By Eili Cordova
Just when Matthew McConaughey was beginning to become a globally recognized name, he made a radical decision: He fled Hollywood to take refuge in Ilo, a port city in southern Peru. The actor, who was 26 years old at the time, had just finished filming “A Time to Extinguish,” the adaptation of John Grisham’s novel released in 1996 and starring Sandra Bullock and Samuel L. Jackson.
In a recent interview for the “No Magic Tablet” podcast with host Blake Mycoskie, McConaughey explained the reasons for his sudden escape.
“I needed to put my feet on the ground,” he confessed to the presenter.
“So I logged off. Voila! I went to Peru. I needed to find myself, check validity. Now that I had become famous, with all this adulation for this and that and the other. I was trying to figure out what part of it was staunch and what part of it was just bullshit.”
The name McConaughey adopted
As part of your self-discovery processMcConaughey adopted the name “Mateo,” the Spanish form of his name.. For 22 days he lived isolated in Ilo, a port city in southern Peru, in conditions that he himself described as complete isolation, without electricity.
The actor admitted that the first half of his exile was “strange.” “But the last 10 days were great,” he added. “I had been there long enough to think: ‘I could live like this. This could be my life’”.
As is known, McConaughey did return to Hollywood, but with a renewed mentality thanks to contact with people who had no idea that he was a famous actor, according to what he described.
Already in 1996, the interpreter had spoken about his Peruvian adventure with The New York Times, calling it “the best decision in the world.”
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