from a stoner named Wooderson to a bus driver in the fire
Three decades on screen — the early breakout, the rom-com run he walked away from, the hard-won reinvention the press called the McConaissance, and the roles that have followed. Year and role for every film, in his own arc.
~2011 – 2014 · the reinvention
He turned down the easy paychecks, went quiet, and came back in sharper, riskier material. Critics coined the word — McConaughey plus Renaissance — and it stuck. It peaked with an Academy Award and a season of the best television of its year.
Defense attorney Mick Haller, working his cases from the back of a town car.
Role · Mick HallerDistrict Attorney Danny Buck Davidson in Richard Linklater's East Texas true-crime comedy.
Role · Danny Buck DavidsonThe title detective and contract killer in William Friedkin's pitch-black, NC-17 thriller.
Role · Joe CooperDallas, the strip-club owner, in Steven Soderbergh's hit.
Role · DallasA man on the run, hiding on a Mississippi river island, in Jeff Nichols' coming-of-age drama.
Role · MudReporter Ward Jansen in Lee Daniels' steamy Florida noir.
Role · Ward JansenBroker Mark Hanna in a single, scene-stealing lunch — the chest-thumping cameo everyone quotes.
Role · Mark HannaRon Woodroof, a Texan diagnosed with AIDS who smuggles unapproved treatments to fellow patients. McConaughey lost dozens of pounds for the part and won the Academy Award for Best Actor (plus the Golden Globe and the SAG Award).
Role · Ron Woodroof · Best Actor, 86th Academy AwardsDetective Rust Cohle opposite Woody Harrelson across Season 1 — flat-circle philosophy and a career-defining monologue. Emmy-nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series.
Role · Det. Rustin "Rust" Cohle · Emmy nominationCooper, a widowed pilot-turned-farmer who leaves Earth to try to save it, in Christopher Nolan's space epic — one of his biggest roles, on screen the same year as the Oscar.
Role · CooperTwo of the cards above — Dallas Buyers Club and True Detective — are the twin peaks of the run. The Watch page has his official Oscars-channel acceptance and the HBO trailers.
1993 – 2000 · the arrival
Cast after a casting director met him in an Austin bar, he improvised three words into a legend — then became a leading man before he turned thirty.
David Wooderson — his first screen role, and the birthplace of "alright, alright, alright," the first three words he ever said on film.
Role · David WoodersonIdealistic young lawyer Jake Brigance in the Grisham adaptation — the role that made him a star.
Role · Jake Tyler BriganceReligious philosopher Palmer Joss opposite Jodie Foster in Robert Zemeckis' first-contact drama.
Role · Palmer JossAttorney Roger Sherman Baldwin in Steven Spielberg's historical courtroom drama.
Role · Roger Sherman BaldwinEd Pekurny, an ordinary guy whose life becomes a round-the-clock TV show, in Ron Howard's satire.
Role · Ed PekurnyLt. Andrew Tyler in the World War II submarine thriller.
Role · Lt. Andrew Tyler2001 – 2009 · the box office
A run of romantic comedies made him a fixture — and, fairly or not, typecast. He was People's Sexiest Man Alive in 2005. These are the years he would later step away from on purpose.
Fenton Meiks in Bill Paxton's Southern-gothic thriller — a darker detour amid the comedies.
Role · Fenton MeiksDragon-slayer Denton Van Zan in the post-apocalyptic adventure.
Role · Denton Van ZanAd man Benjamin Barry, opposite Kate Hudson — the defining rom-com of the run.
Role · Benjamin BarryTripp, a thirty-something still living at home, opposite Sarah Jessica Parker.
Role · TrippCoach Jack Lengyel, rebuilding a football program after tragedy.
Role · Coach Jack LengyelTreasure-hunter Ben "Finn" Finnegan, reunited with Kate Hudson.
Role · Ben "Finn" FinneganA soul-searching surfer in the laid-back comedy he also produced.
Role · Steve AddingtonConnor Mead, a bachelor visited by the ghosts of his exes.
Role · Connor MeadDon't walk into a place like you wanna buy it, walk in like you own it.
Matthew McConaughey · Greenlights, 2020
2015 – 2019 · after the Oscar
With the statuette on the shelf, he ranged widely — real-life rebels and prospectors, a Stephen King villain, and a couple of defiantly strange swings.
Arthur Brennan, a grieving man in Japan's Aokigahara forest, in Gus Van Sant's drama.
Role · Arthur BrennanNewton Knight, a Confederate deserter who leads an armed rebellion in Civil War Mississippi.
Role · Newton KnightKenny Wells, a down-on-his-luck prospector chasing an Indonesian strike.
Role · Kenny WellsWalter, the Man in Black, opposite Idris Elba in the Stephen King adaptation.
Role · Walter / the Man in BlackRichard Wershe Sr., father of a teenage FBI informant in 1980s Detroit.
Role · Richard Wershe Sr.Baker Dill, a haunted fishing-boat captain, in Steven Knight's twisty thriller.
Role · Baker DillMoondog, a stoner poet adrift in the Florida Keys, in Harmony Korine's comedy.
Role · MoondogMickey Pearson, an American cannabis kingpin in London, in Guy Ritchie's crime caper.
Role · Mickey PearsonThe booth
That Texas drawl carries off-camera too — a hopeful koala, a samurai beetle, and the King himself.
Beetle, a samurai under a curse, in Laika's stop-motion adventure.
Voice · BeetleBuster Moon, the optimistic koala impresario, in Illumination's musical.
Voice · Buster MoonThe voice of Elvis Presley in the adult animated series — he also served as an executive producer.
Voice · Elvis Presley · also exec producer2025 · the latest
The newest chapter, led by a true-story drama that is his biggest recent swing.
A drama released in 2025, with McConaughey in the title orbit.
Role · Amziah KingA school-bus driver evacuating children through California's 2018 Camp Fire, directed by Paul Greengrass and co-starring America Ferrera. His son Levi appears too. Apple Original Films, out in fall 2025 — his headline recent dramatic lead.
Role · bus driver · dir. Paul GreengrassOn the horizon: McConaughey has been linked in the press to a Taylor Sheridan / Yellowstone-universe television project, but reporting has shifted and nothing is confirmed as of this writing — so we're not listing a title until it's official. We'll update the moment there's something solid.