Matthew McConaughey opens up on career confusion and Hollywood break

Matthew McConaughey has opened up on leaving Hollywood after his slew of hit rom-coms like How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and Failure to Launch.

In a new interview with Hit Man star Glen Powell for Interview magazine, Matthew shared that he wanted to shed the romcom hero persona and do more serious roles, which inspired his break from Hollywood for two years. The True Detective star moved to his home in Texas and spent the two years away from the film industry.

“I’ve usually zigged when I felt like Hollywood wanted me to zag,” he shared. “When I had my rom-com years, there was only so much bandwidth I could give to those, and those were some solid hits for me. But I wanted to try some other stuff. Of course I wasn’t getting it, so I had to leave Hollywood for two years.”

“Dude, it was scary. I had long talks with my wife about needing to find a new vocation. ‘I think I’m going to teach high school classes. I think I’m going to study to be a conductor. I think I’m going to go be a wildlife guide,’” he confessed.

“I honestly thought, ‘I stepped out of Hollywood. I got out of my lane.’ The lane Hollywood said I should stay in, and Hollywood’s like, ‘Well, f–k you, dude. You should have stayed in your lane. Later,’” Matthew remarked.

The Oscar winner went on to share: “It was scary. The days are long — the sense of insignificance. But I made up my mind that that’s what I needed to do, so I wasn’t going to pull the parachute and quit the mission I was on. But it was scary, because I didn’t know if I was ever going to get out of the desert.”

Matthew made his return to Hollywood with the legal drama The Lincoln Lawyer and went on to earn an Oscar for Best Actor in 2014 for his performance in Dallas Buyers Club.