The Academy Award-winning actor Mahershala Ali is speaking out this week to say that he refuses to film sex scenes because of his devout faith.

Ali said that before he was cast in the 2008 movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, he let producers know that he could not take the part if they insisted on filming a sex scene that had been scripted for his character.

“So my old agent called me and said, ‘Mahershala, you got the part,'” Ali recalled, according to Page Six. “And I said, ‘There’s just one thing…There is that one sex scene where they kiss…If there’s a sex scene, I can’t do it.'”

Ali, who is an Ahmadi Muslim, remembered telling his agent at the time, “I don’t do simulated sex.”

Thankfully, the movie’s director David Fincher was willing to accommodate Ali’s request when it came to the scene he was supposed to have with actress Taraji P. Henson.

“Taraji and I begin to kiss, and we fall out of the frame … It wasn’t clear if [Fincher] was trying to have like some bumping and grinding … which I doubt he was. But for me even … at that time, 15 years ago, I was still like, ‘OK, I can only go up to this point,’ just because of — just trying to hold a space of respect for my religion,” the actor said.

Fox News reported that Ali became the first Muslim actor to ever win an Academy Award when he took home the best supporting actor trophy in 2017 for his work in Moonlight. Ali recently got the chance to incorporate his Islamic faith into his acting when he starred as a Muslim religious leader on the second season of Hulu’s “Ramy.”

“I’ve never had a chance to play a character that lives in that world and one who has so many aspirational qualities for me … who is clearly more evolved and further along than I am in my own personal journey,” Ali told The Hollywood Reporter of the role. “To get to sign on to play Sheikh Ali Malik was terrifying and transformative and inspiring and exciting.”

It can’t be easy avoiding sex scenes altogether in the wild world of Hollywood. We applaud Ali for having the courage and self-restraint to stick to his faith and values so well!