Matthew McConaughey took a big gamble, and it paid off.
The “Dazed and Confused” star has revealed how he once turned down a whopping $14.5 million paycheck because he no longer wanted to be typecast as a rom-com actor.
McConaughey, 55, opened up about the offer and his decision to walk away from the big payday during an episode of “The Diary of a CEO” podcast released Thursday, Sept. 18.
“I was getting quantity, but I wasn’t getting the quality,” he recalled. “What I want to do is dramas, but Hollywood won’t offer me one, no matter how big a pay cut I take.”
Before McConaughey changed his trajectory and began focusing on more dramatic roles, he starred in popular rom-coms like “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,” “Failure to Launch,” “Fool’s Gold” and “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past.”
“If I can’t do what I want to do, I’m going to quit doing what I’ve been doing,” the “Lost Bus” star continued. “[I] chose to, boom, go to the ranch in Texas. Told my agent, ‘No more rom-coms.’”
But after taking a nearly two-year acting hiatus and living on the Texas ranch with his wife, Camila Alves, the offers appeared to dry up – until an opportunity came in for an unnamed action comedy.
“$8 million offer. I read it. I said, ‘No, thank you, that’s the stuff I’m not doing,’” he remembered. “They come back with a $10 million offer, ‘I’m not reading that again, no thank you.’ They come back with a $12 million offer, ‘Guys, tell them I said no thanks.’”
“They come back with a $14.5 million offer. I said, ‘Let me read that again,’” McConaughey laughed. “I read it again, it’s the same words that were in the $8 million offer I said no to, but it was better written.”
“It was funnier, I could see myself in it, I could make this work,” he added regarding the potential $14.5 million paycheck. “Anyway, I ultimately said, ‘No.’”
The “Wedding Planner” star’s risky decision paid off, however, and McConaughey was taken more seriously upon returning to Hollywood.
“I think that me saying no to that $14.5 million offer – a year into me leaving and saying ‘no more rom-coms’ – I think me doing that sent the message through Hollywood, ‘Oh, McConaughey is not bluffing,’” he explained.
“Something about that was like ‘Oh, he didn’t just recede, he’s got a plan, but he’s stepped out of Hollywood. He’s turned down 14.5? Oh, he’s not for rent,’” the “Time to Kill” actor added.
One movie in particular that came from McConaughey’s gamble was “The Lincoln Lawyer,” which was released in 2011 and marked one of the actor’s first serious roles following his lengthy hiatus.
More offers followed, including projects like “Killer Joe,” “Mud,” “Magic Mike,” “True Detective” and “Interstellar.” McConaughey even went on to win the Oscar for Best Actor for his role in “Dallas Buyers Club” in 2014.
“Would those [roles] have come if I’d never stepped out?” he asked. “No. No. They wouldn’t have.”
