A Catholic Actor Who Won't Compromise on Sex Scenes
April 1, 2010 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
Media pundit Nikki Finke points out an admirable and rare trait among modern-day Catholic actors: Courage to not abandon one’s convictions in the face of worldly emoluments.
Neal McDonough is the actor in question. I very much enjoyed his portrayal of heroic WWII G.I. Buck Compton in Band of Brothers and, more recently, his role as Captain Dave Severance in “Flags of Our Fathers.” I haven’t seen any of the TV shows she mentions below, but I really appreciate the fact that Mr. McDonough won’t cave when the temptation presents itself to go along to get along in Hollywood. God bless you, sir!
“[He] is a marvelous actor who elevates every role he plays, whether it’s in Band of Brothers or Desperate Housewives.“So when he was suddenly replaced with David James Elliott 3 days into the filming on ABC’s new series Scoundrels earlier this week, there had to be a story behind the story. The move was officially explained as a casting change. But, in fact, McDonough was sacked because of his refusal to do some heated love scenes with babelicious star (and Botox pitchwoman) Virginia Madsen.The reason?He’s a family man and a Catholic, and he’s always made it clear that he won’t do sex scenes. And ABC knew that. Because he also didn’t get into action with Nicolette Sheridan on the network’sDesperate Housewives when he played her psycho husband during Season 5. And he also didn’t do love scenes with his on-air girlfriend in his previous series, NBC’s Boomtown, or that network’s Medical Investigation.“‘It has cost him jobs, but the man is sticking to his principles,’ a source explained to me. You can’t help but admire McDonough for sticking to his beliefs, even if he’s poised to lose as much as $1 million in paydays…” (continue reading)
This is nonsense. Didn't McDonough read the script before he signed on?? He hasn't had any problems so far playing murderers and psychopaths, but the church frowns on sex more than on violence anyway, as we all know.
It fills me with such comfort to know that handsome actors like him, or Eduardo Verastegui, will sacrifice for the sake of Christ's Kingdom! God bless them and all actors/actresses who do the same.
A bright light in the general cesspool which is hollywood or the various media equivalents. Thank you Patrick for posting this and God Bless this actor for sticking to his principles. He was pretty cool to watch in Band of Brothers. Steve.