LDS actor pursues career without compromising

Over the years Allred pondered what he will and won't do in front of a camera. He has been forced to stand his ground. He had already accepted the role for "Diamonds" before he actually got around to reading the entire script. After discovering that his character had to do and say some objectionable things, he told his agent he would have to quit the movie, even if it meant a lawsuit.

Informed of this, director John Asher said he wanted only Allred for the part, even if that meant changing the script. Even after the changes, Allred was still uncomfortable. At one point during the shooting of the movie, he was required to say the f-word. He refused, and after some debate on this issue, Douglas intervened, saying, "This word is so overused in movies, let's just take it out." Asher agreed.

Instead of smoking a cigarette, Allred simply held it in his fingers. His character was also required to go into a brothel with his father and have sex with a character played by McCarthy. (Off camera, McCarthy said, "I'm supposed to play this girl in the movie who seduces a virgin — and he really is a virgin!") As a compromise, the movie shows Allred entering the brothel and then shows him getting into a car afterward with his father asking what happened — "Nothing," says Allred.

"I get so frustrated with actors who come from moral upbringings who say it's so hard to maintain their standards," says Allred. "It's not hard. It's not any harder than it is for any high school kid in Salt Lake City. As with everything, you have to make the decision before you're faced with certain situations.

"I make it clear with the agency. This is what I won't do. I've gotten nothing but respect from people in Hollywood. And it's not just me. There are others. If you don't have integrity in this business, you're a sellout. You might be successful, but you know what? You've got to look at the big plan on this pinprick of time and then you don't care about one movie."

Not every situation is black and white. Allred has wrestled with the gray areas, and he knows he will face plenty of those, especially with his decision not to do a lot of "Mormon movies" (he has done two in his 13 years as an actor). He also knows he's being held to a higher standard by certain members of the audience.