With the brutal Killer Joe from filmmaker William Friedkin in cinemas now, Matthew McConaughey who plays the ruthless killer has said that romantic comedies saved his career.
Talking to The Guardian, the actor who is famed for rom-coms including How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past said "Truth is, I was in a colder part of my career at the time, I was coming off, what was it, U-571? I had to try different things. I did action movies, crime; and then I did Wedding Planner.
I thought, let's go see what it's like to just be light; never done that before. And then, s**t… it made a whole bunch of money, and they came back and offered me more."
While McConaughey is taking on darker roles with the aforementioned Killer Joe, he was quick to defend the romantic comedy genre adding "Rom-coms are hard in a lot of ways, it's easy to demean them.
I take the comedy real seriously. There's a whole plan behind it. Even though those characters look like I'm just skating through, there's a design behind it.
I did a few romantic comedies. I enjoyed them. They paid well; they were fun, but I didn't know if I wanted to do any more.
I decided to sit out, and I had to endure for a while. Another one comes with a big old paycheck; I had to say no. I was looking for something to be turned on by."
And while McConaughey is thrilled to be branching out, he revealed that on first reading he "didn't like it at all" explaining "It made me sick... I wanted to get a steel brush and clean myself off, but afterwards... Friedkin talked to me about how absurdly funny he thought Tracy Letts was, so I reread it and it clicked."
Killer Joe is out now and also stars Emile Hirsch, Thomas Haden Church, Gina Gershon, Marc Macaulay and The Dark Knight Rises talent Juno Temple. As well as Killer Joe, McConaughey returns to cinemas in the Channing Tatum starring comedy Magic Mike next month.
Matthew McConaughey Photos
KILLER JOE IS OUT NOW
