Neal McDonough is again speaking out about the repercussions he faced after setting boundaries on set.

The veteran character actor has been acting since 1990 and has since accrued over 100 acting credits, becoming known for his roles in Minority Report, Suits, Desperate Housewives, Band of Brothers, American Horror Story, and more.

However, throughout his career, the Tulsa King actor has held on to his rule of not kissing any women on set out of respect to his wife Ruve, who he married in 2003, which he says has left him blacklisted.

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Speaking with Fox News Digital about both his shunning from Hollywood (he has had nine different roles in 2025 and 2026, including 17 episodes on Tulsa King) and his alcoholism, he recalled it being fueled by his struggles in the industry. 

“It was, you know, fired from a show because I wouldn’t kiss a woman. No one would hire me because they thought I was this religious nut bag, which is that I love my wife so much. And no one can understand it, no one could understand it,” he said. 

Neal added that it was late Beverly Hills, 90210 star Luke Perry who supported him when he first struggled to get work. “Justified was just coming out, but I still didn’t think I was worth anything because I failed to my family. I failed, [my wife] Ruve, my five kids, that I lost our house.”

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“I lost all the beautiful things that were the shiny widgets that I had accumulated, were all taken away from me. And that crucifixion caused me so much inner pain because I made it all about me. How could I let the team down?” he added. 

Neal, who shares five children with Ruve, credits God and his wife, with whom he now has a production company, with helping him turn his life around. “It’s just a cold, hard fact that God gave me an amazing, incredible, most amazing woman that I’ve ever met. I can talk forever about it, but she’s my good luck charm, and she got me through hell, and now here I am, in a fantastic place in life, we’re producing movies together. And I can’t tell you how amazing that feels,” he maintained. 

Neal, who is currently starring and producing in the Jimmy Stewart biopic Jimmy, led by Riverdale alum KJ Apa, also opened up last year about feeling shut out from Hollywood.

Speaking on the Nothing Left Unsaid podcast, he said: “I’d always had in my contracts I wouldn’t kiss another woman on-screen, ” adding: “My wife didn’t have any problem with it. It was me, really, who had a problem with it.”

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“When I couldn’t do it, and they couldn’t understand it, Hollywood just completely turned on me. They wouldn’t let me be part of the show anymore,” he continued.

“For two years, I couldn’t get a job and I lost everything you could possibly imagine,” Neal went on. “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. And once you don’t have that identity, you’re kind of lost in a tailspin.”