Matthew McConaughey Says Leaving Hollywood for Texas Made Him Feel ‘Connected' to His Definition of Home

Matthew McConaughey opens up about the “push and pull” of life in Austin after leaving Los Angeles.

During the November 20 episode Good trouble with Nick Kyrgios podcast, tennis pro Nick Kyrgios told the 55-year-old actor that he seems like the type of man who never forgets his roots or loses his hometown pride. Kyrgios, 29, then asked McConaughey: “What does Texas really mean to you?”

“For me, home is a place where I feel a mile as a mile. An hour feels like 60 minutes,” replied the Oscar-winning actor. “[When] I work and I’m really busy, I get it forward time. You’re going on vacation to love the Bahamas or something, I get it behind [on] time.”

He continues, “At home, I feel like I’m on time with relationships, with work — my pace, my flow through life, it feels like it’s on time.”

Matthew McConaughey and Camila Alves walk along the sidelines with their baby during the game between the Texas Longhorns and the Texas Tech Red Raiders on November 1, 2008.

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McConaughey, who spent the early years of his career living in Hollywood while starring in hit romantic comedies such as Wedding planner, How to lose a guy in 10 days, Boot failedand Fool’s goldhe returned to his country with his wife Camila Alves McConaughey in 2014.

When he arrived, he told Kyrgios that he had made a pact with his wife to stay until he was offered new roles that wouldn’t see him as the romantic type. “I’m not going back to work unless I’m offered the roles I want to do,” he recalled telling her.

But despite eventually being offered good roles in other genres, including his Oscar-winning performance in Dallas Buyers Clubthe couple has since remained in Texas and now has three children: sons Levi, 16, and Livingston, 11, and daughter Vida, 14.

Actor Matthew McConaughey looks on during the game between the Georgia Bulldogs and the Texas Longhorns at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on October 19, 2024 in Austin, Texas.

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To use one of McConaughey’s most popular lines, for the actor, everything in Texas seems “okay, okay, okay” — and he’s poised and calm. That includes his neighbors, despite, he points out, the often divisive political landscape in the southern state.

“I live in Austin, which is a liberal city in a very conservative state. I like that push and pull,” he told Kyrgios. “I like the structure of the red around the freedom of the blue. So Texas Blueberry Tomato Soup, I like that.”

Although McConaughey and his family are deeply rooted in Texas, that won’t stop him from traveling the world. “A lot of Texans are very attached to home,” the actor said. “But we have the spirit of ‘get out, go, use your passport, boy. Go travel, come back and tell us some stories.’ ”

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Source: HIS Education