for someone like Tom, who has won two Academy Awards. If he's reading a small part with me, that means he must be reading small parts with everyone. That's 300 auditions he's probably doing. Such a lesson in humility that day in so much as enjoy what you do, respect your craft and be a team player as much as you possibly can. Those are things that have really stuck with me. Then, all of a sudden, my career just took off. Steven was brave enough to give me Minority Report, then Steven and Jeff gave me Boomtown, now here I am at Paramount talking to you guys about my new television series Medical Investigation. How did it happen? I have no idea. So when I get questions like 'what do you think is going to happen or what's going to go here,' I leave that to the big man upstairs and just enjoy the process. I have another question about the show itself. We meet your family in the pilot. Will we meet the families of the other cast members and get a look at the other part of their lives in later episodes? Neal: Well, you won't be meeting my family a whole lot more after the sixth or seventh episode. It doesn't go very well for Dr. Connor. As far as Natalie's character goes, she's not married. At some point, I'm sure you're going to meet Powell's wife (Frank Powell, played by Troy Winbush). He's been married for 12 years and has three girls in the show. I'm sure that will happen at some point. Right now, as far as my character goes, I won't give away storylines, but my wife finally gets totally fed up with me being an epidemiologist jumping all over the country trying to save lives and I can't figure out how to save myself or save my marriage or save the relationship with my son. So, the natural progression takes course, and, at some point, I'm going to have to make choices that really affect my life and the life of my family. The pilot was so intense. I was glued to the TV because I didn't want to miss anything that was going on. Can you maintain that type of intensity? Neal: Oh, absolutely. The great thing about the show and one of the reasons I wanted to do it so badly is that all these episodes are inspired by real stories. There is so much. I mean, Judy, it actually kind of scares me and kind of haunts me at times realizing and knowing all the information that's out there and all the diseases that are out there. There are microbes underneath your fingertips right now that can kill you; all they need is some catalyst. It's out there. We will not be lacking for storylines and intensity in this show. It's something we are really going to pride ourselves upon. Thank you. Neal: You betcha. How much of the character of Stephen Connor was on the page, and how much are you actually allowed to add to it, either in little details like what the guy puts in his bedroom or something? Neal: Lots. In fact, this one episode took place in Massachusetts, and I made sure they had Red Sox stuff all over the kid's bedroom when I walked in, being from Massachusetts myself. Larry Andries, who was, obviously, one of the head writers on Boomtown, is the head writer on this. Larry and I speak daily about where the character and characters should go and where they're from and what the storylines are coming up and what's going to make for really great stuff. On Boomtown, I was fortunate enough to be able to do that. Originally, my character was supposed to be this swarthy, handsome Latino character who had all these affairs. Well, as soon as Steven decided that he wanted me to play the part, I was allowed to change it to, obviously not swarthy and Latin, but Irish and flawed. So I took real-life experiences from my life and people I know and kind of put it into David McNorris. I'm doing much the same with Stephen Connor. In fact, we changed the name to Connor because that's my nephew's name and Stephen because that's my best friend's name. So there you go. There's a little insight already. Yeah, they allow me to add really nice stuff to the character and make it really multi-dimensional. Are you going to make him a Trekker because from what I understand, you kind of have the holy trinity in your room--a picture of your mom, a picture of Jesus and a picture of William Shatner as Captain Kirk? Neal: David, this has been going on since I did the film almost 12, 10 years ago (Star Trek: First Contact in 1996). I still don't know where that came from. I've never really been much of a Star Trek fan. I appreciate what Mr. Shatner does, and he's wonderful at his craft, but, you know, that's not really the truth with me. In your case, is there one particular microbe you hope to put in the series? Do you have much of a science background before this show came about? Neal: The true microbe that I'm trying to put into the show is just the truth, always trying to find the truth of whatever the situation is, be it my personal life character or what's going on with these diseases. I think that's my job, to make sure it's always truthful, or as truthful as possible within the realms of television. Entertainment aside, I like to make sure people watch this and say, 'OK, this is really an honest, truthful effort on their part and it's really great television.' That's kind of my job. Regarding the scientific aspect, sometimes the hardest thing is to mention all these medical details so that it sounds authentic. Do you have a background in science at all or an interest? Neal: Oh, I've always had lots of interest in science and the whole medical world. I've always found it fascinating. If I didn't, I don't think I would be able to play a character like this. Since then, Bob Cooper, the producer, has given me volumes of information and books and this and that to really get myself up to snuff on all of this. I'm not lacking material; they give me copious amounts of stuff. It's been