The 55-year-old actor made a very risky pact with his wife, Camila Alves

Matthew McConaughey has revealed in a new interview why he moved his family away from Hollywood at the height of his fame.

The 55-year-old has starred in a huge number of iconic film titles including Interstellar, Dallas Buyer’s Club and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.

The actor married Brazilian model Camila Alves in 2012, and the couple share three children together, Levi, 16, Vida, 14, and Livingston, 11.

However, the star made the decision to take his family out of Hollywood to a ranch in Texas in 2010 – and there’s a reason why.

McConaughey made a pact with his wife (Rick Kern/Getty Images)

During an episode of the Good Trouble with Nick Kyrgios podcast on 20 November, McConaughey opened up about his decision to relocate.

He said: “I’ve had times in my life where I’ve said nope, full stop, no.

“When I was rolling off the romcoms, and I was the romcom dude… that was my lane, and I liked that lane. It paid well and it was working.

“But the lane was… I was so strong in that lane that anything outside of that lane… dramas and stuff that I wanted to do were like ‘no, no, no, no.’

“Hollywood said, ‘no McConaughey, you should stay there.

“I didn’t want to. So since I couldn’t do what I wanted to do I stopped doing what I was doing and I moved down to the ranch in Texas.”

He then opened up about making a pact with his wife about their future and his career.

The actor won an Academy Award for Best Actor in 2014 for Dallas Buyers Club (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

The actor explained: “I made a pact with my wife and said, ‘I’m not going back to work unless I get offered roles I want to do.” He also admitted there were a ‘wobbly’ couple of years as he refused to relent, during which Alves became pregnant with their first child.

The pact (quite literally) paid off though, with McConaughey sharing he was then approached for a role in a ‘good action comedy,’ as well as multiple offers ranging from ‘$8m, $10m, and $12m’ – all of which he refused.

He added: “They came back with a $14.5m offer, and I said, ‘Let me read that again.”

McConaughey says that taking the role ultimately changed the entire course of his life.

He reflected: “I think that was the one that was probably what was seen as the most rebellious move in Hollywood by me, because it really sent the signal, ‘He ain’t f***ing bluffing.’

“I think that’s what made Hollywood go, ‘You know what? He’s now a new novel idea. He’s a new bright idea’.”