Matthew McConaughey explains reason for six-year acting hiatus
Academy Award-winner Matthew McConaughey has explained why he ended he ended his six-year acting hiatus for The Rivals of Amziah King.
McConaughey’s new film is set to premiere at SXSW on March 10th and is the first movie he’s been involved in an on-screen capacity since Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen in 2019. However, despite stepping away from acting, he has remained busy and as prominent as ever.
In 2020, McConaughey published his autobiography, Greenlights, which became an international best-seller and spent 55 weeks on the New York Times Best-Sellers List.
While McConaughey lent his voice to the Sing franchise as well as Netflix’s Agent Elvis and Deadpool and Wolverine, The Rivals of Amziah King is his first on-screen role in six years. “I needed to write my own story, direct my own story on the page,” McConaughey revealed in a new interview with Variety of his hiatus.
Despite his vast experience, he was filled with nerves on his first day on set, recalling, “Is anybody else nervous except for me? Alright, alright, alright, I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t the only one.”
Importantly, the project has led to McConaughey rediscovering his love for acting and reminding himself that it’s his greatest skill.
“I remembered a couple of things. One, how much I truly enjoy performing. Two, I remembered, hey, McConaughey, you’re pretty damn good at this. And three, I remembered that acting is a vacation for me, and what I mean by vacation is that when when I’m performing, it’s my singular focus,” he explained.
He continued: “When I walk out the door in the morning, my wife says, ‘go kick some ass. I got the kiddos. We’re good.’ That’s vacation. Because I’m not multitasking. I’m not compartmentalizing. I’m fully focused on finding the truth of my character.”
Following the release of The Rivals of Amziah King, McConaughey’s next acting project is set to be Paul Greengrass’ upcoming film The Rage which explores the Peasant’s Revolt in England across 1381.
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