Matthew McConaughey was offered $14m for another rom-com prior to 'the McConaisance'
Matthew McConaughey's career was littered with disposable rom-coms before the now infamous 'McConaisance', where he transitioned into his now-established role as a ‘serious’ actor.
From Failure To Launch to How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days, his genial manner and easiness on the eye provided huge bankrolls.
However, he's revealed in a new memoir that just prior to his turning point, in acclaimed movies like The Lincoln Lawyer, Mud and Killer Joe, he was offered a staggering sum to continue in the seam he was eager to move out of.
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“The romantic comedies remained my only consistent box office hits, which made them my only consistent incoming offers,” he writes in Greenlights.
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“For me personally, I enjoyed being able to give people a nitty-minute breezy romantic getaway from the stress of their lives where they didn’t have to think about anything, just watch the boy chase the girl, fall down, then get up and finally get her. I had taken the baton from Hugh Grant, and I ran with it.”
However, it came to the point where a $14.5 million offer had to be turned down, and while he does not say for which movie it was, he adds he had 'enjoyed making romantic comedies, and their paychecks rented the houses on the beach I ran shirtless on'.
“I declined the offer,” McConaughey writes. “If I couldn’t do what I wanted, I wasn’t going to do what I didn’t, no matter the price.”
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It was absolutely the right choice, as a slew of acclaimed roles followed, including his Oscar-winning turn in Dallas Buyers Club, and his unforgettable role in HBO series True Detective.
Though he appeared in four movies in 2019, he's starred in no movies in 2020, though he's reprising his role optimistic koala Buster Moon in Sing 2, due out in 2021.
Greenlights is out now.
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