{"id":2391,"date":"2026-05-27T15:17:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T15:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/2026\/05\/27\/neal-mcdonough-hollywood-blacklisted-me-as-a\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T15:17:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T15:17:00","slug":"neal-mcdonough-hollywood-blacklisted-me-as-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/2026\/05\/27\/neal-mcdonough-hollywood-blacklisted-me-as-a\/","title":{"rendered":"Neal McDonough: Hollywood Blacklisted Me as a"},"content":{"rendered":"<article id=\"post-555845\">\n<div>\n<p><span><span>Reading Time: <\/span> <span> 3<\/span> <span>minutes<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>There was a time when Neal McDonough was a rising star among actors.<\/p>\n<p>Then, for a little while, he seemed to vanish \u2014 appearing in a few projects, but not so many.<\/p>\n<p>Why was that?<\/p>\n<p>The actor is opening up about how Hollywood branded him as a \u201creligious nut bag\u201d and blacklisted him for years.<\/p>\n<figure><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" alt=\"Neal McDonough and wife Ruve in 2025.\"   src=\"https:\/\/cdn.thehollywoodgossip.com\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0527_nealmcdonough_01-scaled.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-trellis-processed=\"1\"><figcaption>Neal McDonough and Ruv\u00c3\u00a9 McDonough attend \u201cThe Last Rodeo\u201d premiere at AMC Clearfork on May 12, 2025.<span> (Photo Credit: Rick Kern\/Getty Images for Angel Studios)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2 id=\"h-they-thought-i-was-this-religious-nut-bag\">\u2018They thought I was this religious nut bag\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>Speaking to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/entertainment\/neal-mcdonough-says-hollywood-labeled-religious-nut-cost-career-home\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Fox News<\/a>, McDonough recalled turning to alcohol when he believed that his acting career was over.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat time is the bar open? That was generally my thought process back then,\u201d he characterized.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was, you know, fired from a show because I wouldn\u2019t kiss a woman,\u201d McDonough explained.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo one would hire me because they thought I was this religious nut bag,\u201d he lamented.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhich is that I love my wife so much,\u201d McDonough continued. \u201cAnd no one can understand it, no one could understand it.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure>\n<p> <iframe title=\"Actor Neal McDonough on why he does not kiss anyone but his wife\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" data-cookieconsent=\"statistics, marketing\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/59LhYtwcTu0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe><div class=\"cookieconsent-optout-statistics cookieconsent-optout-marketing\">Please accept <a href=\"javascript:Cookiebot.renew()\">statistics, marketing<\/a> cookies to watch this video.<\/div> <\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>McDonough confessed that he \u201cwas always a drinker\u201d even before this professional setback.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt became a bad problem,\u201d he acknowledged, after his refusal to kiss a co-star got him canned \u2014 and allegedly blackballed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI lost the house, lost the cars, lost everything,\u201d McDonough lamented.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2019Justified\u2019 was just coming out, but I still didn\u2019t think I was worth anything because I failed to my family,\u201d he expressed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI failed, [my wife] Ruve, my five kids, that I lost our house,\u201d McDonough reiterated. \u201cI lost all the beautiful things that were the shiny widgets that I had accumulated, were all taken away from me.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote data-instgrm-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/Cs67MDoLyWA\/?utm_source=ig_embed&#038;utm_campaign=loading\" data-instgrm-version=\"14\"><\/blockquote>\n<h2 id=\"h-it-s-us-or-the-bottle-you-choose\">\u2018It\u2019s us or the bottle, you choose\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>Using a very colorful characterization, he continued: \u201cAnd that crucifixion caused me so much inner pain because I made it all about me. How could I let the team down?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>McDonough gave credit to his wife, Ruve, for giving him the ultimatum that saved him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe grabbed me and says, it\u2019s us or the bottle, you choose,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n<p>Having now been married to Ruve for 25 years, he says that he \u201cnever looked back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>McDonough went on to say that he has focused upon serving the God of his Christian beliefs \u201crather than serving me.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure>\n<p> <iframe title=\"Suits\u2019 Neal McDonough Says Luke Perry Took Him in After Being Blackballed | E! News\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" data-cookieconsent=\"statistics, marketing\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3y9xXV8dsus?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe><div class=\"cookieconsent-optout-statistics cookieconsent-optout-marketing\">Please accept <a href=\"javascript:Cookiebot.renew()\">statistics, marketing<\/a> cookies to watch this video.<\/div> <\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>McDonough is not wrong that, to many, his refusal to kiss a co-star became a memorable part of his story.<\/p>\n<p>Even those of us who have enjoyed his acting roles \u2014 like in the MCU or his portrayal of Damien Darhk on<em> Arrow<\/em> (RIP in peace, The CW) \u2014 remember this quirk about his career.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, he is not alone. For example, Penn Badgley made a similar comment, despite his starring role on the steamy stalker series, <em>You<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Though McDonough has led a lengthy and successful career that doesn\u2019t <em>appear<\/em> to have resume gaps like someone who\u2019s been blacklisted might, that doesn\u2019t mean that he didn\u2019t take jobs that were less lucrative.<\/p>\n<p>There is an argument to be made for actors needing to take certain actions on screen, from kissing to eating meat. Some things can be faked by a show, while others cannot. So long as everyone is up front about what they can and cannot do, things should work out.<\/p>\n<p>McDonough also shared that the late, great <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehollywoodgossip.com\/slideshows\/luke-perry-mourned-remembered-by-co-stars-and-friends\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Luke Perry<\/a> gave him and his family a place to stay after they lost their home. He was such a deeply good person.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reading Time: 3 minutes There was a time when Neal McDonough was a rising star among actors. Then, for a little while, he seemed to vanish \u2014 appearing in a few projects, but not so many. Why was that? The actor is opening up about how Hollywood branded him as a \u201creligious nut bag\u201d and blacklisted him for years. Neal McDonough and Ruv\u00c3\u00a9 McDonough attend \u201cThe Last Rodeo\u201d premiere at AMC Clearfork on May 12, 2025. (Photo Credit: Rick Kern\/Getty Images for Angel Studios) \u2018They thought I was this religious nut bag\u2019 Speaking to Fox News, McDonough recalled turning to alcohol when he believed that his acting career was over. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2392,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[44,2,1468,1469,28,1470,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-celebrity-news","category-hollywood","category-luke-perry","category-neal-mcdonough","category-news","category-religion","category-spotlight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}