Matthew McConaughey opened up about the career break he took between 2009 and 2011 and how it came to that point for him.

"The devil is in the infinite yeses. It's not a Nos," he explained in a conversation with tennis pro Nick Kyrgios. ""No" is just as important, if not less important. Especially if you have some degree of success and access.

In particular, the actor felt the need to say "no" when making rom-com after the 2000s rom-com was no longer enough for him.

"I had a time in my life when I said, "No." Full stop, no," he continued. "When I was rolling into rom-coms, I was a "rom-com guy.""It was my lane, and I liked that lane. That lane was well paid and it worked. But Lane was- I was so strong in that lane that everything outside that lane, the drama, and everything I wanted to do, was like, "No, no, no, no, no, McConaughey.""Hollywood said, "No, no, no, you stay there.

How to Lose a Man in 10 days The star explained that it was not what he wanted in his life anymore, and he told his wife Camilla Alves McConaughey at the time.

"So I couldn't do what I wanted to do, so I stopped doing what I was doing, moved to a ranch in Texas, went there and made an agreement with my wife and said, 'I'm not going back to work unless I'm offered the role I want to do,'" he revealed. When Kyrgios pointed out that the actor made a "grand return" around 2011, McConaughey explained that the interruption of his career had sacrificed his sense of purpose.

"Those 2 years were wobbling, mate," he said. "That bottle of my favorite juice started to look good earlier in the day. Fortunately, Camilla was pregnant with our first child, so there was a purpose to come to the fun, but I was still like, "A man has to work.""I got a craft, what will I do?" and making a chime and working in the garden did not cut it.

Spouses share children Levi, 16, Vida, 14, and Livingston, 11.

Eventually, the actor was offered a movie that he wanted to do but was not very right, and he turned down theirド14.5 million offer. This, he believes, made the industry understand that he was not "bluffing."

He said, "I think that's why he left Hollywood," you know what, he's now an idea for a new novel. He is a new, bright idea.

When McConaughey was offered projects such as Mud and True Detective, he knew it was right. "I was salivating when those offers came," he said to Kyrgios. "I went back back to back and worked as hard as I could, loved it and felt every bit of it."