Matthew McConaughey Reveals His One Regret from the Early Days of His Career
Matthew McConaughey Reveals His One Regret from the Early Days of His Career
Tommy McArdleFri, August 14, 2026 at 3:22 PM UTC
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Matthew McConaughey on March 10, 2025; Matthew McConaughey circa 1990sCredit: Tibrina Hobson/Getty; SGranitz/WireImage -
Matthew McConaughey wishes he had “been embarrassed” more as a young film student and in his early acting career
The actor studied radio, film and television at the University of Texas at Austin in the early 1990s and has taught classes at the school since 2015
McConaughey’s new movie The Rivals of Amziah King is in theaters now
Now that Matthew McConaughey teaches film students, he’s thinking a little more closely about the early days of his career.
McConaughey, 56, chatted about how he approaches teaching his “Script to Screen” class at the University of Texas in his home state during an interview with Variety published Thursday, Aug. 13, as he promotes his new movie The Rivals of Amziah King.
“Part of the reason I started the class was it’s the class that after I graduated, went off and started a career, that I wish I would have offered,” the actor said.
In his work as a teacher, McConaughey told the outlet that he emphasizes letting students try out ideas and encourages them not to worry about failure. He described his approach as “Try it now. Shoot it. Quit talking about it,” remembering that he feared “doing something s---ty” when he attended film school in the 1990s.
“I look back and go, ‘Man, I wish you’d have done more shitty things earlier. I wish you would’ve screwed up more and been embarrassed and tried it again,’ ” he said.
Matthew McConaughey on Dec. 10, 2025Credit: Rodin Eckenroth/Getty
McConaughey graduated from the University of Texas at Austin, the city he lives in today, in 1993. He made his film debut the same year in Dazed and Confused, which he famously worked his way into after meeting the film’s casting director by chance at a bar.
Some 25 years and dozens of successful Hollywood films later, McConaughey returned to the university as a visiting instructor in the school’s College of Communication in 2015 and formally joined the school’s faculty in 2019, as The New York Times reported.
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“It’s the class I wish I would have had when I was in film school,” he told the Times in a statement at that time. “The elements of truth and genuine joy for the process are timeless. That will always be our classroom focus.”
Matthew McConaughey at the premiere of ‘Frailty’ in 2001Credit: Gregg DeGuire/WireImage
McConaughey’s advice to try things out and not fear failure does not appear to be limited to the students he teaches.
In a recent interview with E! News, he emphasized that his advice to son Levi, 18, who has embarked on his own acting journey in recent years, is to get comfortable with failure, too. (McConaughey and his wife Camila Alves McConaughey share sons Levi and Livingston, 13, as well as daughter Vida, 16.)
“You’ve got to be able to deal with rejection, that’s part of it,” McConaughey told the outlet, regarding advice he shares with his son. “You’ve got to hopefully love doing it and love the process so much that enough ‘nos’ don’t matter. If not, it’s not for you, because I was taught there’s no ‘help wanted’ signs in Hollywood.”
“I just try to push, to say, ‘It’s better to make a fool of yourself and find out,’ than to leave an audition and go, ‘Oh, I had that moment and I hesitated,’ ” he added. “Make a fool of yourself. Fail more. Try and fail more. No one gives as much of a damn as you think they do.”
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The Rivals of Amziah King is in theaters now.
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Source: “AOL Entertainment”
