Matthew McConaughey reveals the real reason he moved back to Texas at height of his acting career

Oscar-winner Matthew McConaughey officially bid farewell to Southern California and moved back to his home state of Texas with his family in 2014.

And now the actor, 55, is opening up about the motivation behind the move and how it’s impacted his Hollywood career over the last decade.

Before taking home an Academy Award and starring in acclaimed dramas like Dallas Buyers Club and Interstellar, McConaughey was considered the ‘rom-com dude.’

He was so desperate to no longer be typecast that he ‘stopped’ taking roles — even turning down an unnamed action comedy film with a $14.5 million salary — and relocated from Los Angeles to a ranch in Austin in the early 2010s.

‘When I was rolling off the rom-coms. And I was the rom-com dude, man. That was my lane, and I liked that lane. That lane paid well and it was working,’ he explained on this week’s episode of the Good Trouble with Nick Kyrgios podcast, as per 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) helped make McConaughey a household name.

Matthew McConaughey, 55, moved back to Texas over a decade ago after deciding he no longer wanted to be the ‘rom-com dude’; seen in April 2024

But his incredible success in the genre became limiting to him as an actor.

‘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,’ he continued.

‘I didn’t want to. So, since I couldn’t do what I wanted to do, I stopped doing what I was doing.’

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McConaughey put his foot down in a major way by packing up and leaving Los Angeles for a simpler life on a ranch in Austin, Texas.

He told Kyrgios that he made a pact with his wife Camila Alves, 41 — with whom he shares three kids — at the time of the move.

‘I went down there and I made a pact with my wife and said, “I’m not going back to work unless I get offered roles I want to do.”‘

After informing his agent of his new plan of action, McConaughey immediately began turning down lucrative film roles, including the $14.5M action comedy that he wouldn’t reveal to host Kyrgios.

He said it felt ‘rebellious’ to turn down such a huge offer and that it proved to Hollywood that he meant business.

‘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***ing bluffing,’ he recalled.

But his incredible success in the genre became limiting to him as an actor; pictured with Jennifer Lopez in The Wedding Planner (2001)

‘And when you got someone who’s not bluffing, there’s something attractive about that. I think that’s what made Hollywood go, “You know what? He’s now a new novel idea. He’s a new bright idea.”‘

After what he described as a few ‘wobbly’ years, McConaughey’s major career move eventually paid off and he won his first Academy Award for Dallas Buyers Club in 2014.

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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’s in the infinite yeses, not the no’s. No, it’s just as important, if not more important. Especially if you have some level of success and access,’ McConaughey told Kyrgios of what the journey taught him.

‘No becomes more important than yes. Because, I mean, we all look around and see we’ve overleveraged our life with yeses and gone, geez, oh, man, I’m making C minuses and all that s*** in my life because I said yes to too many things.’

McConaughey has frequently spoken about his Texas move and why he felt it was necessary not just for his career but for his family life with wife Camila.

The Lone Star State native and his spouse 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 on TODAY with Hoda & Jenna that life in Austin offers his family a sense of ‘security’ and that always intended to return to Texas once he welcomed children with Alves.

He made a pact with his wife Camila Alves, 41 — with whom he shares three kids — at the time of the move. ‘I went down there and I made a pact with my wife and said, “I’m not going back to work unless I get offered roles I want to do”‘; the couple seen in March 2024

After what he described as a few ‘wobbly’ years, McConaughey’s major career move eventually paid off and he won his first Academy Award for Dallas Buyers Club in 2014

The couple share three kids: Levi, 16, Vida, 14, and Livingston, 11.

‘This has always been home, I mean, there’s multiple reasons for [the move]. I mean, this is where I have a great relationship with time – meaning 60 seconds feels like a minute, a mile feels like a mile,’ he explained to the hosts.

He added, ‘I like to live in a place and for 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 out of Texas, including his mother, 92, and brothers who live in Houston and Midland.

‘Our family unit is here – we have resources and a backbone of security here,’ The Lincoln Lawyer actor added.

‘I wanted them to have what I grew up around,’ McConaughey said. ‘There’s a solid … amount of common sense that runs through it, it’s untalked about, but we understand it here.’

He hailed Austin as a ‘very creative city in a state that is very structured,’ and one where people are accepted for who they are.

McConaughey, who was born in Uvalde, Texas and raised in Longview, Texas, went to college at the University of Texas at Austin prior to entering show business.

Matthew and Camila have been living in Austin, Texas full-time with their three kids — Levi, 16, Vida, 14, and Livingston, 11 — since 2014

He remains an ardent fan of the school’s football team, the Texas Longhorns, often appearing on sidelines at games.

‘The rule in Austin is “Be You” – that’s always been the rule in this city – and we should make sure that 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 were living a ‘happy life’ in Malibu, Texas offered them a lifestyle with no ‘drama’ and more ‘hospitality.’

Alves said that she knew deep down that McConaughey wanted to move back to Texas after she witnessed firsthand how ‘peaceful’ he was while he was there.

McConaughey said that living in Texas has brought ‘ritual’ back to their family life.

‘Ritual came back, whether that was Sunday church, sports, dinner together as a family every night, or staying up after that telling stories in the kitchen, sitting at the island pouring drinks and nibbling while retelling them all in different ways than we told them before,’ he explained.