Veteran Hollywood actor Neal McDonough has revealed that he was blacklisted in Hollywood for refusing to kiss anyone other than his wife, Ruvé McDonough, in film and television roles.

Speaking on the Nothing Left Unsaid podcast on Wednesday, the Band of Brothers and Yellowstone star said he had always made it clear in his contracts that he wouldn’t engage in romantic or intimate scenes that involved kissing other women.

McDonough has said in the past that his decision is rooted in personal values and commitment to his marriage.

He stated, “I always had in my contracts that I wouldn’t kiss another woman on screen. My wife didn’t have any problem with it. It was me, really, who had a problem. I was like, ‘Yeah, I don’t want to put you through it. I know we’re going to start having kids, and I don’t want to put my kids through it.’”

But that stance quickly came at a cost.

“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. And 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, your cool, who you are, your identity, everything,” he said.

The 58-year-old actor recalled one particular moment when he was fired from a television show for refusing to wear a “modesty sock” during a simulated sex scene.

“They said, ‘Well, unless you do it, we’re gonna have to replace you,’

“I’m like, ‘Well, then replace me because I’m not gonna do it.’ And they fired me,” he stated.

He said that decision triggered a lawsuit.

McDonough said he feared his Hollywood career was over.

“I remember flying home from Albuquerque and flying over the desert in New Mexico and realizing, ‘Okay, I just got fired from a TV show. I’d have a better chance of surviving in that desert than surviving when I land in Hollywood.’ And I was right,” he added.

Still, the actor said he has no regrets.

McDonough said, “I knew I did the right thing for my marriage. I knew I did the right thing for God. And I knew I did the right thing for me.”

In 2019, McDonough told Closer Weekly he was fired from the short-lived ABC series Scoundrels in 2010 for refusing to perform intimate scenes, claiming “everybody thought I was this religious zealot.”

His career got a second wind when Band of Brothers producer Graham Yost called him about a role in Justified, marking what McDonough called a comeback.

Now, he’s taken full control of his narrative with The Last Rodeo, a film he wrote, directed and stars in.

When the role called for onscreen kisses, McDonough cast his real-life wife as his character’s partner.

He said, “Well, my wife is really hot. She is a good-looking woman, and everything else can pale as compared to my wife, Ruvé.

“It was financed. It was ready to go and I said, ‘I am not doing the movie unless you play my wife. Because I am not going to kiss some other woman on screen.’ And she’s like, ‘Well, I am not an actor.’ I’m like, ‘Well, you are now. So let’s go.’” (Vanguard)