In a new chat with Interview Magazine, Matthew McConaughey said he considered quitting acting over rom-com roles.
The actor got tired of being cast in romantic comedies in the 2000s. He thought Hollywood only saw him as a handsome guy for those roles. He thought about quitting acting and trying something else:
“Dude, it was scary. I had long talks with my wife about needing to find a new vocation. I think I’m going to teach high school classes. I think I’m going to study to be a conductor. I think I’m going to go be a wildlife guide. I honestly thought, ‘I stepped out of Hollywood. I got out of my lane.’ The lane Hollywood said I should stay in, and Hollywood’s like, ‘Well, f*ck you, dude. You should have stayed in your lane. Later.'”
After taking a break following ‘Ghosts of Girlfriends Past’ in 2009, McConaughey worried it might end his career early as he felt stuck. Despite successful films like ‘The Wedding Planner’ and ‘How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,’ he felt he needed a change.
McConaughey’s Recent Roles
He said he often did the opposite of what Hollywood expected. He focused on romantic comedies for a while but wanted to explore different roles. After taking a break for two years, the actor came back to movies with ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ in 2011.
He had a successful comeback with roles in ‘Magic Mike’ with Channing Tatum, Christopher Nolan’s ‘Interstellar,’ and ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ with Leonardo DiCaprio. His peak moment came with ‘Dallas Buyers Club’ in 2013, where he won an Oscar for Best Actor for playing Ron Woodroof, a cowboy battling AIDS.
McConaughey hasn’t been in many recent movies, with his last being a voice role in 2021’s ‘Sing 2.’ He’s supposed to star in a ‘Yellowstone’ spinoff series in 2024, but he might not join without seeing the script first.
His last big TV role was in ‘True Detective’ with Woody Harrelson. Currently, he’s filming ‘The Lost Bus,’ a drama about a bus driver during the 2018 Camp Fire in California, co-starring America Ferrera. He’s also set to appear in the crime thriller ‘The Rivals of Amziah King’ with Kurt Russell.
