Matthew McConaughey passed on the chance to play Joel Miller in HBO’s “The Last of Us.”
During an appearance on Josh Horowitz’s “Happy Sad Confused” podcast Thursday, McConaughey said the lead role in the video game adaptation — for which Pedro Pascal received two Emmy nominations — “wasn’t for [him] at the time.”
Horowitz, for his part, asked McConaughey whether he had “seriously considered” signing on for the project. McConaughey said he did, though he ultimately decided to turn down the role.
“I wasn’t really acting at that point,” the “Interstellar” actor, 56, told Horowitz. “I was doing more writing and looking at leadership roles in life. It was really good. I was really excited.
“Correct me if I’m wrong, I’m not a huge TV watcher … we pulled off a real coup with ‘True Detective’ at a time when series were not something that actors like myself or Woody Harrelson would hop over and go do,” McConaughey added. “That one succeeded in a real royal fashion.
In 2014, McConaughey earned an Emmy nomination for his lead role as Rust Cohle in HBO’s “True Detective,” in which he starred alongside Harrelson, 65, who also received a nomination that year for his role as Martin Hart.
Craig Mazin, the co-creator and showrunner of “The Last of Us,” also discussed approaching McConaughey for the role during a June 2023 appearance on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, telling Horowitz, “I can’t say that it was serious.”
“It was more of a, like, ‘Hey, here’s something to talk about,’” Mazin said, adding that Pascal had been one of their contenders for the role from the start but was initially unavailable. “It’s one of those things where… I’m sure there’s an alternate universe where it’s a different guy.”
“Matthew McConaughey is an amazing actor. I’m sure it would’ve been great, but it would’ve been different. And I like the one that we made,” Mazin concluded.
Including Pascal’s two lead actor nods, “The Last of Us” has received 40 total Emmy nominations between 2023 and 2025, taking home nine trophies.
McConaughey also told Horowitz that he didn’t “know what would have been for [him] at the time” when he was first contacted about “The Last of Us.”
The “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days” star is currently promoting his crime thriller “The Rivals of Amziah King,” which hits theaters Friday.
“The first thing I came across was [‘The Rivals of Amziah King’],” McConaughey said. “I went like, ‘Oh, this is extremely particular.’ It’s movie. It’s one movie. A series, you do have to consider, you want this to succeed? Well, in success, this is something you’ll be doing for years and years and years. Do I want for that to be the case in success?”
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