Matthew McConaughey has quietly taken a three-year hiatus from acting, but will soon star in a much-anticipated Yellowstone spinoff. According to McConaughey, getting back in the acting saddle sounds more than ‘alright’ to him.
“To go have some structure like, ‘I got a call time, I’ve got lines, I’ve got scenes, I’ve got a character.’ That sounds like a vacation right now to me,” McConaughey, 53, said in a recent podcast interview on Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard. “The last few years I had a really wonderful time getting rid of a lot of those filters that come with acting.”
McConaughey’s last acting role came back in Guy Ritchie’s 2019 film The Gentlemen. The flick co-starred a handful of other top leading men like Hugh Grant, Charlie Hunnam, Colin Farrell, and Jeremy Strong, so McConaughey didn’t have to really carry the movie. Since then, he’s focused most of his professional time towards promoting his 2020 memoir release, Greenlights.
Soon, though, the Southern charmer will return to the small screen in one of television’s most anticipated upcoming performances: a Yellowstone prequel helmed by Taylor Sheridan.
Will Matthew McConaughey’s turn in Yellowstone come as a prequel or a continuation of the current story?
Since the show’s initial release in 2018, Yellowstone has become more ‘universe’ than setting: multiple spin-offs, prequels, and character dramas have already aired or begun in its wake. And while McConaughey wouldn’t reveal much in terms of details about his turn taking on the Dutton family legacy, he did say that he’s looking forward to a return to acting.
“I am now becoming more interested in actually going to play another character in a movie or a TV show because all of the last four years of culminating and writing and getting these things together and getting more into some public service,” the actor admitted. “The idea of going to act in the right role or the right movie, film, or series right now [is enticing]. I’ll be a different or improved actor in my own right after these last three years.”
And with reports circulating that Sheridan’s cornerstone show may face an abrupt end due to scheduling difficulties, McConaughey’s new project may become the new darling of audiences (and producers, alike). There’s even rumors that pivotal Yellowstone cast members like Wes Bentley and Kelly Reilly could jump on board, too, if the series stays in the present era.
Paramount has stayed tight-lipped on the possibilities, as has Sheridan and the cast of Yellowstone. But one thing’s for certain: no matter what corner of the universe McConaughey occupies, fans can expect a unique performance that they’ll never forget.