Hollywood blacklisted him for refusing to film love scenes: “Everybody thought I was this religious zealot”
In an interview on the ‘Nothing Left Unsaid’ podcast, Neal McDonough looked back on a period in which he “lost everything you could possibly imagine”.
Actor Neal McDonough says he fell into a “big, ugly tailspin” when his screen career endured a slump that he attributes to his unwillingness to film kissing scenes.
Over the past three and a half decades, McDonough has amassed over 100 acting credits in TV and film, including roles in major hits such as Band of Brothers, Desperate Housewives and Yellowstone.
However, the 59-year-old says he was blackballed for a two-year period because of his refusal to kiss anyone other than his wife of 22 years, the model Ruvé Robertson, with whom he shares five children.
“Hollywood just completely turned on me”
“I’ve always had in my contracts that I wouldn’t kiss another woman on screen,” McDonough told the Nothing Left Unsaid podcast this week.
“My wife didn’t have any problem with it. It was me who had a problem with it. I was like, ‘Yeah, I don’t want to put you through it […] and I don’t want to put my kids through it.’"
He continued: “When I wouldn’t do it and they couldn’t understand it, Hollywood just completely turned on me. They wouldn’t let me be part of the show anymore.
“For two years, I couldn’t get a job and I lost everything you could possibly imagine. Not just houses and material things, but your swagger and your cool. Who you are, your identity, everything. My identity was: an actor, and a really good one.
“And once you don’t have that identity, you’re kind of lost in a tailspin. And I was in a big, ugly tailspin for a couple of years.”
“A horrible situation”
Per Deadline, McDonough was sacked from the ABC series Scoundrel in 2010, over his refusal to take part in what the media outlet described as “heated love scenes” with co-star Virginia Madsen.
“He’s a family man and a Catholic, and he’s always made it clear that he won’t do sex scenes,” wrote Deadline’s Nikki Finke.
In a 2019 interview with Closer Weekly, McDonough recalled: “It was a horrible situation for me. After that, I couldn’t get a job because everybody thought I was this religious zealot.
“I am very religious. I put God and family first, and me second. That’s what I live by.”
“The clouds parted”
McDonough added that his career got back on track when, in 2012, Band of Brothers producer Graham Yost offered him a part on the crime drama Justified.
“I knew that was my shot back at the title,” McDonough told Closer Weekly.
In his recent interview on Nothing Left Unsaid, McDonough recalled that he developed a “big drinking problem” during his fallow career spell.
However, he credits the influence of Ruvé, coupled with his religious faith, with helping him to beat the bottle. “The clouds parted,” he says, adding that he told himself: “Stop wallowing in self-pity.”
He went on: “At 59 years old, I’m more busy than I’ve ever been in my whole life, because I have this clarity, I have this goal and I have a vision.”
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