Neal McDonough, known for his work on Yellowstone, Suits, Minority Report and more, is opening up about what he believes has negatively impacted his career.
On a recent episode of the Nothing Left Unsaid podcast, McDonough claimed that Hollywood “turned” on him because of his no-kiss clause in his contracts, which made him unable to book acting gigs.
“I’d always had in my contracts that I wouldn’t kiss another woman on-screen,” the Desperate Housewives actor said. “My wife didn’t really have a problem with it. 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.’”
McDonough married his wife, Ruve McDonough, in 2003 and the couple share three children.
The Band of Brothers actor then explained how implementing a no-kissing clause in his contracts impacted his ability to land jobs for two years.
“Intimacy is a whole different thing for me. So, when I wouldn’t do it and and they couldn’t understand it, Hollywood just completely turned on me and they wouldn’t let me be part of the show anymore. For two years, I couldn’t get a job, and I lost everything you could possibly imagine,” he continued. “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.”
While McDonough didn’t specify at what point in his career this affected him, he’s been cast in many films and TV shows over the years. Most recently, in The Last Rodeo, Homestead, Walking Tall and Yellowstone.