In an interview with The Guardian, Matthew McConaughey was extremely open about what his life was like after he decided to stop appearing in romantic comedy movies. Apparently, McConaughey struggled to find acting jobs after decided to quit starring in romcoms.
“So the anxiety was, well, how long is nothing going to come in?” recalls the Oscar-winning actor. “Having a family helps, but I feel like I always need to be accomplishing something, for my own happiness and significance. I gotta work. The anxiety was in how long will it be dry, how long will we get nothing?”
McConaughey’s dry spell all took place after the actor finished filming A Christmas Carol, which flopped at the box office. McConaughey would then get stellar reviews for his movies Bernie, Mud and True Detective. But, it would take years before he found acting jobs outside of romantic comedies.
“My agent did a good job saying no, no, no,” he explained. “Then the studios got the message and quit sending them. Then there was an impasse of nothing. And there was nothing for about eight months.”
McConaughey acknowledges that he wasn’t living out on the street, but the experience helped his career. In fact, he created a slogan following that experience:
He wrote down a motto on a piece of paper, which he referred to whenever he felt his nerve giving way. “I wrote, ‘F*ck the bucks – I’m going for the experience.’” And so when, finally, the script for William Friedkin’s gothic thriller Killer Joe came in, McConaughey was ready.
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