Matthew McConaughey turned down playing Joel in The Last of Us

The Oscar winner, who earned an Emmy nomination for his lead role in the first season of HBO’s True Detective, made the admission on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Variety reports.

“I wasn’t really acting at that point,” McConaughey said. “That was when I was doing more writing and looking at leadership roles in life. It was really good. I was excited… ‘Last of Us’ was really good but it wasn’t for me at the time.”

McConaughey on his HBO ‘coup’

The actor also reflected on how rare it once was for film stars to move into television, saying he and co-star Woody Harrelson “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”, adding that the show “succeeded in a real royal fashion”.

The Last of Us pressed ahead without him, going on to sit in the same HBO drama stable as House of the Dragon.