Matthew McConaughey Says He’s ‘Continued to Study’ Running For Governor (Exclusive)

Matthew McConaughey hasn’t ruled out running for public office, but the Academy Award-winner has familial duties he needs to attend to first.

“I don’t know,” McConaughey, 55, says during his PEOPLE cover shoot, when asked if he is still interested in running for the governor’s seat in his home state Texas. “Like I said, it’s something I started looking into probably six years ago and something I’ve continued to study what that arena is, what it would mean, how could I be useful in it, would I be useful in it?”

Politics, he adds, is “not necessarily my language, but that would happen if and when it was something that I couldn’t not do. It would happen when I would look up and see that I’m pulled into it in a way that, ‘Oh, I have to.’ ”

McConaughey, who stars in Apple TV+’s The Lost Bus, flirted with a potential campaign for the governor’s seat in Texas back in 2021 but ultimately decided against getting in the race in the 2022 election cycle. With the 2026 election looming just over a year away, the actor tells PEOPLE that if he gets into politics, it may have to wait until his three children are all grown up.

“For now, I’m very secure with — the original thing I knew I always wanted to be was a dad,” McConaughey says. He shares oldest son Levi, 17, daughter Vida, 15, and younger son Livingston, 12, with wife Camila Alves McConaughey.

“So let me do what I can with Camila to get these three kids out of the house as healthy individuals, as much as I can make that possible,” McConaughey says of his responsibilities to his family. “And then opportunities or choices I can make — I’ll be much more free to make choices that won’t have the same consequences they may have now.”

“Because if I did that now, I wouldn’t be able to be the father and spend the time with the family the way that I have so far and it’s something I’m not ready to sacrifice,” he adds.

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Matthew sat down with his mom Kay, 93, and oldest son Levi for their for PEOPLE’s Generations cover (on newsstands Friday), marking a family milestone as they appear together in The Lost Bus (on Apple TV+ Oct. 3), a survival thriller about the deadly 2018 Camp Fire, which burned more than 150,000 acres and killed 85 people in northern California.

Matthew stars in the film as as a wayward bus driver who rescues 22 schoolchildren, and the film brings Kay back onscreen 14 years after her cameo in the 2011 black comedy Bernie. Levi makes his onscreen debut as Matthew’s son in the movie.

As Levi steps into the spotlight, “I’ve tried to give him some tips that I’ve learned along the way, tried to give him some of those tips earlier than I understood them,” says Matthew.

“It’s hard to keep your feet on the ground to sift out the real stuff from the BS. But over time you’ve got to get that sixth sense. It’s important that he has his own ownership of who he is and becomes. And [acting] will be a part of that if he continues to do it, part of finding his identity, but it can’t be his full identity.”

The Lost Bus streams on Apple TV+ on Oct. 3.