Los Angeles, Feb 5 (IANS): Actor Matthew McConaughey says after doing romantic comedies, he was keen to do roles that "scares" him.

The 44-year-old, who has been nominated in the best actor in a leading role category for "Dallas Buyers Club" at the 86th Academy Awards, made a conscious decision not to take a part in another romantic comedy, after featuring in "How To Lose a Guy In 10 Days" and "Failure to Launch", reports femalefirst.co.uk.

"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," McConaughey told Time Out London magazine.

"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'," he added.