Matthew McConaughey took a step back from Hollywood despite being an A-lister. He left California for his home state of Texas over 10 years ago.
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Now, the actor is diving more into why he made that decision. After marrying Camila Alves, McConaughey wanted to focus on his family and raising kids. His career also wasn't going where he wanted it to go at the time.
"Look, man, the devil's in the infinite yeses, not the nos," McConaughey said on the "Good Trouble with Nick Kyrgios" podcast. "No, it's just as important, if not more important. Especially if you have some level of success and access. No becomes more important than yes."
"I mean, we all look around and see we've over-leveraged our life with yeses and go, 'Geez, oh, man, I'm making C minuses and all that s-t in my life because I said yes to too many things.' I have many times in my life where I'm going through autopilot," he added.
McConaughey made the tough decision to abandon Hollywood after growing tired of starring in just rom-coms. He felt it was hurting his career.
Matthew McConaughey On Texas
"That was my lane, and I liked that lane," he said. "That lane paid well and it was working. But the lane was... I was so strong in that lane that anything outside of that lane, dramas and stuff that I wanted to do, were like, 'No, no, no, no, no McConaughey.' Hollywood said 'No, no, no, no, you should stay there, stay there.'"
McConaughey wanted to expand as an artist and only agreed to accept the roles that interested him. That means turning down a lot of money.
"Luckily, Camila got pregnant with our first child. So there was purpose coming to look forward to," he said. "But I was still like, 'Man's gotta work.' Making chimes and working in the garden wasn't cutting it."
McConaughey even turned down a $15 million gig to stick with his conviction.
"I think that was the one that was probably what was seen as the most rebellious move in Hollywood by me, because it really sent the signal, 'He ain't f-king bluffing,'" he recalled. "I think that's what made Hollywood go, 'You know what? He's now a new novel idea. He's a new bright idea.'"
