Matthew McConaughey reveals why he ‘had to leave Hollywood for two years’ and almost quit acting: ‘I got out of my lane’

Matthew McConaughey hasn’t always seen his prospects in Hollywood as good, good, good.

The 54-year-old Academy Award winner revealed he was ‘stepping away from Hollywood’ for two years as he considered leaving the industry altogether, while speaking to Glen Powell for Interview magazine.

“I usually zig when I felt like Hollywood wanted me to zig,” he said. ‘When I had my rom-com years, I could only give so much bandwidth to that, and those were some solid hits for me.

‘But I wanted to try some different things. Of course I didn’t get it, so I had to leave Hollywood for two years,” McConaughey explained.

He recalls confiding in his wife Camila Alves during the “scary” time when he was considering a career change.

“I usually zig when I felt like Hollywood wanted me to zig,” he said. “When I had my rom-com years, I could only give so much bandwidth to that, and those were some solid hits for me.”

“Dude, it was scary. I had long conversations with my wife about the need to find a new calling. ‘I think I’m going to teach at secondary schools. I think I’m going to study to be a conductor. I think I’m going to be a nature guide,” McConaughey continued down the list.

“I honestly thought, ‘I was getting out of Hollywood. I was getting out of my job,'” he explained. “The job that Hollywood told me to stay in, and Hollywood says, ‘Well, fuck you, dude. You should have stayed in your job. Later.’

McConaughey continued, “It was scary. The days are long – the feeling of nothingness. But I decided that this was what I had to do, so I wasn’t going to pull the parachute and abandon the mission I was on. But it was scary because I didn’t know if I would ever get out of the desert.”

The Dallas Buyers Club actor explained that with Hollywood success came a new set of fears.

‘For me it’s going back to A time to kill‘, after I had my first big success in a major studio movie and became famous, I remembered that the Thursday before that movie premiered, there were 100 scripts that I would have done, and 99 of them I couldn’t books,” McConaughey said. “In that one weekend, 99 no’s became 99 yes’s.”

He added: ‘I thought, “What? Three days ago I would have done all this! And now you’re asking me which one I want to do?” It was a damn shocking thing. I threw on a backpack and went to Peru for three weeks so I could hear myself think.’

McConaughey bonded with the Twisters star over the need to “be distinctive” with the roles they play, to avoid being typecast.

“I’ve had similar runs where I said no to things, where I thought, ‘Am I too safe, or am I furiously chasing what I want?'” he said.

“Because sometimes you can get paralyzed by the no’s,” McConaughey added. “I’ve had many moments in my career where I thought, ‘I don’t know what I want to do, I just know I don’t want to do that.'”

‘But I wanted to try some different things. Of course I didn’t get it, so I had to leave Hollywood for two years,” McConaughey explained

He recalls confiding in his wife Camila Alves during the “scary” time when he was considering a career change: “I had long conversations with my wife about the need to find a new vocation”

The Dazed and Confused star, 54, moved to Texas in 2014 with Alves, 41, and their sons Levi, 15, Livingston, 11, and 14-year-old daughter Vida

The Dazed and Confused star moved to Texas in 2014 with Alves, 41, and their sons Levi, 15, Livingston, 11, and 14-year-old daughter Vida.

His possible career changes during his time away from Hollywood included a governorship in Texas that almost happened.

McConaughey has also served as a “visiting instructor” at his alma mater, the University of Texas at Austin, where he is currently a faculty member in the Department of Radio/Television/Film and the school’s self-proclaimed “Minister of Culture.”