Matthew McConaughey Reveals Why He Stopped Doing Rom-Coms

Matthew McConaughey’s romantic comedy era brought fan-favorite pairings with Kate Hudson and Jennifer Lopez, but it didn’t leave the actor feeling fulfilled.

McConaughey, 55, opened up about his career in an interview published by The Guardian on Sept. 20. In the 2000s, the actor became a romantic comedy star, beginning with 2001’s The Wedding Planner, which he starred in alongside Jennifer Lopez and Bridgette Wilson-Sampras. Then came 2003’s How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, which he starred in alongside Hudson. It was a massive commercial success and has become a fan favorite; in 2005, he was PEOPLE’s Sexiest Man Alive. 

Three more rom-coms followed: 2006’s Failure to Launch with Sarah Jessica Parker, 2008’s Fool’s Gold, which reunited him with Hudson, and 2009’s Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, which also starred Jennifer Garner. 

Despite the success, McConaughey was unhappy. After Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, he took a two-year break from Hollywood and decided he wanted to take more challenging roles.

Of the rom-coms, he told the outlet, “I was good at something I wasn’t loving. I was never looking in the mirror going: ‘My life’s more vital than my work, oh I wish my work was as vital as my life.’ I remember going: ‘Well good luck, because if it’s got to be one way or the other, good on you that you feel your life’s more vital than your work and that it’s not the other way around.’ ”

But he was restless and thought, “I want to go for it, I want to see if my work can be an experience for me that is so vital and alive that it challenges the vitality I’m having in my own life.”

He and his wife, Camila Alves, had recently become parents to their first child, but Alves supported him in leaving behind his lucrative romances. Other family members did not. “My brothers were like: ‘Little brother, what is your major mal-f——-function? What are you thinking?’ And I was like: ‘No, this is clear to me and Camila, we’re going to do this. We’re not going to pull parachute. We’re gonna ride this.’ ”

After 20 months of waiting it out, he said “the levee broke,” and he started to get the more challenging offers he’d been looking for. He received award nominations for HBO’s True Detective and starred in 2014’s Interstellar. That year, he also won an Oscar for Dallas Buyers Club, and this era of his career became known as the “McConaissance.”

“I’m having a ball right now,” he told PEOPLE in 2014 shortly after winning the Oscar. Still, he didn’t fully forsake heart-throb roles; in 2012, he starred with Channing Tatum in Magic Mike.