“I was, like, ’S—t, you’re going to have to find another career, Matthew.”
When he became a father, he swore off rom-coms. And Hollywood stopped offering him roles ... Matthew McConaughey tells Brut what happened next.
When he became a father, he swore off rom-coms. And Hollywood stopped offering him roles ... Matthew McConaughey tells Brut what happened next.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00I became a much bigger man when my son named Levi came into the world because now I was going forward
00:10with the future in mind in a way that maybe I wasn't before.
00:13I finally became the one thing that I've always wanted to be, a father.
00:20You know since I was eight years old I knew I wanted to be a father and I write about in the
00:26book it's really the only thing I was ever clear that I that I knew I wanted to be no matter what.
00:30I took really strong risk that were I was clear about the risk they were great risks.
00:36One being taking off deciding to take off from rom-coms which ended up being a two-year hiatus
00:41from Hollywood. I was clear it was a hard decision but I was clear this is what I have to do. Again
00:49I don't know if I'd had the courage to make that decision or the clarity to make this
00:52if I wouldn't have my son being born. The first six months when I said I'm I'm out of here I'm
00:58not I'm not doing more rom-coms nothing came in but rom-coms and then once Hollywood got the
01:07the the the the once they realized that oh McConaughey's not bluffing he's really not
01:12doing rom-coms even no matter how much we offer him and no matter how much money
01:16it went dead silent nothing came in and so for over a year I was going I think I just
01:24wrote myself a one-way ticket out of Hollywood I don't know if I'm ever gonna work there again.
01:28I was forgotten and I was like I didn't I never second-guessed my decision about
01:35stepping away but I was like shit you're gonna have to find another career Matthew
01:40and I thought about it I thought about teaching I thought about wildlife guides I thought about
01:48orchestral conducting I thought about music and and I sincerely considered those things
01:56and about after 18 20 20 months of not working in Hollywood and not doing rom-coms not being
02:07in the theater in front of you in a rom-com not being in your living room in a rom-com not being
02:13shirtless on the beach which paparazzi were taking a lot of pictures which also kind of
02:18looked like I was in a rom-com right in my real life but I was gone I wasn't there there was not
02:25I was in Texas at my new home there's no beaches here where I live I wasn't doing the no one knew
02:30where I was and by being forgotten all of a sudden being forgotten long enough which was 20
02:37months then all of a sudden I became oh you know who'd be an interesting novel idea for this drama
02:47this guy we haven't seen in a while a guy we know can do drama because we saw him do drama
02:51early in his career but we don't know where he's been what kind of hey and that's when the phone
02:57ran and all of a sudden I started getting offered the roles that I was hungry for that I had been
03:04looking for but it took the two years taking off for me to sort of unbrand I call it and being
03:11forgotten I gained anonymity and gaining anonymity I unbranded from rom-com and so I kind of engineered
03:20a fresh start for myself and the dramas came and I hit them and that's when I rebranded
03:50you