Matthew McConaughey wasn’t always sure where his place was in Hollywood.
The star, who was best known for romantic comedies such as “How to Make a Guy Full in 10 Days” and “The Wedding Planner,” said she decided to take some time off to reassess her career.
“Whenever I’ve felt like Hollywood wanted me to jig, I’ve jigged,” the 54-year-old told Twisters star Glen Powell. Interview Magazine“When I was doing romantic comedies, I didn’t have much time for that and they were a hit for me, but I wanted to try other things. Of course, it didn’t work out, so I had to leave Hollywood for two years.”
McConaughey said the hiatus was “scary” and that he considered quitting acting altogether and starting over in an entirely different career.
Glen Powell says Matthew McConaughey inspired him to leave ‘The Matrix’-like Hollywood for Texas’ ‘Fake World’
Matthew McConaughey wasn’t always sure where his place was in Hollywood. (Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)
“My wife and I had long discussions about the need to find a new career,” he explained. “‘I think I’m going to be a high school teacher. I’m going to study to be a conductor. I’m going to be a wildlife guide.'”
The actor married his wife Camila Alves in 2012 and they have three children.
The “Dallas Buyers Club” actor said, “I honestly thought, ‘I stepped out of Hollywood. I stepped out of my lane.’ The lane that Hollywood told me to stay in, Hollywood was like, ‘Hey, f**k you. I should have stayed in my lane. Later.'”
Matthew McConaughey and Camila Alves love the ‘drama-free’ lifestyle since leaving California for Texas
Matthew McConaughey says that when he was in Hollywood, mostly playing romantic comedy roles, he had second thoughts about his career, considering becoming a teacher, conductor or even a wilderness guide. (Brendon Thorne/Getty Images for Wild Turkey)
He said that while his time off felt “pointless,” he knew it was what he had to do: “So I wasn’t going to parachute down and abandon the mission. But I was scared because I didn’t know if I was going to make it out of the desert.”
Did you enjoy reading this? For more entertainment news click here
Powell agreed that even though there are “ghost stories” about actors who left the industry and never returned, it’s still a good thing to be “missed” by Hollywood.
Matthew McConaughey co-starred with Jennifer Lopez in the 2001 film “The Wedding Planner.” (Columbia Pictures/Getty Images)
Texas-born McConaughey likened it to “a skinny horse, a long distance ride.”
He explained, “I don’t know about you, but for me, around the time of A Time to Kill, after I’d had my first big success with a major studio movie and had become famous, I remember on the Thursday before that movie came out, I had 100 scripts that I wanted to do, and I couldn’t do 99 of them. In just that weekend, those 99 no’s turned into 99 yes’s. I was like, ‘What? Three days ago, I would have done any of them! And now they’re asking me which ones I want to do?’ I was totally shocked.”
Click here to sign up for our Entertainment Newsletter
Matthew McConaughey won his first Academy Award in 2014 for Dallas Buyers Club. (Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images)
McConaughey then decided to backpack to Peru for three weeks to “listen to my thoughts,” he said.
His last romantic comedy was Ghosts of Girlfriends Past in 2009, and he starred in The Lincoln Lawyer in 2011. He won his first Academy Award in 2014 for Dallas Buyers Club.
Matthew McConaughey said he took a long walk with his wife, Camila Alves, a few years ago to rethink his career. (Rick Kahn/WireImage)
Click here to get the FOX News app
Earlier in the interview, McConaughey said, “When you feel like you’re in Hollywood, you feel safe when you go home. In Texas, you can make an honest observation of people. It’s hard to do that in Hollywood, because everyone’s snooping. Instead of going to eat somewhere, a lot of people in Hollywood go to a place to see who’s going to eat there.”
