00:00I had that 4 a.m. in my solitude on my own truth that hit me that lands like a butterfly and strikes like a lightning bolt at the same time, that truth that you go, okay, tomorrow when the sun comes up and I'm back in the masses and all the world's coming at me and all those offers, I need to remember this truth. Now, I've been trying to get dramas and was even offering huge pay cuts and they're like, no, stay in your lane, McConaughey. You're the rom-com guy. You got that down. Mind you, I enjoyed him, but I was wanting to do something different because I couldn't do what I wanted to do. I said, I got to stop doing what I'm doing. So I said, no more.
00:30No more rom-coms. Called the agent. Said, let the town know. It's not going to happen. I went to Texas. Camilla's pregnant. On the ranch. Quiet down there. Camilla says to me, look, you don't know how long it's going to be dry. How long are you going to not go with work? This could go on, but this is non-negotiable. We're not going back. I was like, not going back. Now, a year goes by. Nothing, nothing. I call my agent. He goes, Matthew, I haven't even heard your name in six months. I'm like, okay. I may have just wrote myself a one-way ticket out of Hollywood. I start to think about
00:59other vocations, school teacher, wildlife guide. Maybe I'll go back to law school.
01:04All right? 18 months go by. I really think I've done it. I'm out. I get this romantic action comedy. It comes with an $8 million offer.
01:15I read it. I pass. I say, no, thank you. It comes back with a $10 million offer. I said, no, thank you.
01:20It comes back with a $12 million offer. I said, no, thank you. It comes back with a $14.5 million offer.
01:26I said, let me read that thing. Yay. Same words as Dave Mendele offered, but it was better.
01:34It was funnier. I could see myself. This could work, right? But I ultimately said, no.
01:39That must be so hard to say no. It was, but saying no to it, I think sent a little invisible message to Hollywood.
01:48Oh, McConaughey's not bluffing. We were talking about not flinching. Yes.
01:51Oh, he's playing offense. He's not just doing nothing.
01:54Mm-hmm. He's playing on. He's on to something.
01:57And 20 months, two months after I turned that down, the offers came in that I was looking for.
02:04And they came in in droves. It went Killer Joe, Mudd, The True Detective, Dallas Buyers, Magic Mike.
02:09Oh, that movie.
02:10They came in, everything I was looking for.
02:12And they would not have come in if I wouldn't have unbranded for that 20 months.
02:17Yes.
02:17All right? Now, Duany, you didn't have to unbrand.
02:19You had enough steam going, I can make whatever choice I want, and I'm going to make this happen over here.
02:24It was a time for me where I had to unbrand, and it took 20 months.
02:27But then I was doing, and all of a sudden, my work was challenging the vitality I like.
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