really fantastic. Thank you very much. I look forward to the rest of the series. Neal: Thank you. All the best. When you keep referring to the big guy upstairs who has your fate in his hands, are you referring to God or to Jeff Zucker? Neal laughs: I've said before I thank the big man upstairs and I thank the big man down here, and that would be Jeff Zucker. How do your feel about the fact that either the big man upstairs or the big man down here allowed Boomtown to wither and die after only a couple of episodes last season? Neal: Well, the ratings just weren't there. It's just that simple fact. That Jeff let it run as long as it did run, he loved the show. He was such a huge fan of it. He hated to see it go. He has apologized profusely to people that he had to let it go. It was just simply that. It wasn't linear enough for most of the population, I think. Because of that, he had to pull the plug at some point. It really was just dipping, and each week, even with the new episodes, the ratings weren't doing so well. So, again, I don't even like to think about those things. I don't even like to get involved in it. Those decisions are up to people who are far smarter than I am. I just like to act and come to work. Presumably, you and Larry Andries have an awareness that you are in the exact same time slot you were in last fall. Is there any sense that what you're doing is more acceptable or viewer friendly this time around? Neal: No, I think it's greater. Larry and I just kind of shoot from the hip and try to figure out what's best for the show. If it stays on the air for a long time, then great. If it doesn't, we've been here before. That's kind of where we're coming from. This show has a lot more things that will give it staying power than did Boomtown. The procedural side of the show is just fascinating. It has a thriller aspect to every episode. The characters on the show, my character in particular, has his flaws. Maybe not as flawed as David McNorris. I'm not sure you could watch David McNorris every episode as the lead in a show. It might be a little hard. But as far as Stephen Connor goes, he's really human and that's what I love to play, whether it's a lawyer, whether it's a doctor, whatever position he is. It's the flaws and the human side of characters that really get me going, and I think that's what I excel at. When you look for projects now, do you look for things that are more linear, maybe more obviously mainstream, having seen what happened to Boomtown? Neal: No. Again, I look for the character, what is this guy, where is he from, what is he doing? Is he juggling different things in life, like we all do? In my personal life, I'm working 15, 16, 17 hours a day here at Paramount and then I have to make sure I'm spending a lot of quality time with my wife. Those things. For me, this business is fantastic; I love doing it. It has afforded me some really wonderful things. At times when it wasn't working, it wasn't affording me lots of material things, but it was giving me great freedom and such. That being said, this is definitely not the most important part of my life. The most important part of my life is my family, my wife. That I get to work here and go home every night to see my wife, that's probably the greatest thing about this job. Given the number of somewhat similar forensic dramas on television, what do you think is going to set Medical Investigation apart for viewers? Neal: The thing about a lot of these shows without naming names--I'm not the biggest fan of them and when I heard about this show, I was like, 'Ah, I'm not sure if that is really the way I want to go because there is so much about killings and who killed who and who raped whom and all these really horrible things to watch. Me, personally, I don't really need to see that, sit down at night and watch that. This however talks about simple microbes that turn into vicious killers. When we figure out what it is, at the end of the show you're feeling hope of things in the face of despair. I think that's what separates our show from the other forensic dramas. I think people are going to gravitate towards it because at the end they're going to really feel better about life and feel safer knowing that there are people like our team who really do go around the country and around the world trying to stop these things. You keep doing all these very intense dramas. Is there an intense comedy in your future? Neal: That's how I started out. I started out just wanting to be a comic, wanting to do Saturday Night Live. If you look at my earlier stuff, from Angels in the Outfield to Balloon Farm to lots of these different performances, I have a great friend Bill Dear, whom I've worked with as a director a bunch of times. He'd give me these goofy parts doing whatever, and I would have an absolute ball doing them. You're right. The characters I like to play are really intense, in either direction, whether it's a comedy or drama. I'm not really the most intense guy in the world. I'm pretty much your regular run of the mill guy from Cape Cod type of thing, but when it comes to acting, I really just love to jump into these intense guys for some reason. I think it's kind of fun. Our next question comes from Carol Beggy of the Boston Globe. Neal: Hi, Carol. How's the weather there today? It's a beautiful day and the Sox are back at Fenway. Neal: Can you believe it! Three and a half games. Fantastic. Yes, did you see what happened to the Yankees last night? Neal: Yeah, it just broke my heart (sarcastic). We've bored everyone else now. I know. Sorry, but I had to ask you about the Red Sox. It's kind of a thing we do. When we spoke to you about Boomtown, there was a concern about the timing of it and what was going on in TV at the time, all the reality shows and that sort