Let’s face it: Matthew McConaughey is really, really good in a romantic comedy. Let’s walk down memory lane, shall we? The Wedding Planner in 2001 alongside Jennifer Lopez. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days in 2003 (and, later, Fool’s Gold in 2008) with Kate Hudson. Failure to Launch in 2006 with Sarah Jessica Parker. Ghosts of Girlfriends Past in 2009 with Jennifer Garner. On. And on. And on. Indeed, for nearly all of the decade that was the aughts, McConaughey was typecast as a rom-com king—and he didn’t like it.
Speaking to fellow Texas native Glen Powell for Interview magazine, McConaughey told Powell—himself a burgeoning rom-com star, after his role in Anyone But You opposite Sydney Sweeney last year—that he “had to leave Hollywood for two years” after he felt that’s all his career would amount to.
Before winning an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in 2013’s Dallas Buyers Club, McConaughey went on hiatus—one that he thought might be permanent. “I’ve usually zigged when I felt like Hollywood wanted to zag,” McConaughey told Powell. “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.”
After Powell asked what it was like during his time away, McConaughey said, “Dude, it was scary. I had long talks with my wife about needing to find a new vocation.” He told his wife, Camila Alves McConaughey, that he was considering teaching high school, studying to conduct music, or working as a “wildlife guide” during this timespan.
“I honestly thought, ‘I stepped out of Hollywood. I got out of my lane,’” McConaughey said. “The lane Hollywood said I should stay in. And Hollywood’s like, ‘Well, fuck you, dude. You should have stayed in your lane. Later.’”
While McConaughey didn’t specify when this two-year hiatus took place, by 2013, he was starring in films like the aforementioned Dallas Buyers Club, The Wolf of Wall Street, and Interstellar, as well as True Detective on HBO.
“It was scary,” he said of his hiatus. “The days are long—the sense of insignificance. But I made up my mind that that’s what I needed to do, so I wasn’t going to pull the parachute and quit the mission I was on. But it was scary, because I didn’t know if I was ever going to get out of the desert.”
