Matthew McConaughey has declared his new movie Interstellar an Oscar candidate as the space epic premiered in Los Angeles.

The Dallas Buyers Club star scored best actor at the Academy Awards earlier this year for his role in the Aids drama and he hopes his new film will also feel the love from the Academy.

Matthew stars as a space explorer travelling beyond this galaxy in Christopher Nolan's hotly-anticipated film, which has been shrouded in secrecy for years.

Speaking on the red carpet at the Los Angeles premiere, where he was joined by his wife Camila Alves and his co-stars Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain, Matthew said the film was in the race for awards glory.

Asked how he felt about Oscar hopes for the film, he said: "We'll see, that's down the road but tonight we are declaring right here in Hollywood, California, which is the great thing about this business, we plant the seeds.

"Christopher Nolan has been working on this for years and tonight he gets to declare here in Hollywood at a premiere with all the glitz and the lights and the glamour, this is harvest time."

The 44-year-old also revealed that the gruelling shoot really took it out of him, and all he wanted to do was rest when it was over.

"I took a long long long nap. I rested my body and I rested my mind for about 10 days because it was a long enduring journey we went on. It was supposed to be hard but it was hard and luckily I didn't finish and wish I shoulda, woulda, coulda."

Christopher Nolan has kept the film tightly under wraps for years and Matthew said when they first met it wasn't even to discuss the project.

"It wasn't about the movie, maybe it was to him because he knew the film but I think he wanted to meet me and see if I was the man he thought I was so we talked, we got to know each other.

"What's good is you get a better sense of if it's somebody you want to go on the journey with. He says he wasn't questioning my acting ability and I don't think he was but it's also important who we take the journey with, what our work ethic is, who do you want to do press junkets with and travel the world and talk about what you made together?"

Interstellar is released in London on November 4 and goes on nationwide release on November 7.