of thing, and what was going on in the real world, that maybe it was just too much too heavy at that time. You certainly couldn't have done this show back then. Do you think the timing is right now, because we're seeing a lot more bigger, heavier dramas come out this fall? Neal: Do I think the timing is right for Medical Investigation? Yeah, with the audience. Neal: Again, I don't even like to really think about those things. I think we're making a terrific show and I think people are really going to enjoy watching it. Whether it becomes a massive hit or not, I don't even like to speculate about those kinds of things. I'm not sure how to put that. Very specifically, we were coming off 9-11 when you were faced with such a serious story like Boomtown. Do you think the audience has grown up to understand this show a little bit more, be a little more tolerant for dramas that are broader, not just who's getting raped this week or who's getting murdered this week, and then it all gets solved nicely? Neal: It's really tough when you try to figure out what's going to happen with shows and when shows are supposed to be on and when they're not, things like this. With Jeff and the boys there, they figure out these things a lot better than I could. That being said, I think that audiences are becoming much more savvy and intelligent, and they want to see really fascinating stuff on television. That's definitely what MI is. It has all those ingredients to be a huge success because it talks about real-life things and solves them at the end of each episode. And it has a thriller aspect. And it's also very informational. I used to just kind of skate through life and figure, 'Oh, nothing's going to hurt me.' But there are so many things out there that are just within arm's length that can kill you or kill thousands or millions of people. I think now with so many scares of anthrax and West Nile virus and this and that, people, I think, are really going to want to watch this to become informed about the nasty things that are out there just around the corner. In the way that none of us ever knew what happened in an autopsy on Quincy, but now with CSI, we all have a knowledge. Do you think some of the stuff you've been doing, you can see it translating into daily life for people? Neal: Oh, absolutely. I've never seen a show about epidemiology on television. I don't think anybody else really has either. There are going to be a lot of people watching this and learning and understanding, and Monday morning around the water cooler, they're going to be talking about these nasty bugs and viruses and everyone's going to pretend to be a surgeon on Monday and, 'Oh, I solved that in the first five minutes of the show.' Me, as an actor, I can't even figure it out toward the end. There is lots of great stuff for people to watch and become informed and be thrilled about and, obviously, very scared about. This next one, I can't even tell you what it is because it's so horribly scary. For me, personally, that this could kill you ruins so many things about my life that it's terrible and they have to face these things. But then again, thank God there are teams like our team that go around the country putting the kibosh on these outbreaks. It's very interesting stuff to play and live with. Back to you, just quickly. It seems as though with Boomtown, you played a character who was just downright scary at times. And you seem to do so well when you play the bad guy or at least the flawed guy who's on the edge of craziness. Yet we do have those early, early pieces where you were the funny guy and quite humorous. It seems as those this guy with his quirks, is he floating somewhere in between those things? Maybe your folks won't be so upset when you come back to Cape Cod because you're the bad guy again. Neal: This one, boy, he's an intense piece of work. He's so driven by certain things that happened in his personal life, which will unfold as the episodes go on. There were some really tragic things that happened to form Stephen's psyche and why he does what he does and why he throws away certain things. I think the one thing he never wanted to be -- growing up as a kid, I'm sure, you know, my father in the show is the stellar surgeon from Cape Cod. Here we go again, back in Massachusetts. He has all the toys, and he's a really successful guy, not the nicest guy in the world. I have an older brother who was supposed to follow in his footsteps and something tragic happened that I couldn't fix, and I enlisted in the Army to get away from everything. Soon I figured out that I had this knack for figuring out diseases and that was my calling. I am sure that Stephen Connor would give anything for this not to be his calling so he could just have his wife and his son and live, you know, wherever. Live in BarnstableVillage and do whatever and never have to be subjected to the tortures of being an epidemiologist, especially at this level, because it rips him apart. It rips his family apart. Well, put it this way: Could you imagine having your husband or your wife go out and solve infectious diseases and then come home and give you a kiss at night. 