Matthew McConaughey talks defying Hollywood pressure to be ‘rom-com dude’

Matthew McConaughey carved out a special niche for himself as a king of rom-coms during the 2000s, but eventually decided to put a “full stop” on it for good.

During a conversation with latest episode of the Good Trouble with Nick Kyrgios podcast, the Oscar-winning actor described being on autopilot as he did hits like The Wedding Planner, How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days, Failure To Launch, Fool’s Gold, and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past.

"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,” he said during the chat.

“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 shared that he decided to put his foot down in the most “rebellious move in Hollywood”.

The Interstellar star shared that he didn’t want to do romcoms forever, so he moved back to his ranch in Texas and made a pact with his wife to not go back until he got offers that he really wanted to do.

The Wedding Planner star turned down plenty of lucrative offers until it sent a clear message about where he wanted to take his career.

“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 said.

However, once the “wobbly” years settled, McConaughey’s patience paid off and he finally started getting the roles he wanted to do including Interstellar and Dallas Buyers Club.

“When those offers came, I would salivate, man,” he added. “And I just bit on and went back-to-back to back and worked as much as I could and loved it and felt every bit of it.”