Hollywood star Matthew McConaughey tells Mike Hosking why he won't be returning to set

He may be one of Hollywood's most popular and diverse actors - and a multi-award winner to boot - but don't expect to see Matthew McConaughey in a starring role any time soon.

But rather than it being the result of a dramatic fall from grace, this decision is entirely McConaughey's own, as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to rage around the world.

The 50-year-old actor told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking that he has no intention of returning to set, even as dozens of blockbusters resume production with social distancing practices and extended bubbles in place.

LISTEN LIVE: McConaughey with Mike Hosking at 8.07am

"I'm not even entertaining going to work on a set. I have a lot of friends that are working, they are talking about how the bubbles are working on set, but uh-uh, no way.

"I've got an 88-year-old mother here with some pulmonary challenges. I'm not even taking a chance."

Instead, McConaughey is focusing all his energy this year into promoting his new memoir, Greenlights. In it, McConaughey draws from 35 years of diaries that serves as a his life story so-far and a guide to "catching greenlights" – his methodology for living a more satisfying life.

The topics range from the year he spent travelling around Australia, to how he got his big break in acting, before going on to secure acclaimed roles in HBO's True Detective and his Oscar-winning performance in Dallas Buyers Club.

McConaughey first broke out in movies like Dazed and Confused and A Time to Kill, but it wasn't until he started getting cast in rom-coms that he became a household name. He quickly became a household name for his roles in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and The Wedding Planner.

Eventually, he made a conscious decision to stop starring in them. He explained to Hosking that he wasn't getting offered the dramatic roles he wanted, so he told his agent he didn't want any.

"Four months go by, no rom-coms. This one comes in with a $8 million offer. I'm like no, I don't want to do it. He comes back with a $10 million offer, and I said no, I don't want to do it. I read it, it was a good script, but I don't want to do it.

"They came back with $12 million. I pause – I had a bit of a ellipsis before I said no.

"They came back with $14-$15 million. I said, let me see that script again.

"I read that script again, and I said, you know what, it's better. Mind you, it's the exact same script as the original, but at 14 million, it was better."

However, he stuck to his guns, and says that showed Hollywood that he was really done with those movies. It meant he went two years without any work as he "unbranded", allowing him to become a new McConaughey.

"I was down in Texas holding out and raising a newborn son and falling in love with the woman who was my wife, trying to hold the line and waiting until this desert's over and I'll find the water."

The book tour is being conducted entirely virtually, with McConaughey and his family - including his wife, Camilla, and their three children - hiding themselves away in their home in Austin, Texas in what he describes as a "hard-core lockdown".

"We have one family we see every couple of weeks and right after all of us get tested."

It's a heightened level of security at contrast with the approach taken by many Americans, including in Texas. McConaughey, who has born in the state and has lived there much of his life, says there have been plenty of protests and pushbacks against the restrictions. McConaughey puts that down to Austin being a hospitality town, but the fight is spread across Texas.

Asked if America is a deeply divided country, McConaughey simply said "yes", putting that down to the Covid crisis coming at the same time as an election year.

"Many of us are clinging to the extremes to have some sense of 'I have a stance now'. A lot of it is 'I'm not even sure what I'm for, but I know what I'm against'."

He says that he hopes that the country makes it through the election year – with election day less than a fortnight away – without some degree of a civil war.