The Real Reason Matthew McConaughey Stopped Making Romantic Comedies
Sometimes a career change is the best thing for Hollywood stars, and no one can attest to that more than Matthew McConaughey. To cast your mind back to the actor's career before his eternally coined and hugely successful McConaissance era is to look at a different actor entirely. One that was the model rom-com star breaking hearts in the likes of "How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days," "The Wedding Planner," and "Failure To Launch." Sure there were the odd splits from the genre with "EdTV," "Reign of Fire," and "U-571," but as far as the rest of the world saw it, he was an actor synonymous with date movies.
Times changed, though, and so too did McConaughey's tactics. Turning up in more serious roles in the years that followed, the redirection paid off massively, going as far as to be nominated for an Emmy for "True Detective" and winning an Oscar for his incredible performance in "The Dallas Buyers Club." But what led him on this considerable alteration? Why the sudden switch that found him working with directors like Christopher Nolan and Martin Scorsese? Well, as revealed by the man himself, McConaughey started to remember why he did this job in the first place.
The money wasn't enough for McConaughey
Speaking to Cigar Aficionado in 2018, Matthew McConaughey revealed that his big-screen career change wasn't as "big" as it seemed. "That whole thing was much less of a 180 for myself than people seemed to think," the actor recalled. "There was this narrative of 'then' and 'now.' I didn't get a new acting coach or take a new class. I just said, 'F–k the bucks — I'm going for the experience' in the things I was choosing."
The subtle shift in focus led McConaughey to stop worrying about issues he'd been concerned about with previous projects. "I quit trying to project how something would be received and decided to just be an actor for hire again," he recalled. "I love being an actor and going as deep as you can in a role, to really commit to the craft. I put my head down and went after roles that scared me." It was a new game plan that paid off massively, earning the star such high-level roles as "Interstellar" and "Wolf of Wall Street." It also showed audiences just what kind of talent we'd been missing out on, replacing a slew of sub-standard rom-com with some truly incredible performances.