I would call Neal McDonough a successful character actor. He’s worked steadily for decades in primarily supporting/featured roles, in high profile projects like Justified and Yellowstone. Even if you don’t recognize his name or face, chances are you’ve seen him in something. Again, I consider that a successful acting career. But McDonough says Hollywood blacklisted him for an agonizing two years in which he “lost everything.” Why? Because as part of being a devout Catholic and married man (to wife Ruvé since 2003), McDonough refuses to kiss women onscreen. To me, the translation of that statement is, “McDonough refuses… to do his job.” But McDonough claims it’s in his contract, so it was grossly unfair that he was fired from the 2010 ABC show Scoundrels for not stepping up to smooch, which in turn led to a couple very dry years for his career. McDonough has discussed all this before, but the conversation was resurrected (Catholic pun!) on a recent episode of the Nothing Left Unsaid podcast:
“For two years, I couldn’t get a job, and I lost everything you could possibly imagine,” McDonough said. “Not just houses and material things, but your swagger, 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.”
Although McDonough struggled professionally and personally after the alleged firing, including a bout with alcoholism, “The Last Rodeo” star said he doesn’t regret taking a moral stance in his career. He credited his spouse Ruvé and his renewed faith with helping him overcome the ordeal.
“When I stopped drinking, everything just kind of changed. Literally, the clouds parted,” McDonough said. “I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t need this crutch. Oh, people are calling me. Oh, I am successful. Oh, I do like myself again. OK, I am God’s child, and I have a job to do. Stop wallowing in self-pity. Dust yourself off and go hit it hard.”
He added: “At 59 years old, I’m more busy than I’ve ever been in my whole because I have this clarity, I have a goal and I have a vision. I have one boss, and it’s God, and I’m going to do whatever it takes to make my boss happy.”
McDonough has also found a healthy middle ground for navigating intimate scenes onscreen. The actor, who plays retired rodeo star Joe Wainwright in “The Last Rodeo,” said he convinced his wife — who is not an actress — to play his love interest in the film.
“She was so great in the movie, and to kiss my wife, my real-life wife, in a movie that I wrote and produced and gave glory to (God) in,” McDonough said. “I can’t imagine anything really better than that in my life when it comes to my career because it’s finally one of those things where I made it, and I did it our way.”
You guys, he lost his swagger! There’s so much here. Obviously McDonough is entitled to his own convictions. That being said, I think if you’re refusing to do intimate scenes with costars, you can’t also be surprised that certain work is lost to you, particularly at the the level of production that McDonough has been frankly blessed (Catholic pun) to work in all these years. Also, once he started talking about the heavy drinking, I couldn’t help but wonder if that had more to do with his losing work during those years, than his kissing ban.
As for McDonough roping his wife in to play his love interest, I cry Nepo Spouse! Actually, Ruvé plays his wife in only a couple flashback scenes in his latest movie, The Last Rodeo, which McDonough cowrote and stars in and came out earlier this summer. Meanwhile, Ruvé clearly realized the optics weren’t looking good on her husband’s comments, because she and Neal jointly made “clarifying comments” after the podcast came out, in which they repeatedly exclaim, “Thank you, Hollywood!” As one great American prophet said, “Well, it may be the Devil or it may be the Lord/But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.”
photos credit: Avalon.red
