When Matthew McConaughey won the Oscar for best actor I was grudgingly ok with it. I still think that Chiwetel Ejiofor’s sublime performance was more deserving, but McConaughey was excellent in Dallas Buyer’s Club. Plus he is just incredible and mesmerizing in True Detective on HBO, with Woody Harrelson. If you haven’t seen that show you’re really missing out. If you’re prone to marathoning like I am, you should wait until you have time. This is a series that you can’t put down, that will keep you from sleeping until you find out what happens. (There are only 8 episodes.)

McConaughey has proven himself as a serious actor and he’s put his romcom past behind him. He’s remained grateful for his career and has never bad mouthed his past movies, though. I recently heard an interview with McConaughey on NPR’s Fresh Air in which he described his romcom roles as easy and “bouyant.” He said he tried to hold off on those roles for a while to find something that would challenge him:

That’s great to have something you feel like you could do tomorrow. It’s great to have your so-called fastball and you like doing them. There’s a lightness that you are able to keep and maintain in those that they need because they need a buoyancy, and I called them a Saturday character, the romantic comedy, it’s a Saturday character. You’re not supposed to get, you know, Hamletian about it. You’re not supposed to go deep. You go deep on those, you sink the ship. I had fun doing that and also trying to do those without emasculating the male, which can be done in those romantic comedies often. But I just felt like I could do them tomorrow or the next day. So I said I want to wait. I don’t know what I want to do. I want to wait till something really turns me on – moves my floor

[From NPR.org]

So McConaughey moved on, showed his acting chops in roles like DBC, Mud, and Wolf of Wall Street and the rest is history.

This makes me wonder: would McConaughey revisit his romcom past for the right role or the right amount of cash? Star Magazine says that he’s not on board for the Magic Mike sequel, and that he’s worked too hard to go back to playing a stripper. McConaughey might consider it if the money is right though:

Sources say that Matthew [McConaughey] told costar and producer Channing Tatum not to include him in the sequel Channing’s currently writing.

“Matthew feels that he’s done his time,” a source tells Star. “Taking his shirt off is what got him to the forefront of Hollywood, but he is adamant that since he won an Academy Award, his acting skills should get him jobs.”

But don’t cry into your dollar bills just yet, ladies. “If big money is offered, there’s always a chance,” says the insider. “But his role will be drastically smaller than before.”

[From Star Magazine, print edition, March 24, 2014]

This is in Star, so I’m not going to shade McConaughey for allegedly holding out for more money. If this is true it makes me sad. He was the highlight of Magic Mike and I’d love to see him reprise his character. It also seems unlike him to pass up this role. McConaughey isn’t one to take himself too seriously or to care much if he’s caught with his shirt off. He’s shown that he can do incredibly meaty roles. He’s versatile and established enough to play a strip club owner and not worry about ending up in a romcom rut. Plus I really want to see him do beefcake with his shirt off again.