Matthew McConaughey Recalls Almost Quitting Hollywood: 'It Was Scary'

Oscar-winning actor Matthew McConaughey has opened up about the time when he almost quit Hollywood. In a recent chat with Glen Powell for Interview Magazine, the actor spoke about how taking a break helped him reinvent himself in the industry. In the 2000s, McConaughey became a household name for starring in a series of romantic comedies. After a certain period, he felt like the work was no longer challenging, and thus he decided to take a two-year break.

Noting that he felt trapped in the rom-com genre, the 54-year-old said, “I’ve usually zigged when I felt like Hollywood wanted me to zag. When I had my rom-com years, there was only so much bandwidth I could give to those, and those were some solid hits for me. But I wanted to try some other stuff. Of course, I wasn’t getting it, so I had to leave Hollywood.”

Recalling the time, Matthew shared that it was “scary,” and he even had “long talks” about his career with his wife, Camila Alves McConaughey, considering other options like a high school teacher or 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, ‘You should have stayed in your lane. Later,” he added.

The actor explained how the days were “long” and brought him a sense of insignificance. However, he managed to convince himself to move forward and not quit the “mission.” “It was scary because I didn’t know if I was ever going to get out of the desert,” he continued. Despite the hesitation and fears, McConaughey’s absence ended up attracting calls for alternative roles, and he eventually made a return with dramatic roles in The Lincoln Lawyer, The Wolf of Wall Street and Dallas Buyers Club.

He also won an Oscar for Best Actor for his performance as Ron Woodroof in the 2013 film. The film tells the story of Woodroof, a cowboy who was diagnosed with AIDS in the mid-1980s.

Earlier in 2021, the actor described his Hollywood break as an “unbranding phase,” stating that he took a big risk at that time. “I had the last six months before I got that phone call to come back to work in dramas—I did not know if I was ever going to work in Hollywood again,” he said at the CogX conference.