{"id":596200,"date":"2026-08-17T17:20:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T17:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/596200\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T17:20:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T17:20:13","slug":"matthew-mcconaughey-reveals-surprising-blockbuster-tv-role-he-turned-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/596200\/","title":{"rendered":"Matthew McConaughey reveals surprising blockbuster TV role he turned down"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matthew McConaughey has revealed he turned down Pedro Pascal\u2019s role in The Last Of Us.<\/p>\n

The Interstellar star said he seriously considered accepting the part of Joel Miller in the post-apocalyptic series but he \u201cwasn\u2019t really acting\u201d at the time.<\/p>\n

Speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, he said: \u201cI think that\u2019s part of when I was doing more writing and looking at leadership roles in life and stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BallerinaPedro Pascal rose to global fame playing Joel Miller on the show (Ian West\/PA)<\/p>\n

He added that the script \u201cwas really good, (I was) excited about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not a huge TV watcher, but we pulled off a real coup with\u00a0True\u00a0(Detective) at a time when series were not something that actors like myself (or) Woody Harrelson\u00a0would hop over and go do. And that one succeeded in a real royal fashion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Last Of Us\u00a0was really good. It just wasn\u2019t for me, at the time. I don\u2019t know what would have been for me at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Last Of Us showrunner Craig Mazin previously revealed on the same podcast that he spoke to McConaughey about the role of Joel, but it was not a \u201cserious\u201d conversation.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cIt was more like a \u2018Hey, here\u2019s something to talk about.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cInitially, Pedro was on our list from the start. We were told that he was unavailable.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then, as we were floundering about a little bit, I got a call from his agent, who said, \u2018You know, he actually might be available.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheMcConaughey said \u2018The Last Of Us\u00a0was really good. It just wasn\u2019t for me, at the time\u2019 (David Parry\/PA)<\/p>\n

Mazin sent the script to Pascal on a Friday and he got a call on Saturday morning saying the actor was interested in the part.<\/p>\n

Mazin added: \u201cI\u2019m sure there\u2019s an alternate universe where it\u2019s different, and look, Matthew McConaughey is an amazing actor. I\u2019m sure it would have been great.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it would have been different, and I like the one that we made. So what can I say? I think it worked out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Last Of Us, based on the video game franchise of the same name, is set decades after society has collapsed due to a fungal infection that turns its hosts into zombie-like creatures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Matthew McConaughey has revealed he turned down Pedro Pascal\u2019s role in The Last Of Us. The Interstellar star…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,61,60],"class_list":["post-596200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}