Matthew McConaughey is looking back at turning down a huge paycheck.
During a recent appearance on The Diary of a CEO podcast, the 55-year-old Oscar-winning actor revealed that he once walked away from a $14.5 million payday because he wanted to reinvent himself in the acting world.
Keep reading to find out more…Matthew said that back in the mid-2000s, he decided to stop doing rom-coms so that he could take on more serious acting roles.
After retreating to his ranch in Texas with wife Camila Alves McConaughey, Matthew recalled that no roles came his way for months until he was offered an action comedy movie.
“$8 million offer. I read it. I said, ‘No, thank you, that’s the stuff I’m not doing,’” he recalled. “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,’” Matthew said with a laugh. “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 admitted. “Anyway, I ultimately said, ‘No.’”
“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,’” Matthew 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.’”
“Which is interesting, maybe a little more attractive. ‘Oh you know who might be a novel, great idea for this drama, Lincoln Lawyer,’” he added, referencing his 2011 crime thriller The Lincoln Lawyer.
Matthew then went on to star in more challenging and serious projects like Killer Joe, Mud, Dallas Buyers Club, True Detective, and Interstellar.
“Would those have come if I’d have never stepped out? No. No. They wouldn’t have,” he admitted.
Later in the podcast, Matthew said that despite the pressures of not taking any roles during his 20-month acting hiatus, he knew that he couldn’t go back to starring in rom-coms.
“I was getting quantity, but I wasn’t getting the quality,” Matthew explained, adding that he needed to have “some resistance” to do “something that scares me.’”
If you missed it, Matthew McConaughey will be starring with one of his kids and his mom in a new movie!
Source: justjared.com