Matthew McConaughey Says He Moved to Texas To Stop Being the 'Rom-Com Dude'
Matthew McConaughey's frustration over being typecast in rom-coms led to him trading Hollywood for Texas.
While appearing on the podcast Good Trouble with Nick Kyrgios, the Oscar-winner told the tennis star that when it comes to acting, "the devil's in the infinite yeses, not the nos." He recalled that he had to start saying no after he was "rolling with the rom-coms."
"I was the rom-com dude," said McConaughey. "That was my lane and I liked that lane, that lane paid well and it was working. But I was so strong in that lane that anything outside that lane—dramas and stuff that I wanted to do—' No, no, no, McConaughey.' Hollywood said, 'No, no, no, you should stay there.'"
The 55-year-old explained that he "didn't want to" stay in his lane. "Since I couldn't do what I wanted to do, I stopped doing what I was doing and I moved down to the ranch in Texas," he recalled. "I made a pact with my wife and said, 'I'm not going back to work unless I get offered roles I want to do.'"
Though Kyrgios pointed out that McConaughey had an "epic return," the actor said that his first two years in back in Texas, where he was born and raised, were a "wobbly" period, leading to an alcohol dependency.
"That bottle of my favorite juice started looking good earlier in the day," he admitted. What saved McConaughey from going into a dark path was his wife Camila Alves becoming pregnant with their first child, Levi. "There was purpose coming to look forward to, but I was still like, Man's gotta work!'" he said.
Despite craving work at the time, McConaughey stuck to his guns and rejected a $14 million offer to star in an action comedy. "That was probably what was seen as the most rebellious move in Hollywood by me because it really sent the signal [of] 'He ain't f-----g bluffing.'" That's when he began receiving offers for substantial roles he wanted, in films such as The Lincoln Lawyer, The Wolf of Wall Street and Dallas Buyers Club. He received his first Oscar for the latter.
Speaking with Southern Living in March, the Dazed and Confused star and his wife recalled the moment they decided to settle down in Texas. Alves noticed that on a drive back from visiting the actor's mother, he had a "a peaceful but confident, energetic look" on his face, which confirmed to her that he was happy being back in his home state.
That's when, according to McConaughey, his spouse asked him, "You want to move here, don't you?" When he said yes, she responded, "Let's do it."
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