McConaughey left romcoms to pursue dramatic roles

Matthew McConaughey says he effectively bet his career on walking away from the romantic comedies that made him a star, turning down increasingly large paydays — including a reported $14.5 million offer — and moving his family to Texas until Hollywood began offering the dramatic roles he wanted. The actor recounted the decision and its aftermath in recent interviews, telling listeners on the Diary of a CEO podcast on Sept. 18 and speaking to The Guardian in a Sept. 20 profile.

McConaughey said he reached a breaking point after a decade of box-office hits in the romcom lane and made a pact with his wife, Camila Alves, to stop taking the parts he called safe. He described a sequence of offers from studios — $8 million, $10 million, $12 million and finally $14.5 million for an action comedy — that he declined before leaving Los Angeles for a ranch in Texas. "I read it and I said, No, thank you," he said on the podcast about the first offer, and later, after rereading the script at the highest bid, "I said no." He told The Guardian, "I was good at something I wasn't loving."

At the time of his decision the actor was coming off a run of commercially successful romantic comedies...