'Hi, honey, I'm home.' It can't happen. Even touch the door handle. Neal: Exactly. It's a heavy cross to bear for Connor, and he's dealing with it the best he can, but, obviously, as you see in the pilot, the best just really isn't good enough for him. He would love to quit what he's doing, but there's no way he can because there's no one else to do the job as fast as he can. So if he quits, people die. If I stay with my job, then my relationship with my wife and my son dies. So where do I go? It's a very difficult thing to play every week. Thanks, Neal. Good luck. Neal: You bet. Question from man in Cleveland. Neal: Thank God for Cleveland last night. You can thank us for that 2-0 win-- and you can thank us for Manny Ramirez while you're at it. Neal: Oh, fantastic. Carol will appreciate this, too. The first movie I ever did was a TV movie called The Babe Ruth Story where I played Lou Gehrig. I was away from home for six months. I came back home with my 27 Yankees hat and my 27 Yankees jacket on, walked into my house, and there were my four brothers and my dad. They beat the snot out of me until I tore all that stuff off and put a Red Sox hat on. Hung in effigy would have been apropos. Neal: That's right. And we shot The Babe Ruth Story at Cleveland Municipal. That's right. I remember that, when it was in town. Is this going to be the year they pass the Yankees, or are you going to settle for the wild card? Neal: I've said it every year since I was a little boy. Of course, this is the year. The Red Sox are going to win it all this year. They're going to win the pennant. The Yankees are going to take the wild card. Then we're going to beat the Yankees in the playoffs. Then we're going to beat the Cubs or the Cardinals. Well, the Cardinals, it looks like right now. For Manny's sake, because we love Manny here. In the pilot, I must admit, the scene where you actually put your hand on Michael Nouri's body when he's just been deceased, and you think, 'Geez, we see a guy here who's really a tender doctor, a tender human being and a caring guy.' Then we come back from the break and you're bitching out Kelli Williams. Would you have not taken on this character if there were not this dichotomy to him? Neal: No, I wouldn't have, because, like I said, if I'm going to do one or two episodes of this or 200 episodes of this, I want to really enjoy it, I want to have fun. By doing that, that becomes the most infectious thing on a set. When it's infectious on a set, then you're making great things, and people see that when they watch the show. For me as the lead character, I want to make sure I'm really enjoying this character and that he's got weighty human flaws and problems and he has to deal with them. The thing I loved so much about McNorris and which I've pulled and put into this character is that the only people who get to really see the human side of Connor is the audience. I have to bark at people, because if I don't bark, then people don't work fast enough and get the answers fast enough. Although my crew knows that I'm a really very solid great guy, I can be a tyrant at times, because they know that's just what I am. Kelli's character is wonderful at being the maternal side and saying, 'You can breathe now. You can calm down a little bit.' Of course, which sets me off, and 'How dare you tell me to breathe.' Then I'll see someone like Michael Nouri or whoever as the guest star and there's a great scene with Theo, who's a character in the third episode. He's a soldier who just came back from Fallujah, and he's dying in front of me. He can't hear what I'm saying. The audience can hear what I'm saying, and there I am breaking down in front of this 19-year-old soldier, and it's a beautiful, beautiful scene. Those are the times when I can breathe but only in front of the audience, that I can show that there is a really big heart and a massive soul to Stephen Connor. Once in awhile I can tip my cards to my cast or my crew members, but not very often. That's what I think makes for a compelling lead character. In real life a human being like that would seem to be on a natural course for disaster. Though he's extremely intelligent, by the same token, to have such focus you feel you're absolutely indispensable, that's a product for a potential breakdown. Is that out of line for Stephen, or is he Superman? Neal: No, each episode you see him falling just a little bit more. We really find out why he is what he is in about the sixth or seventh episode, and he just loses it all. It's really going to be terrific, terrific stuff. It's going to be just a ball to play because I get to play these really intense characters, which are really kind of not me in real life, I get to really appreciate how fortunate I am with the things I have in my life and the blessings that have been given to me. I remembered something when you were talking about Stephen's flaws. In the pilot, Kelli mentions the blood sugar thing. Is that going to be something that reoccurs also? Does your character have a medical problem? Neal: No, it's just that, it's really kind of funny. In the show Stephen forgets to eat. Stephen forgets to do certain things, whatever. When I'm doing the character, my wife will call me late in the afternoon and ask me, 'Have you eaten anything?' 'No, I haven't eaten since breakfast.' So once you're so into Stephen doing his job the way he does it and the way I do my job, I'm so focused into the character that I forget to do a lot of things in life. And Stephen's the same way. So, no, he doesn't suffer from hypoglycemia or anything, he just forgets to do lots of the normal functional things that human beings normally do. One more thing? Is it just the Red Sox that get you, or is it all Boston teams? Neal: Oh, absolutely love the Patriots. When the Celtics were winning--that was a while ago--fantastic. The Bruins, I have a really soft spot in my heart because they haven't won since (Bobby) Orr was in town. But they all pale in comparison to the Red Sox. My dad came over here in 1947 from Ireland and became a Red Sox fan. The one thing in life I would love to see--it's his 80th birthday this year--is to see the Red Sox just win one for my dad. It would mean the world to him and me. If you send them a note, and if you explain it to them, they'll make it happen this year. You won't be devastated like last year. Neal: We're going to win it all this year. This is the season. Thank you very much. |