The Promise Matthew McConaughey Made To Wife Camila That Cost Him Millions

Matthew McConaughey is one of Hollywood's most versatile actors, but he wasn't always thought of that way. The star used to be typecast almost strictly as a rom-com leading man in films like "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" and "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past," parts that weren't fulfilling for the actor. "I mean, we all look around and see we've overleveraged our life with yeses and go, 'Geez, oh, man, I'm making C minuses and all that sh*t in my life because I said yes to too many things.' I have many times in my life where I'm going through autopilot," he told tennis player Nick Kyrgios on a November 2024 episode of "Good Trouble with Nick Kyrgios."

What you might not know about McConaughey is that dissatisfaction with his roles made him move to Texas and promise his wife, Camila Alves McConaughey, "I'm not going back to work unless I get offered roles I want to do." That promise cost him a part in an unnamed action comedy that would have earned him a crisp paycheck of $14.5 million. "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**king bluffing.' I think that's what made Hollywood go, 'You know what? He's now a new novel idea. He's a new bright idea.'"

Staying true to his word led McConaughey to grabbing more dramatic roles, like in "Mud" and "Interstellar." "I just said, 'F**k the bucks – I'm going for the experience' in the things I was choosing," McConaughey told IndieWire in a 2018 interview.

Matthew McConaughey enjoyed starring in romantic comedies for a time, but still yearned for something more. "That was my lane, and I liked that lane," he told Kyrgios. "I was so strong in that lane that anything outside of that lane, dramas and stuff that I wanted to do ... Hollywood said 'No, no, no, no, you should stay there, stay there." Eventually Hollywood listened and allowed McConaughey to begin "The McConaissance," the early 2010s period where his career pivoted to taking on more challenging and dramatic roles.

"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," he told Indiewire. McConaughey won an Oscar for his performance in "Dallas Buyers Club" and was nominated for several accolades, including a Golden Globe, for starring in the first season of "True Detective" back when TV was looked at as beneath film stars. He's since slowed down his output,  but has become a best-selling author with his 2020 memoir "Greenlights" and 2023's children's book "Just Because."