‘Yellowstone’ Actor Says He ‘Lost Everything’ After Hollywood Blacklisted Him

Yellowstone star Neal McDonough is opening up about a low point in his life when he says he was blacklisted from Hollywood over his refusal to kiss another woman onscreen.

The actor, whose Hollywood career spans over three decades and also includes roles in Desperate Housewives, Suits, and Band of Brothers, has famously upheld a long-standing vow not to film intimate scenes out of respect for his wife, Ruvé Robertson, who he married in 2003. But that pledge nearly cost him his career when Hollywood “completely turned” on him.

“I’d always had in my contracts that I wouldn’t kiss another woman on screen,” McDonough told hosts Tim and Troy Green on Wednesday’s Nothing Left Unsaid podcast. “My wife didn’t have any problem with it. It was me, really, who had a problem with it. … When I wouldn’t do it and they couldn’t understand it, Hollywood just completely turned on me and they wouldn’t let me be part of the show anymore.”

McDonough did name drop anyone or any show in particular, but in 2010, the actor was abruptly replaced with David James Elliott on ABC’s Scoundrels just three days into filming. He later told Closer Weekly in 2019 that he was fired from the show over his refusal to engage in sex scenes with his co-star Virginia Madsen, explaining that “after that, I couldn’t get a job because everybody thought I was this religious zealot. I am very religious. I put God and family first, and me second. That’s what I live by. It was hard for a few years.”

The actor reflected on that difficult period on the Nothing Left Unsaid podcast, revealing that over a two-year period, he “couldn’t get a job,” and the impact on his career led to him losing “everything you could possibly imagine. Not just houses, material things, but your swagger, your cool, who you are, your identity.”

“My identity was an actor, and a really good one, and once you don’t have that identity, you’re kind of in a tailspin,” he recalled. “And I was in a big, ugly tailspin for a couple of years.”

Despite his years-long no-kissing rule, McDonough recently made an exception for the film The Last Rodeo, on which he stars as Joe Wainwright. In one scene of the film, he shares an onscreen kiss with his real-life wife, Ruvé.

Opening up about the special moment with Fox News Digital in May, the actor said, “I’ve never been in the position where I get to kiss the girl in the end because, as everyone knows, I won’t kiss another woman on screen.” After convincing his wife to appear in the film and filming their kiss, the actor added that it “was one of my favorite moments I’ve ever had on a set. There I am, wearing the hero hat, being directed by my favorite director of all time, Jon Avnet, kissing my wife in a movie, finally doing it the way I’ve always wanted to do it.