Being an actor is hard, and not just because you have to remember a ton of lines in what is sometimes an extremely short amount of time. For Yellowstone star Neal McDonough, the job comes with the difficult decision to immediately turn down roles where he might have to kiss someone he is not romantically linked to in real life. And, he told the Nothing Left Unsaid podcast, per the New York Post, his no-kissing rule caused Hollywood to turn on him.
He later spoke with TMZ to say that he had Hollywood to thank for his career and where he is now, and he sort of backtracked on his original comments, but the comments on the podcast certainly made some heads turn.
When an actor is cast as a character with a significant other, you have to assume that the characters will kiss at some point. For Neal, though, kissing is a big no-no unless you’re his wife. He said on the podcast that he was even fired from a TV role because he refused to film a sex scene with another actor on a show. But he stands by his no-kissing rule.
Neal McDonough’s no-kissing rule almost cost him his career before ‘Yellowstone.’
Not kissing any woman onscreen was a personal choice that Neal made a long time ago. When he appeared on Nothing Left Unsaid, he explained that his wife never had an issue with him kissing women while acting. But for him, it was a personal preference and conviction that he stuck with.
“My wife didn’t have any problem with it,” he said. “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.'”
Neal and his wife, Ruve, have five kids. Although Ruve never had an issue with his decision to implement a no-kissing rule in his various TV roles, it became a problem for him in getting roles and keeping them.
It’s one thing to have a few on-set requests. It’s something else entirely to expect to have major potential script changes made because of a personal preference.
Neal said on the podcast that his rule actually got him fired from one of the shows he was on.
“For two years, I couldn’t get a job, and I lost everything you could possibly imagine,” he revealed. “Not just houses and material things, but your swagger, your cool, who you are, your identity, everything.”
Neal’s rule against kissing and intimacy in his roles is not only about his marriage, but also about his religion. He also said on the podcast that, although his rule cost him a chunk of his career and livelihood, it was the right thing for his marriage and his faith.
Neal McDonough married his wife in 2003.
Neal and Ruve McDonough got married in 2003. Unlike her husband, she is not an experienced actress, though she does have some producer credits under her belt. It’s unclear if Neal’s rule about intimacy and kissing started long before he was married.
Given his Christian faith, it’s possible. But in order to solve the issue of kissing another woman, even as an actor in a role, Neal made sure to have Ruve cast as his love interest in his movie The Last Rodeo.
Of course, it helps that he wrote and directed the movie, which he also stars in. But hey, after being reportedly ostracized from the business, it’s a perk he seems unafraid to take advantage of.
“It was financed,” Neal explained on Nothing Left Unsaid. “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.'”
