Matthew McConaughey once turned down $14.5 million to star in a rom-com movie

Virgin Radio

5 Apr 2022, 14:18

He was the king of the romantic comedies in the 2000s, but Matthew McConaughey has revealed he once turned down a pretty paycheck to return to the rom-com scene. 

The Hollywood star made his name in films such as The Wedding Planner, How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days and Failure To Launch. 

While chatting with entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk on his TikTok channel, Matthew recalled the moment he turned down a huge job because it wasn’t in the right direction for him. 

Speaking about being the leading man in early noughties rom-coms, Matthew said: “I’m owning this, because I’m like, ‘You’re damn right, those rom-coms are paying for the house that I'm renting on the beach that I'm going shirtless on.’ Guilty of that, you know?”

After that, he made the firm decision to try harder hitting roles, such as Dallas Buyers Club and The Wolf Of Wall Street, telling his agents he would no longer take on any rom-com roles, but that left him without any work for over a year. 

It took turning down one massive paycheck to send the industry the message, and that offer came at a staggering $14.5 million. 

Matthew continued: “An offer comes in for a script at eight million bucks, I said, ‘No thank you.’ They come back with 10 million, I say, ‘No thank you.’ They come back at 12.5 million – small pause.”

It was then the movie star decided ‘see the script again’ but didn’t take the offer seriously.

Speaking on what could come next, Matthew recently hinted he might be keen to return to the Magic Mike franchise ahead of the upcoming third film.

The actor appeared in the original film in 2012 as retired stripper and club owner Dallas but did not return for the 2015 sequel Magic Mike XXL.

In an interview with Variety, the actor initially admitted he didn’t know anything about the third film, which will be titled Magic Mike’s Last Dance but said he enjoyed working on the first one.

When asked about his participation, the actor said: “I’d have to read [the script] first. It was a helluva lot of fun doing the first one.”

He added: “Channing Tatum, call me, bro! I haven’t heard from ya!”