Matthew McConaughey started off his Hollywood journey with the 1993 comedy flick Dazed and Confused. He soon achieved superstardom with leading roles in romantic comedy blockbusters like The Wedding Planner and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.
Today, he’s known for grittier roles like in HBO’s True Detective and the film Dallas Buyers Club. However, there was a time when he was known as the king of romantic comedies. But the handsome Hollywood hunk eventually stopped doing the genre for a reason.
Why Did Matthew McConaughey Leave Rom-Coms?
Matthew McConaughey explained why he left doing rom-coms in an interview published in AARP Magazine‘s June/July 2021 issue. The actor found the love of his life in his wife, Camila Alves. They “had a newborn coming.” The actor continued:
“I had more joy, I had more sadness. The extremes, the ceilings and the basements of my own emotions of my life had more depth and more height to them. So my work, I felt like, ‘Oh, I’ve got to kind of compress that with these rom-coms.'”
But over his choice of leaving the genre, he was shunned by studios. And it left him feeling guilty.
Studios Ignored Matthew McConaughey Because He Refused to Do Rom-Com Projects
Matthew McConaughey cried over spilled milk after he stepped out of doing rom-coms. He was “leading a successful life as an actor.” He liked doing rom-coms, and he was even paid well. But when the Uvalde native rejected doing films of the specific genre, he was snubbed by Hollywood studios. As McConaughey revealed on AARP:
“I shed many tears with this choice. It was scary. I was leading a successful life as an actor. I was the go-to rom-com guy. I like doing rom-coms. They paid well. But I still said, “Boy, I’d sure like to do some work that challenges me. And that work – dramas – were not being offered to me. So, I go on this sabbatical away from Hollywood. I say not to every room-com script that comes in to me. I even turned one down for $14.5 million.”
But as it’s said, everything happens for a reason. It happened for McConaughey, too. He then became a leading man for playing grittier roles in projects like The Lincoln Lawyer, Mud, Magic Mike, True Detective, Dallas Buyers Club, and many more. And over this, he said, “All the things that I wanted just came to me, and I just said, “Okay, here we go.”
The actor even received an Oscar for Dallas Buyers Club in 2014. This would have never happened if he had never stepped out of rom-coms.
