Matthew McConaughey Reveals Real Reason He Quit Los Angeles for Quiet Life on a $6 Million Texas Ranch

Matthew McConaughey has revealed the real reason that he quit his lavish celebrity lifestyle in Los Angeles in favor of moving to a remote Texas ranch with his family in 2014.

The 55-year-old actor and his wife, Camila Alves, share three children—Levi, 16, Vida, 14, and Livingston, 11—all of whom live together in an enormous mansion outside of Austin, TX, which the actor is understood to have purchased in 2012 for around $6 million.

Records indicate that he purchased the home via a trust that is run by his longtime financial adviser.

In the same year McConaughey bought the home, he and Alves tied the knot at the property, two years before they relocated there permanently.

Now, in an interview with tennis pro Nick Kyrgios on his podcast, “Good Trouble,” McConaughey has explained what prompted him to abandon life in California and return to his home state of Texas, despite working in an industry that is largely based in L.A.

According to McConaughey, he made the decision to boost his career—explaining that he had grown frustrated with being pigeonholed as the “rom-com dude” and starring only in movies like “How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days” and “The Wedding Planner,” all of which cast him in the same kind of role.

“When I was rolling off the rom-coms and I was the rom-com dude, man, that was my lane, and I liked that lane. That lane paid well and it was working,” he explained.

Despite earning good money and success from these roles, he found himself desperate to branch out.

“I was so strong in that lane that anything outside of that lane, dramas and stuff that I wanted to do, were like, ‘No, no, no, no, no McConaughey.’ Hollywood said, ‘No, no, no, no, you should stay there, stay there,'” he said.

So, he decided for them—walking away from his lavish home in Malibu and vowing to his wife that he would not return unless it was for a role that he wanted to do.

“Since I couldn’t do what I wanted to do, I stopped doing what I was doing,” he said. “I went down there, and I made a pact with my wife and said, ‘I’m not going back to work unless I get offered roles I want to do.'”

He noted that sometimes saying no is more difficult than saying yes. The moment to show he was serious about the typecasting came when he turned down a $14.5 million action comedy.

“That was probably what was seen as the most rebellious move by me,” he said. “Because it really sent the signal, ‘he aint’ f—— bluffing.”

That led Hollywood to take a new look at the star.

“And when you got someone who’s not bluffing, there’s something attractive about that,” he said. “I think that’s what made Hollywood go, ‘You know what? He’s now a new novel idea. He’s a new bright idea.'”

After a few “wobbly” years, the decision paid off, as he started to receive more serious roles, such as the one that snagged him an Academy Award in the drama “Dallas Buyers Club,” as well as roles in “Interstellar” and the limited HBO series “True Detective.”

Hollywood hunk

The Texas-born actor first got notice with the Richard Linklater-directed film “Dazed and Confused.” In the 2000s, he became known as the rom-com king, before going on a self-imposed career hiatus.

He realized his brand was creating an image that helped pigeonhole him in the romantic comedy leads.

In an interview with Deadline, he said, “My lifestyle, living on the beach, running with my shirt off, doing romantic comedies, people were throwing that together and going, well that’s who McConaughey is.”

The move off the beach and the pause in parts led to the more serious roles he can now command. This led to what some dubbed the “McConnaisance.”

Lone Star living

The bestselling author of “Greenlights” has spoken before about the benefits of living in the Lone Star State.

He explained on the “Today” show that in Texas, he has a great relationship with time.

“I have a great relationship with time: 60 seconds feels like a minute. A mile feels like a mile,” he said.

He also has some strong relationships that pull him back to Texas, including his 92-year-old mother.

“My family’s here,” he said. “My mom’s here. She’s 92.” He also has brothers in Houston and Midland.

“We have resources here. We have a background of security here.”

He noted that he wanted to raise his children in his home state.

“I did want to come back when Camila and I started a family. I wanted them to have what I grew up around,” he said.

He and Alves married in 2012 and then moved to Texas two years later.

Before starting his acting career, the “Magic Mike” star grew up in Uvalde, TX, and then later moved to Longview, TX. He attended college at the University of Texas at Austin.

He added that he liked the freedom of the city.

“The rule of Austin is ‘Be you,'” he said.

In addition to being a major booster of the Texas Longhorns football team, he is now a professor as well, teaching a film class to “serious” film students that takes them from script to screen.

According to the Daily News, the couple gave a joint interview in which they also talked about leaving Malibu for Texas, and preferred the Texas lifestyle with no “drama” and more “hospitality.”

Alves said she knew they had to move when she saw how “peaceful” McConaughy seemed while he was back in Texas.