Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey officially said goodbye to Southern California and moved back to his home state of Texas with his family in 2014.
And now the 55-year-old actor is opening up about the motivation behind the move and how it has affected his Hollywood career over the past decade.
Before he took home an Academy Award and starred in critically acclaimed dramas like Dallas Buyers Club and Interstellar, McConaughey was considered the “rom-com guy.”
He was so desperate to stop being typecast that he “stopped” taking roles — even turning down an untitled action-comedy film with a $14.5 million salary — and in early 2010 moved from Los Angeles to a ranch in Austin.
‘When I got rid of rom-coms. And I was the rom-com guy, man. That was my lane, and I liked that lane. That job paid well and it worked,” he explained on this week’s episode of the Good Trouble with Nick Kyrgios podcast, according to EW.
Starring opposite fellow rom-com favorites Jennifer Lopez and Kate Hudson in hit films like The Wedding Planner (2001) and How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days (2003), McConaughey became a household name.
Matthew McConaughey, 55, moved back to Texas more than a decade ago after deciding he no longer wanted to be the “rom-com guy”; seen in April 2024
But his incredible success in the genre became limiting for him as an actor.
“But the job was… I was so strong in that job that everything outside of that job, dramas and stuff that I wanted to do, was like, no, no, no, no, no McConaughey. Hollywood said no, no, no, no, you have to stay there, stay there,” he continued.
‘I didn’t want to. Because I couldn’t do what I wanted, I stopped what I was doing.’
McConaughey put his best foot forward by packing up and leaving Los Angeles for a simpler life on a ranch in Austin, Texas.
He told Kyrgios that at the time of the move he had made a pact with his wife Camila Alves, 41 – with whom he shares three children.
‘I went there and made a pact with my wife and said, ‘I’m not going back to work unless I’m offered roles that I want to do.’
After informing his agent of his new plan of action, McConaughey immediately began turning down lucrative film roles, including the $14.5 million action comedy that he didn’t want to reveal to host Kyrgios.
He said it felt “rebellious” to turn down such a big offer and that it proved to Hollywood that he was in business.
“I think that was probably the most rebellious move in Hollywood because it really sent the message: He’s not bluffing,” he recalled.
Starring opposite fellow rom-com favorites Jennifer Lopez and Kate Hudson in hit films like The Wedding Planner (2001) and How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days (2003), McConaughey became a household name; Matthew and Kate pictured in How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days
But his incredible success in the genre became limiting for him as an actor; pictured with Jennifer Lopez in The Wedding Planner (2001)
He was so desperate to stop being typecast that he “stopped” taking roles — even turning down an untitled action-comedy film with a $14.5 million salary — and moved from Los Angeles to a ranch in Austin in early 2010; seen in October 2024
‘And when you have someone who doesn’t bluff, there’s something attractive about that. I think that’s what made Hollywood say, “You know what? He’s a new new idea now. He’s a new bright idea.”
After what he described as a “wobbly” few years, McConaughey’s big career move finally wobbled, winning his first Academy Award for Dallas Buyers Club in 2014.
He also received critical acclaim as a dramatic actor for his roles in Mud (2013), Interstellar (2014) and the HBO limited series True Detective (2014).
“Look, man, the devil is in the infinite yeses, not in the nos. No, it’s just as important, if not more so. Especially when you have a certain amount of success and access,” McConaughey told Kyrgios what the journey has taught him.
‘No becomes more important than yes. Because I mean, we all look around and see that we’ve overused our lives with yes and gone, geez, oh man, I’m making C negatives and all that stuff in my life because I’ve also said yes to a lot of things .’
McConaughey has often spoken about his move to Texas and why he felt it was necessary not only for his career, but also for his family life with his wife Camila.
The Lone Star State native and his wife exchanged vows at their home in Austin, Texas, on June 9, 2012, and officially moved back there (from Malibu, California) two years later.
Last month, McConaughey shared further TODAY with Hoda & Jenna that living in Austin offers his family a sense of “safety” and that he always intended to return to Texas once he welcomed children to Alves.
He made a pact with his wife Camila Alves, 41 – with whom he shares three children – at the time of the move. ‘I went there and made a pact with my wife and said, “I’m not going back to work unless I’m offered roles that I want to do”‘; the couple seen in March 2024
After what he described as a few “wobbly” years, McConaughey’s big career move finally paid off and he won his first Academy Award for Dallas Buyers Club in 2014.
The couple share three children: Levi, 16, Vida, 14, and Livingston, 11.
“This has always been my home, I mean, there’s a lot of reasons for that [the move]. I mean, this is where I have a great relationship with time – which means 60 seconds feels like a minute, and a mile feels like a mile,” he explained to the hosts.
He added: ‘I like to live in a place and want a home to be a place where I have a good relationship with time.’
The Dallas Buyers Club star noted that his family is based in Texas, including his mother, 92, and brothers who live in Houston and Midland.
“Our family unit is here – we have resources here and a backbone of security,” the Lincoln Lawyer actor added.
“I wanted them to have what I grew up with,” McConaughey said. “There’s a solid… amount of common sense in there, it’s not talked about, but we understand it here.”
He praised Austin as a “very creative city in a state that is very structured,” and a city where people are accepted for who they are.
Born in Uvalde, Texas and raised in Longview, Texas, McConaughey attended the University of Texas at Austin before entering show business.
Matthew and Camila have lived full-time in Austin, Texas since 2014 with their three children: Levi, 16, Vida, 14, and Livingston, 11.
He remains an avid fan of the school’s football team, the Texas Longhorns, and is often on the sidelines during games.
“The rule in Austin is ‘Be You’ – that’s always been the rule in this city – and we need to make sure that remains the rule – just ‘Be You,’” he said.
In a joint interview for Southern Living earlier this year, McConaughey and Alves shared that although they lived a “happy life” in Malibu, Texas offered them a lifestyle without “drama” and more “hospitality.”
Alves said she knew deep down that McConaughey wanted to move back to Texas after seeing firsthand how “peaceful” he was while there.
McConaughey said living in Texas has brought the “ritual” back into their family life.
‘Ritual came back, whether that was Sunday church, playing sports, having dinner together as a family every night, or staying up afterwards telling stories in the kitchen, on the island pouring drinks and nibbling while we told them all in a different way than we told earlier,” he explained.