Matthew McConaughey On Why He Left Hollywood To Raise His Kids In Texas: “I Wanted Them To Be Raised With More Common Sense Values”

Planting roots back home.

Matthew McConaughey is in the process of promoting his new book Poems & Prayers, which is McConaughey’s follow up to his uberly popular and best seller Greenlights, which he released in late 2020. While that book was more anecdotal, this new one is described to be a “faith-filled” collection of poetry and written prayer.

Some of the poems were written years ago, even some when he was a teenager, and the 55-year-old actor sat down with conservative commentator and podcast host Megyn Kelly on the Megyn Kelly Show yesterday to talk all about the new book and of course the movie industry, and what led him to leave Hollywood and raise his kids back in his home state of Texas.

It was around the year 2014 when officially decided to make the move, just a couple years after he and Camila got married in 2012 (they had been together since 2006). On the heels of his legendary rom-com run featuring hits like How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, The Wedding Planner and Failure to Launch, just to name a few.

But he was desperately wanting to do more serious movies that showed his range as an actor, but those calls weren’t coming, and he knew he had to make a change and re-brand himself in a sense.

McConaughey and his wife headed back to Texas, and he felt as though raising his children there was the best option for his family, because he appreciated the more “common sense” values that were much harder to come by in California. To use his words, “a mile feels like a mile and 60 minutes feels like an hour”:

“One of the main reasons I came back home is, I did go out there to Hollywood long enough to get myself established. Enough credentials so say, oh, you can’t just rock my boat and I’m gone, you know. And also enough credentials where, if they want me, they know where to find me.

And if they want me, I will plan my routes out to Hollywood and line up meetings for two weeks and just knock them all out. You know, along the way, it was also, my mom’s here, my brothers are here. As soon as Camila and I decided to have children, I wanted them to be raised here in my home and around their family.

I wanted them to be raised with, what maybe you could say is a little more common sense values that I feel is around here. Where a mile feels like a mile and 60 minutes feels like an hour. It was a natural coming home for me.”

I think it’s something any parent can relate to and understand, and in addition to his family reasons, it was important that McConaughey really put his effort into getting the roles he wanted beyond the rom-coms, though he says he loved them and hopes to do more (I wholeheartedly agree, he needs to do more…).

He realized that he might’ve written his ticket out of town, but he knew it was a “non-negotiable” in order to truly fill fulfilled:

“I might have just wrote my one-way ticket out of Hollywood. And Camila and I prayed on it, cried on it, I said I’m gonna do it, I’m gonna stick to the decisions. Camila goes, you know this might last a long time, You don’t know… there’s no parachute here.

You might have just written yourself a ticket out of Hollywood. I was like, yep, but it’s non-negotiable, this is what I’m gonna do.”

Eventually, after a few years, his plan worked, and McConaughey ended up scoring roles like his Oscar-winning performance as Ron Woodroof in the 2013 film Dallas Buyers Club.

I think most of us think of him as a multi-faceted actor who can do anything, but it’s really interesting to hear about his journey to getting to that point and how much he was willing to give up. Plus, being back in Texas I’m sure kept him grounded and was obviously the right choice for his family.

You can watch that part of the interview here, it’s fascinating:

The post Matthew McConaughey On Why He Left Hollywood To Raise His Kids In Texas: “I Wanted Them To Be Raised With More Common Sense Values” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.