![](\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F2%2F2025%2F09%2F111675480.jpg?quality%3D90%26strip%3Dall\")
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Matthew McConaughey took a big gamble, and it paid off.<\/p>\n
The \u201cDazed and Confused\u201d star has revealed how he once turned down a whopping $14.5 million paycheck because he no longer wanted to be typecast as a rom-com actor.<\/p>\n
McConaughey, 55, opened up about the offer and his decision to walk away from the big payday during an episode of \u201cThe Diary of a CEO\u201d<\/a> podcast released Thursday, Sept. 18.<\/p>\n \u201cI was getting quantity, but I wasn\u2019t getting the quality,\u201d he recalled. \u201cWhat I want to do is dramas, but Hollywood won\u2019t offer me one, no matter how big a pay cut I take.\u201d<\/p>\n Before McConaughey changed his trajectory and began focusing on more dramatic roles, he starred in popular rom-coms like \u201cHow to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,\u201d \u201cFailure to Launch,\u201d \u201cFool\u2019s Gold\u201d and \u201cGhosts of Girlfriends Past.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf I can\u2019t do what I want to do, I\u2019m going to quit doing what I\u2019ve been doing,\u201d the \u201cLost Bus\u201d star<\/a> continued. \u201c[I] chose to, boom, go to the ranch in Texas. Told my agent, \u2018No more rom-coms.’\u201d<\/p>\n But after taking a nearly two-year acting hiatus<\/a> and living on the Texas ranch with his wife, Camila Alves,<\/a> the offers appeared to dry up \u2013 until an opportunity came in for an unnamed action comedy.<\/p>\n \u201c$8 million offer. I read it. I said, \u2018No, thank you, that\u2019s the stuff I\u2019m not doing,\u2019\u201d he remembered. \u201cThey come back with a $10 million offer, \u2018I\u2019m not reading that again, no thank you.\u2019 They come back with a $12 million offer, \u2018Guys, tell them I said no thanks.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey come back with a $14.5 million offer. I said, \u2018Let me read that again,\u2019\u201d McConaughey laughed. \u201cI read it again, it\u2019s the same words that were in the $8 million offer I said no to, but it was better written.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt was funnier, I could see myself in it, I could make this work,\u201d he added regarding the potential $14.5 million paycheck. \u201cAnyway, I ultimately said, \u2018No.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The \u201cWedding Planner\u201d star\u2019s risky decision paid off, however, and McConaughey was taken more seriously upon returning to Hollywood.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that me saying no to that $14.5 million offer \u2013 a year into me leaving and saying \u2018no more rom-coms\u2019 \u2013 I think me doing that sent the message through Hollywood, \u2018Oh, McConaughey is not bluffing,’\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n \u201cSomething about that was like \u2018Oh, he didn\u2019t just recede, he\u2019s got a plan, but he\u2019s stepped out of Hollywood. He\u2019s turned down 14.5? Oh, he\u2019s not for rent,’\u201d the \u201cTime to Kill\u201d actor added. <\/p>\n One movie in particular that came from McConaughey\u2019s gamble was \u201cThe Lincoln Lawyer,\u201d which was released in 2011 and marked one of the actor\u2019s first serious roles following his lengthy hiatus.<\/p>\n More offers followed, including projects like \u201cKiller Joe,\u201d \u201cMud,\u201d \u201cMagic Mike,\u201d \u201cTrue Detective\u201d and\u00a0\u201cInterstellar.\u201d McConaughey even went on to win the Oscar for\u00a0Best Actor\u00a0for his role in \u201cDallas Buyers Club\u201d in 2014.<\/p>\n \u201cWould those [roles] have come if I\u2019d never stepped out?\u201d he asked. \u201cNo. No. They wouldn\u2019t have.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source celebrity.land \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Matthew McConaughey took a big gamble, and it paid off. The \u201cDazed and Confused\u201d star has revealed how he once turned down a whopping $14.5 million paycheck because he no longer wanted to be typecast as a rom-com actor. McConaughey, 55, opened up about the offer and his decision to walk away from the big […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2032932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25174],"tags":[25538,21751,21741,27639,23522],"class_list":["post-2032931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gossip","tag-actors","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-matthew-mcconaughey","tag-podcasts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Matthew-McConaughey-turned-down-145-million-during-acting-hiatus.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2032931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2032931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2032931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2032932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2032931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2032931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2032931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}