Matthew McConaughey turned down The Last Of Us

McConaughey went on to note that, while he’s happy to take some credit for kicking off the run of film actors dipping their toes into a season of television, courtesy of True Detective, he’s also really not a TV guy, and gets antsy at the thought of getting locked down for a multi-year commitment to a show. (Although fans of The Last Of Us will of course know Pascal’s free time has, uh, freed itself up after its most recent run of episodes.) “A series, you do have to consider if you want this to succeed,” McConaughey noted. “This is something you’ll be doing for years and year and years. Do I want that to be the case in success?” (Interestingly, he has done some TV in the intervening period, including starring in the animated Agent Elvis for Netflix, and filming what still sounds like a very strange reunion project with his True Detective buddy Woody Harrelson, the as-yet-unreleased Apple TV comedy Brothers.)

For what it’s worth, Last Of Us TV developer Craig Mazin has confirmed McConaughey’s loose involvement with the project in the past, although he’s been quick to note that it was a glancing interaction at best. Per Variety, Mazin said back in 2023 that conversations about McConaughey playing the show’s central grieving father/zombie killer weren’t actually very “serious.” “Look, Matthew McConaughey is an amazing actor,” Mazin clarified at the time. “I’m sure it would’ve been great, but it would’ve been different and I like the one that we made.”