Matthew McConaughey escaped to Mali after scoring his big break in Hollywood because he found himself struggling to deal with life in the limelight.
The Dallas Buyers Club star lost his anonymity when he starred in 1996's A Time to Kill with Sandra Bullock and Samuel L. Jackson, and he started to feel his surroundings closing in on him.
"The weekend when (the movie came out is when) things changed and the world became a mirror," he told U.S. morning show Live! with Kelly and Ryan on Monday (31Jul17). "For instance, I'm walking down Third Street Promenade (in Santa Monica, California) the Friday before A Time to Kill opens, there's 400 people, 396 are not looking at me. Four of them might be looking at me and saying, 'Hey, I like what that guy is wearing.' Monday after that film opened it completely inverted..."
"You don't meet many strangers anymore because now you know of me," he continued. "I remember the first time I was getting my groceries and I looked over and I was on two magazine covers and I had a little reaction and I was like, 'I think I'll buy three of each'."
Matthew reveals he didn't mind being under the microscope of fame at first, but he eventually felt like he needed to escape.
"It was a little unbalancing and I rode it and enjoyed it, but I did need to go get away to go let my own self think...," he added. "I bought a one-way ticket to Mali, hitchhiked down... it ended up being a 21-day backpacking trip with myself. I needed that. I wanted to check in with me... I went under a different name and I said I was a writer and a boxer and they didn't give a d**n about the writing part, but they were very interested in the boxing part..."
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