Matthew McConaughey Says Leaving Hollywood for Texas Made Him Feel ‘Connected' to His Definition of Home
The actor talked to Nick Kyrgios about why he likes living in Austin, which he refers to as ‘the blueberry and tomato soup of Texas’
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Matthew McConaughey attends the 12th Annual Mack, Jack & McConaughey Gala at ACL Live on April 25, 2024 in Austin, Texas.Matthew McConaughey is opening up about “the push and pull” of living in Austin after leaving Los Angeles.
During the Nov. 20 episode of the Good Trouble with Nick Kyrgios podcast, tennis pro Nick Kyrgios told the 55-year-old actor that he seems like the type of guy who never forgets his roots or loses his home town pride. Kyrgios, 29, then asked McConaughey, “What does Texas really mean for you?”
“Home, for me, is where a mile feels like a mile. An hour feels like 60 minutes,” replied the Academy Award-winning actor. “[When] I’m working and I’m really busy, I get ahead of time. You go on vacation to like the Bahamas or something, I get behind [on] time."
He continues: “Home, I feel like I’m on time with relationships, with work — my pace, my flow through life, feels like it is on time.”
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Matthew McConaughey and Camila Alves walk the sidelines with their baby during the game between the Texas Longhorns and the Texas Tech Red Raiders on November 1, 2008.McConaughey, who spent the early years of his career living in Hollywood while starring in hit romantic comedies such as The Wedding Planner, How to Lose A Guy In 10 Days, Failure to Launch, and Fool’s Gold, moved back to his home state with his wife Camila Alves McConaughey in 2014.
Once there, he told Kyrgios that he made a pact with his wife that they’d stay put until he was offered more roles that didn’t pigeonhole him as a rom-com guy. “'I'm not going back to work unless I get offered 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 Club, the couple has remained in Texas ever since and the they now have three children together: sons Levi, 16, and Livingston, 11, and daughter Vida, 14.
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Actor Matthew McConaughey looks on during a game between the Georgia Bulldogs and Texas Longhorns at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on October 19, 2024 in Austin, Texas.Related: Matthew McConaughey Reveals What His Mom Said After His 1999 Naked Bongo Arrest
To put one of McConaughey's most popular one-liners to use, everything in Texas seems "all right, all right, all right" for the actor — and he's balanced and at peace. That includes with his neighbors, despite what he points out is an 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, the blueberry and tomato soup of Texas, I like that.”
Even though McConaughey and his family have deeply planted their roots in Texas, that’s not going to stop him from trotting the globe. “A lot of Texans are very connected to home,” said the actor. “But we have a spirit of 'get out there, go off, use your passport, boy. Go travel, and come back and tell us some stories.' ”
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