Neal McDonough Talks About Flags of Our Fathers, His Irish Roots and Acting with the Rock

"My father came over from Ireland, went straight to the army recruiting office and said:

" I want to be an American". Soon after that he was posted to Greenland and then on to Germany. I draw most of my performances from my family, and my father's friends. I like playing them because I know them."

Speaking by phone on the way to the airport, Irish -American actor Neil McDonough spoke about his Irish background, his career and his experience working on epic World War II film Flags Of Our Fathers. With his shock of white hair, McDonough is instantly recognizable from another similar WWII television mini series "Band Of Brothers", which was based on the Steven Spielberg movie Saving Private Ryan and saw him playing 1st Lieutenant "Buck" Compton.

He also scored big at the box office in 2004's Walking Tall, taking on wrestler-turned -actor The Rock as the sneering Jay Hamilton. "I love playing villains!" he said, before a woman interrupted to compliment him on his performance in that very movie, and ask what The Rock is "really like".

A first generation Irish-American, McDonough was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts to parents who owned a small hotel. His late mother Kitty was from Clonmel, County Tipperary and his father Frank from Clifton in Connemara, where his sister Ellen still lives and works on the local newspaper. He's lived in Los Angeles for 15 years now, but he vividly remembers the strong Irish influences in his childhood home:

"We have tons of family, and all my parents' friends were Irish - it was just the way we were brought up. In Ireland it doesn't matter whether you make money or not, you live the same as the guy next door, and get treated the same. Los Angeles is completely different though. They want a better house, a better car - always trying to keep up with the Jones's. It's a transitory city, and people come here looking to hit the jackpot and then leave."

Due to work and family commitments - he has a 10-month-old son Morgan and another on the way - he hasn't been back to Ireland for several years, although his family is wildly supportive of everything he does: