Now that Matthew McConaughey is a film professor himself, he’s looking back at his own early days in Hollywood with a bit of regret — and a lot of wisdom to share.

The Oscar-winning actor, 56, opened up about his teaching philosophy during a Variety interview published Thursday, August 13, as he promotes his new movie The Rivals of Amziah King. He’s been teaching a film class at the University of Texas at Austin since 2015 and says the experience has made him reflect deeply on the early years of his own career.

“Part of the reason I started the class was it’s the class that after I graduated, went off and started a career, that I wish I would have offered,” McConaughey said.

He has emphasized to his students the importance of trying things, failing, and not being afraid of embarrassment. “Try it now. Shoot it. Quit talking about it,” he told the outlet, recalling how he used to freeze up when he was in film school in the 1990s.

“I look back and go, ‘Man, I wish you’d have done more shitty things earlier. I wish you would’ve screwed up more and been embarrassed and tried it again,’ ” he said with a laugh.

McConaughey graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1993, the same year he made his film debut in Dazed and Confused. He famously got the role after meeting the film’s casting director by chance at a bar.

Fast-forward to today, and McConaughey is back at the school as a visiting instructor (and later a full-time faculty member) in the College of Communication. He has said the class he teaches is exactly the one he wished he’d had during his own film-school days: a space to experiment, fail, and grow without fear.

“My advice to my students is to try things out,” he explained in the Variety piece. “Don’t worry about failing. The fear of failure is what kills ideas and creativity.”

This philosophy doesn’t stop at the classroom door. McConaughey has shared similar advice with his 18-year-old son, Levi, who is building his own acting career.

In a recent interview with E! News, he told the outlet that he’s constantly pushing Levi to get comfortable with rejection.

“You’ve got to be able to deal with rejection, that’s part of it,” McConaughey said. “You’ve got to hopefully love doing it and love the process so much that enough ‘nos’ don’t matter. If not, it’s not for you, because I was taught there’s no ‘help wanted’ signs in Hollywood.”

He added that it’s better to “make a fool of yourself and find out” than to leave an audition with regret. “Make a fool of yourself. Fail more. Try and fail more. No one gives as much of a damn as you think they do.”

McConaughey’s career has spanned more than three decades, from his breakout role in Dazed and Confused (1993) to the Oscar-winning Dallas Buyers Club (2013), Interstellar (2014), and beyond. He has also taught at UT Austin since 2015 and recently reunited with longtime collaborator Woody Harrelson in the Apple TV+ series Brothers, which premieres September 23, 2026.

His new movie The Rivals of Amziah King — in which he plays a bluegrass-playing beekeeper — hits theaters today, August 15, 2026.

For McConaughey, teaching has been a way to pass on the lessons that shaped his own journey. And while he still wishes he had been more willing to fail as a young actor, he now sees that willingness as the key to success — for himself, his students, and his son.

“Make a fool of yourself. Fail more,” he tells his students and son with the same quiet confidence he’s shown throughout his career. “That’s how you find out who you really are.”