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Actor Neal McDonough explained in an interview this week how he refused to allow secular, left-leaning Hollywood to cancel him due to his closely-held Christian beliefs. McDonough, best known for playing bad guys and for recent parts in smashes like HBO’s “Band of Brothers” World War II drama and Yellowstone, among others, said the ostracizing he received for being a Christian led him to launch his own film company with his wife.
McDonough noted that he was essentially blacklisted in Hollywood in 2010, leading him to lose “basically everything” after being fired from ABC’s “Scoundrels” TV show for refusing to go against his faith and do certain kinds of scenes that involved sexual acts. The actor went on to say that it was his faith that kept him going through that rough period in his life.
“I remember falling to my knees and saying, ‘God, why have you forgotten about me? Why am I being punished so much?’” He recalled. “And as soon as those words came out of my mouth, I realized what self-absorbed questions those were.”
“God has given me so much. We all experience challenges in our lives. I should be grateful – and thankful – for all the blessings I’m given,” he said, noting that he loves his “wife more than I love my profession” and saw doing love and sex scenes as insulting to her and his belief system.
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“I won’t mention the Lord’s name in vain, and then I won’t kiss another woman,” McDonough told Fox News in January 2020. “Sex scenes aren’t in it for me. And I think, gosh, there are enough sex scenes out there, and me being in my fifties, I’m not sure if anyone wants to see me doing that stuff anyway, but it’s a comfort level. I’m not very comfortable doing that.”
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The Christian actor also disclosed that one of the reasons he likes playing the villain is because those types of characters take him out of his comfort zone, which given he takes as a personal challenge given his personal passion for acting.
“And I guess that’s probably why I play so many villainous characters, because I love acting, and I’m really good at it,” the devout Catholic said. “It’s a God-given talent, so for me to have a career, I have to figure out creatively and smartly and wisely how I can keep doing what I do.”
“It’s hard because I’ve done so many different characters and done so many things, and in some of them, I play horrible villains in a lot of the things that I do, and I won’t do kissing scenes, so I have to be the best villain out there,” he added in an interview with the Christian Post.
McDonough and his wife, a South African model, have five children together, the report noted. He added that he refuses to kiss his co-stars “because these lips are meant for one woman.”
'Yellowstone' actor Neal McDonough reflects on bonding with Kevin Costner, his devotion to faith: 'God first'https://t.co/7F4GdhCKc8
— Fox News (@FoxNews) December 27, 2022
“But now, Ruve and I are producing our own films. All of our projects have a faith backdrop to it,” he told the outlet. And while all of the content won’t be overly Christian, it will nevertheless be “faith-friendly in so much that we want to reach out to people who aren’t just Christians.”
“I’ve certainly done plenty enough where my characters don’t portray the best things in life, but as an actor, you’re part of a piece. My part of a piece was to be the dark side in a lot of things, which is really interesting because that’s kind of the antithesis to what I am in real life. So it’s a great challenge as an actor; it’s a great challenge as a man. It’s also a great challenge as a child of God to press on with the right material,” he continued.
He said that for much of his career, he was not in much of a position to start his own production company, so he and his wife now want to be strategic about their vision and projects.
“Now I have that opportunity because Ruve and I are doing it ourselves, and are so blessed to have companies that support us and back us and want to make more films and TV shows, or reality shows or any kind of show that gives glory to Him,” McDonough declared. “Not just to make a movie, but to do a movie that actually gives Him glory — that’s our goal. And that’s what we’re after, and we’re very fortunate to be able to do it.”
