Matthew McConaughey says his wife, Camila Alves, encouraged him not to “half-ass” his decision to quit acting in rom-coms.

Camila Alves and Matthew McConaughey

Camila Alves and Matthew McConaughey

The 51-year-old actor made a name for himself starring in movies such as ‘The Wedding Planner’, ‘Fool’s Gold’, and ‘How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days’, but walked away from the genre after feeling dissatisfied and wanting to take on roles that “reflected [his] personal vitality”.

And now, Matthew has said it was thanks to his wife Camila that he finally ended his rom-com career, as she told him he had to be 100 percent certain of his decision.

He said: "If you go deep in a rom-com, you can sink the ship. In my life, though, I was going very deep. I found the love of my life in Camila. We had a newborn coming. I had more things to get angry about, laugh about, have more joy about and be sad about.

“I wanted to do work that reflected my personal vitality. But no matter how much of a pay cut I would take, dramas were not being offered to me. So I quit.

“It was scary. But Camila said, 'If we're going to do this, we're not going to half-ass it.'"

Matthew stayed true to his word and turned down every rom-com script that came his way for over a year, including one that would have landed him a $14.5 million pay cheque.

And although he began to think he would never work in Hollywood again, he eventually landed roles in critically acclaimed dramas including ‘Lincoln Lawyer’ and ‘True Detective’.

He told AARP magazine: "I unbranded those two years to then rebrand. The dramas came my way and I jumped on them."

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