Matthew McConaughey‘s career has had more ups and downs than a sentence delivered in his usual Texas twang. After a few small roles, McConaughey was cast opposite an equally unknown Renee Zellweger in “Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation” one of the many incarnations of that horror series. Then things suddenly seemed to blossom for the Texas actor and suddenly he had the lead in an adaptation of the John Grisham novel “A Time to Kill” and was on the cover of Vanity Fair magazine being hailed as the new Paul Newman. After a series of successful films, things seemed to go off track for McConaughey. He did a number of less than stellar romantic comedies and became more known for his tanned muscular torso than his acting talents.

McConaughey seemed to become aware of his career slump in the early 2010s and made a conscious change to redirect his career.