Matthew McConaughey wanted to take on film roles that "scare" him.

The actor, who has been nominated for an Oscar for his portrayal of a real-life AIDS victim in Dallas Buyers Club, made a conscious decision not to take a part in another romantic comedy, after appearing in How To Lose a Guy In 10 Days and Failure to Launch.

"I'm not going to carry on doing the same thing over and over. I was reading romantic comedies. And I liked them. But I wanted to do something that scares me a little bit. The first move was saying 'no' to scripts. That was six months of 'no' and then a year of nothing. And something happened. I gained anonymity and suddenly it became a good idea for William Friedkin [director] to call about Killer Joe or Steven Soderbergh about Magic Mike."

The 44-year-old star admits it was difficult not working for so long but he found comfort in his family, spending time with his wife Camila and their children, 13-month-old Livingston, Vida, four, and Levi, five.

When asked if he got the jitters not acting, he replied, "A little bit. But I hunkered down with my wife. And I had a son come into the world. When I got anxious, I could be like: shepherding my newborn son is a great thing to be doing. If it hadn't been for my son, I'd have been more antsy for sure. I look at all this as switching gear: same book, different chapter. I could have done some of these roles five or ten years ago. I didn't. I had a nice run there. I enjoyed those romcoms. So they didn't get critical acclaim. That's not my concern. Now I've started doing this and I'm enjoying it. People are going, 'We like him.'"