Matthew McConaughey is one of the most popular actors of his time. With a career that now spans over 30 years, he has accumulated critical acclaim, recognition from the Academy, and was honored as People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive.
Related: Matthew McConaughey Turned Down A $14.5 Million Role To Send Hollywood A Message
To date, McConaughey has over 50 acting credits to his name, not counting his commercials or PSAs. He also sits on a net worth of approximately $160 million. Although he has rarely been short on getting acting work, McConaughey did not just garner that much wealth from acting by itself.
9 What He Did Before Becoming Famous
First, let's take a look at McConaughey's early career. He originally planned to attend law school but changed career paths after graduating from the University of Texas at Austin in 1993. Soon after graduating he began acting, starting in commercials. Some of his earliest roles include music videos and bit roles on TV, like his part in an episode of Unsolved Mysteries. He got some bit parts in movies too, but his famous breakthrough role was in Richard Linklater's stoner cult classic Dazed and Confused.
8 He Works For Wild Turkey
After Dazed and Confused, McConaughey landed the lead in A Time To Kill and the rest is history. He slowly but surely blew up as a romantic leading man but held several other roles both comical and dramatic. Now that he is the star he is today he is highly in demand as a spokesperson for several causes and products. Among his many endorsements, one of his most famous was his endorsement of Wild Turkey Bourbon. He is not just one of their spokespeople, McConaughey was hired to be their Creative Director in 2016.
7 His Famous Lincoln Motors Ads
McConaughey has done several commercials, and some of his most famous are the ones he did for the Lincoln Motor Company. McConaughey was the face of their ad campaign for the MKC Crossover, and the highly dramatized commercials were the subject of relentless parodies by the likes of Ellen DeGeneres, Saturday Night Live, and Conan O'Brien.
6 He Owns A Soccer Team In Texas
Fun fact; McConaughey is a big sports fan. He became an owner of the Austin Football Club (Austin FC) a Major League Soccer team that began to play in 2021. McConaughey is far from the only celebrity of his kind to invest in soccer. Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney are co-owners of Wrexham AFC. Other celebrities who own soccer teams include Magic Johnson and Will Ferrell.
Related: How Did Rob McElhenney From 'It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia' Afford A Soccer Team?
5 He's Been Teaching Since 2015
McConaughey is a major donor and supporter of his alma mater and his school returns the love in kind. He has been a visiting instructor for the school's Department of Radio, Television, and Film for several years now and in 2019 he was officially made a professor in practice.
4 He Wrote A Memoir In 2020
McConaughey is also a writer. His memoir, Greenlights, came out in 2020 and quickly became a bestseller. He also wrote, directed, and starred in a short titled The Rebel in 1998. To write his memoir, Matthew McConaughey spent over 50 days alone in the desert, cut off from the internet and cell phone service, all to focus on his writing. He has posted video tutorials about his writing process on his YouTube channel.
3 He Is Also A Producer
Like many other celebrities, McConaughey has also branched into producing a few times. He was an executive producer for his 2005 movie Sahara, as well as the 2009 short Addicted to Facebook. The most successful of these endeavors has to be his executive producer credit on his critically acclaimed show True Detective, in which he starred in the first season. He is also the producer of the short podcast series, Hank The Cowdog.
2 He's Gotten Into Voiceover Work
Both before and after becoming a household name, McConaughey did lots of voiceover work for commercials. He did the voiceovers for those "Beef: It's What's For Dinner" ads in 2008, replacing Sam Elliot. In addition to these and the other commercials he does that require his voiceovers, such as Lincoln and Wild Turkey, he has voice-acted in a few movies too. He is the lead in the Sing movies, he voiced Hank in the podcast series Hank The Cowdog, and he played Beetle in Kubo and The Two Strings.
1 How He Uses His Money And Celebrity Status
Although the focus of this list is how he makes his money, how McConaughey uses his money and his celebrity also deserves attention. McConaughey started a foundation to help teens make healthy lifestyle choices, which earned him honors and awards from unite4:humanity. After the Uvlade, Texas shooting in 2022 that left teachers and children killed by an AR-15, McConaughey, who was born in Uvalde, became a passionate anti-gun violence activist and an advocate for gun control.
After the tragedy, he gave an impassioned speech in the White House press room. Some were critical of the speech since McConaughey has used guns in several of his films, while supporters point out that there is a big difference between a fake gun in a movie and one that is used to inflict violence in real life. His speech was praised by CNN and McConaughey met with President Joe Biden in June 2022.
