Matthew McConaughey has opened up about his and his wife Camila’s decision to leave Hollywood to live on a ranch in Texas.
Appearing on Wednesday’s (November 20) episode of the Good Trouble with Nick Kyrgios podcast, the 55-year-old actor shared what it means to stay true to himself while working in the entertainment industry.
“Look, man, the devil’s in the infinite yeses, not the nos,” McConaughey told the Australian tennis star. “No, it’s just as important, if not more important. Especially if you have some level of success and access. No becomes more important than yes.”
The actor admitted he’s “over-leveraged” his life by taking on too many projects in the past.
“[You] go, ‘Geez, oh, man, I’m making C minuses and all that s*** in my life because I said yes to too many things,’” he explained. “I’ve had many times in my life where I’m going through autopilot. I mean I’m handling everything alright, but I don’t feel any of it. Nothing’s personal to me.”
After that, McConaughey reached a point where he’d say “no” to working on certain movies. He also said this decision came as he was the “dude” starring in rom-coms, such as How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, The Wedding Planner, Failure to Launch, and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past.
“That was my lane, and I liked that lane. That lane paid well and it was working,” he continued. “I was so strong in that lane that anything outside of that lane, dramas, and stuff that I wanted to do, were like, ‘No, no, no, no, no McConaughey.’ Hollywood said ‘No, no, no, no, you should stay there.”
“So 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 added.
Alongside his wife, McConaughy lives on the ranch in Texas with their three children: Levi, 16, Vida, 14, and Livingston, 11.
According to McConaughey, once he got to Texas, he and his wife made an agreement about what he should do next in his career.
“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,’” he added, before noting that there were a “wobbly” two years when he stuck to this rule.
“Luckily, Camila got pregnant with our first child. So there was purpose coming to look forward to,” he explained. “But I was still like, ‘Man’s gotta work.’ I got to craft. What do I do? Making chimes and working in the garden wasn’t cutting it.”
He confessed that after those two years, he was offered a role in a “good action comedy.” However, he turned down multiple offers, which were $8m, $10m, and $12m.
“They came back with a $14.5m offer, and I said, ‘Let me read that again,’” McConaughey recalled. “Same script, it was the one that was offered for $8m. But it was better, I mean, $6.5m.”
According to McConaughy, that role ultimately changed the trajectory of his career. “I think that was the one that was probably what was seen as the most rebellious move in Hollywood by me, because it really sent the signal, ‘He ain’t f***ing bluffing,’” he said. “I think that’s what made Hollywood go, ‘You know what? He’s now a new novel idea. He’s a new bright idea.’”
McConaughey went on to work on acclaimed films including The Lincoln Lawyer, Bernie, Mud, Interstellar, Magic Mike and Dallas Buyers Club for which he won a Best Actor Oscar.
Earlier this month, he also opened up about turning down roles that come with hefty paychecks. During an appearance on the Modern Wisdom podcast on November 11, McConaughey shared that he had turned down a $14.5m acting gig during his attempt to pivot his career from romantic comedies to dramatic roles.
“It was a big risk,” he said, as he described his two-year hiatus from acting as a “one-way ticket to a dead end in Hollywood.”
“I’d been gone long enough to become a new good idea. ‘Where’s McConaughey?’ Plus, he said no to that $14.5m offer three months ago,’” the father of three recounted. “You don’t say no to a $14.5m offer.”
In 2008, McConaughey was offered $15m to star in a feature film remake of Magnum, P.I, according to the Hollywood Reporter. While he decided to turn down the role, it was only two years later he was offered the role of Ron Woodroof in Dallas Buyers Club.
