Matthew McConaughey Explains Why Movie Stars Are Heading To TV

Sunday night, when Matthew McConaughey accepted the award for Best Actor in a Drama Series at the Critics' Choice Awards for his role in "True Dectective," he addressed a question he - and probably many other big actors - get asked all the time: "Why did you make the move from film to TV?"

McConaughey said it was an easy answer.

"Quality. Not only quality that specifically came out of 'True Detective' which was quality of the highest, but I'm talking about quality of television today," said McConaughey. "Television is raising the bar on the character-driven drama series. It just is."

"What other medium do you get to have that as actors and writers - that tasty act one which is all that character development that we love?" he continued. "You don't get that anywhere else. Where else do you get to see that introduction to character so patiently unfold on the screen? ... Plus, you've got the weekly episodes. You've got the Monday-morning watercooler talk. You've got the Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, whatever those days are, anticipation of seeing the next episode and I can't wait to see it. That's what television has given us as artists and that's also what television has given us as audiences. I'd say thank you to that."

McConaughey joins a long list of actors who have boarded a television series in the past few years whether in a miniseries or a network series. Kevin Costner and Bill Paxton were a part of History's record-breaking 2012 miniseries, "Hatfields & McCoys," Ashton Kutcher boarded CBS' "Two and a Half Men," and Claire Danes leads Showtime's "Homeland."

This summer, Halle Berry will appear as an astronaut on CBS' "Extant."

Watch McConaughey's speech below: