By Mallory Mattingly
Neal McDonough is committed to his craft, even if that means getting injured.
In his upcoming movie THE LAST RODEO, the actor had to learn how to ride a mechanical bull.
“I fell a lot of times. Yeah, that was fun,” McDonough told Movieguide®’s Dr. Baehr half joking. “I mean, in the [movie’s] trailer, he gets flung off the bull, and that was all real. That hurt.”
McDonough plays a “retired rodeo legend” who “risks it all to save his grandson” in THE LAST RODEO.
“Facing his own painful past and the fears of his family, he enters a high-stakes bull-riding competition as the oldest contestant ever. Along the way, he reconciles old wounds with his estranged daughter and proves that true courage is found in the fight for family,” an official synopsis of the film reads.
Preparing for the role was intense.
“Well, there was one time that I didn’t tell you,” he said to his wife, Ruve. “I got flung off once, and it was a shot they used in the movie.”
“I fell off and landed on my shoulder, and Michael T. comes up. But at that point, my shoulder popped out. So I’m sitting there doing the scene as the pain is just writhing in my shoulder, and then I say, ‘Excuse me, I got to go to the bathroom.’ And I went to this barn around the corner, just slammed my shoulder back into place, and I went back out,” McDonough revealed.
Ultimately, McDonough did his own stunts in the film.
“I love the physicality of doing my own stunts as much as humanly possible,” the actor said. “I wanted to make sure that Kyle Sherwood, who is my stuntman but also a world champion rider himself, just made sure I had the ropes right, made sure I had my hands right, where the knees go, where your feet go — everything. Day after day after day, hammering me, making sure that it looked — I didn’t want any guy, any bull rider saying, ‘No, that wasn’t right.'”
THE LAST RODEO will release in theaters across the nation on Friday, May 23.
In an effort to promote the film, anytime someone purchases a ticket before the release on Friday, they will be entered to win a Ford F-150 Raptor.
“The Last Rodeo is a movie driven by grit, heart, and a relentless spirit. 😎 That’s why when you preorder your tickets to see THE LAST RODEO, you’ll be entered to win this Ford F-150 Raptor! This journey is about more than just the ride – it’s about family, the strength to keep going, and a reminder that anything’s possible,” THE LAST RODEO wrote in a post on Instagram
Thankfully, Neal McDonough recovered from his shoulder injury, and his grit and determination perfectly embodies the themes of THE LAST RODEO.
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