12 Actors Who Broke Typecasting In The Most Epic Way

6. Matthew McConaughey - Killer Joe & Mud

His Type

Famously, for most of his career, Matthew McConaughey was the go-to for romantic comedies and a certain type of adventure action movie. If you needed someone with warmth, good looks and a Southern drawl (but not the geeky edge of an Owen Wilson), you cast McConaughey, whose twinkling eyes made his carious character flaws oh-so-forgivable.

How He Broke It

McConaughey says he had a moment of revelation himself, realising that while he enjoyed what he was doing, his focus on that sort of material was limiting other opportunities. So he set out to change it.

His charming but menacing rogue in Magic Mike was a big step in his so-called McConaughnaissance, but before that he made the back-to-back shockers of Killer Joe and Mud, in which he played murderers (at different ends of the spectrum admittedly). For him to go almost seamlessly from Ghosts of Girlfriends Past to this more adventurous, darker material was akin to ripping off a band-aid. And boy, did it work out alright, alright, alright for him. Sorry.