Matthew McConaughey Feared He’d Have To Quit Acting and Become a Teacher After Fleeing L.A. and Moving to Texas

Legendary actor Matthew McConaughey has opened up about the roller coaster evolution of his acting career after he quit Hollywood and moved his family to Texas in a bid to get out of a romantic comedy rut and vie for more serious roles.

McConaughey, 55, left Los Angeles in 2014 with his wife, Camila Alves, and their three children—Levi, 17, Vida, 15, and Livingston, 12—and moved to a ranch near Austin, TX, which he purchased for around $6 million two years prior.

At the time, the actor was best known for his many leading roles in some of Hollywood's biggest rom-coms, including "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days," "The Wedding Planner," "Failure to Launch," and "Fool's Gold."

However, he had grown tired of only securing the same kind of role and found himself desperate to branch out—a change he only felt he'd be able to make if he carried out a major transformation in his own life, by turning his back on Hollywood and rejecting all rom-com opportunities that came his way.

"I had that 4 a.m. in my solitude, on my own truth that hit me," he recalled during a recent appearance on "The Graham Norton Show." "It lands like a butterfly and strikes like a lightning bolt at the same time.

"That truth that you go, 'Okay, tomorrow when the sun comes up and I'm back in the masses, and all the world's coming at me, and all those offers, I need to remember this truth.'"

McConaughey admitted that he was so eager to "get dramas" that he'd even been telling producers and directors that he would take "huge pay cuts" off his normal salary in order to secure those kinds of roles—but was repeatedly told that he was "the rom-com guy" and should "stay in his lane."

"Because I couldn't do what I wanted to do, I said, 'I have to stop doing what I'm doing.' So I said, 'No more rom-coms.' I called the agent, I said, 'Let the town know, it's not going to happen.' I went to Texas. Camila was pregnant, on the ranch, it's quiet down there."

McConaughey noted that his wife, whom he wed in 2012, was fully supportive of his decision, telling him: "You don't know how long it's going to be dry, how long you're going to not go with work. This could go on, but this is non-negotiable. We're not going back."

However, after a year with no concrete offers, the actor admitted that he began to grow concerned that he had been forgotten by Hollywood altogether.

"I call my agent and he goes, 'Matthew, I haven't even heard your name in six months,'" McConaughey recalled as his fellow guests gasped in surprise.

"I'm going, 'OK, I may have just wrote myself a one-way ticket out of Hollywood.'"

The situation had grown so dire that McConaughey began looking at "other vocations," explaining that he considered everything from becoming a school teacher to a wildlife guide—and even looked at whether he should go back to law school, a path that he had been pursuing before becoming an actor.

"18 months go by, I really think I've done it, I'm out," he recalled.

Finally, McConaughey was offered a role but, to his dismay, learned that it was yet another romantic comedy part.

"It comes with an $8 million offer," he revealed. "I read it, I pass, I say, 'No thank you.' Comes back with a $10 million offer. I said, 'No thank you.' It comes back with a $12 million offer, I said, 'No thank you.'

"It comes back with a $14.5 million offer. I said... let me read that thing again. Same words as the $8 million offer, but it was better! It was funnier, I could see myself in it, this could work, right?

"But I ultimately said no. Saying no to it, I think, sent a little invisible message to Hollywood like, 'Oh, McConaughey's not bluffing."

Clearly, the actor's refusal of such a huge paycheck perked producer interest and, just under two years after he left Hollywood, the kinds of roles that he had sought after for so long began to roll in.

"Two months after I turned that down, the offers came in that I was looking for," he shared. "And they came in in droves.

"They came in, everything I was looking for. And they would not have come in if I wouldn't have unbranded for that 20 months.

"There was a time for me when I had to unbrand and it took 20 months. But, then I was doing ... all of a sudden, my work was challenging the vitality of life. I was like, 'There we go!'"

In the years since his 20-month "unbranding," McConaughey's career has gone from strength to strength, and he has been able to take on a wide range of parts, starring in everything from hit TV drama "True Detective" to legal thriller "The Lincoln Lawyer."

He then cemented his status as a Hollywood great when he won the Oscar for Best Actor for his role in "Dallas Buyers Club" in 2014, a part that has received wide praise over the years.

Now, the A-lister is preparing to make his first on-screen appearance alongside his son, Levi, in the AppleTV+ thriller "The Los Bus," which also features McConaughey's 93-year-old mother, Kay.

Speaking to People about the project, McConaughey admitted that he was initially reluctant to let any of his children pursue a career in front of the cameras but eventually realized that—with the right guidance—it could end up being an incredibly enriching experience.

"The first 15 years in Hollywood I was like, 'I’d never want my kid to grow up in the business,'" he confessed.

"And when I hit about 40, right about the time we had Levi, I looked around at how many special people I’ve met in my life, how much travel and what an awesome, healthy, cool experience that’s been for me in my life. I was like, 'Where are you coming up with this idea you don’t want any of your kids to do it?' It’d be a privilege if they would be able to."

As for his home life in Austin, McConaughey says the dynamic is incredibly happy—complete with his mother, who now lives with them on the ranch.

"There are certain things that we practice that take precedent, nonnegotiably, whether that’s gathering for dinner and sharing about our day or cooking a meal together or taking trips together," he said. "Camila puts out the effort to make sure that we do a lot together."

Before starting his acting career, the "Magic Mike" star grew up in Uvalde, TX, and then later moved to Longview, TX. He attended college at the University of Texas at Austin—and is a longtime supporter of the Texas Longhorns football team, regularly appearing on the sidelines at their games.