Matthew McConaughey Is Still Mister Charming
Back when you fell in love with Matthew McConaughey, he was all swoony and charming and two-buttons-unbuttoned. He still is, but he’s also become more interested in understanding life on a deeper level—and we’re all better off for it.
In the new film The Lost Bus, out October 3, he delivers one of his most tense and powerful performances yet, and he’s followed up his bestselling book, Greenlights, with a new collection called Poems & Prayers, out now. It’s all part of his journey. We’re just happy he’s bringing us with him.
Below, he shares why he’s taking on more challenging roles, the difference between sex and love, and the thing his wife does that makes his knees go weak.
You’ve always worked with extraordinary women, and in The Lost Bus, America Ferrera is a force. What about her impressed you?
She’s pro, not con. She’s not looking for an adversary or a conflict, but she’s so pro in speaking and behaving from the identity she’s created for her character that when that runs into conflict and collision, it’s seamless. You don’t even see it happen. I was actually meeting America through her character. Only off-set later did we go, “Oh, yeah, hey!” And find that she’s got some of the same qualities.
Speaking of formidable women, your real-life mother plays your mother.
Paul Greengrass, the director, asked about my mom. I said, “Look, my mother’s a born performer, but she was just at my older brother’s house, fell, and broke her tailbone. And she’s in a wheelchair right now.” He was like, “Okay!” So I called my mom and said, “Mom, send me a one-minute video about why you love being a mom.” She sends me a four-and-a-half-minute video, and I show it to Paul—he says, “Perfect.” We tell Mom, and she’s like, “What about the wheelchair?” Her vanity didn’t want to do it in a wheelchair [but she did].
What’s a lesson she taught you growing up?
The day would always start with a baseline of gratitude. If you came to the breakfast table tired or grumpy? “Get your ass back in bed, and don’t come back until you’re ready to see the rose in the vase instead of the dust on the table.” If you’re griping, “Man, my shoes are tattered, I need some new shoes.” “Oh, you think you need new shoes? I’m gonna introduce you to the boy with no feet.”
In your new book, there’s a poem called “Good Man” that you wrote when you started migrating away from romantic comedies into the more challenging roles of good men.
At that time, I remember my life being very vital. Vi-tal. I had drama in my life. I had reasons to laugh louder. Smile louder. Cry harder. Feel more pain, feel more joy. I had fallen in love with Camila and she’d just gotten pregnant with our first child. “Wow, man! Life is dynamic and meaningful!” Freaking dramatic, and it’s a comedy—it’s all these things. The ceiling and the basement of emotions are as high or as low as I’m feeling. Whereas the work I was doing in the rom-coms—those emotions were much more compressed. In those stories, you’re supposed to bounce from cloud to cloud. You don’t look too hard, and don’t get too mad. You compress. I thought, I’m feeling so much vitality in my life. I wish I could feel it in my work.
What’s the difference between sex and love?
Ha! Ha ha hooooohh…may our lust have love! Sex is an act. I’ve had it before where it didn’t have anything to do with love—I think most people probably have. Shoot, sometimes it’s nothing more than lust. Sometimes it’s nothing more than medicinal, you know? Love, there’s an exchange of more than just the act going on between the two. There’s a level of intimacy that can be those other things—lusty, medicinal, all those things. But also there’s a connection where you’re growing with the other person.
What’s your go-to date-night meal when you’re in the kitchen?
One-and-five-eighth-inch wagyu ribeyes with my rub on them—and I’m not tell you what’s in it. And we’re gonna do it in the kitchen and we’re not even gonna sit down. I’m gonna serve you sashimi style, with roasted garlics and pickles and different mustards and things that we’re gonna top it with. And no plates. We’re eating right off the board.
What amazing female artist is on the turntable while you’re serving said ribeyes?
Emma Peters.
What do women do that makes your knees go weak?
My wife does this: She’s fully entertained in the moment across the room, mid-conversation with someone else—and then just a little glance over at you. Just a little look across the room, the eyes are a little glassy, and just to barely see the crack of a smile where you catch a tooth there in the front, with a little wink. Oh, I love that.
In your introduction to the chapter called “Fuck-Ups,” you write, “I continually miss the mark come up short, sin, and I’m not the man I aim to be. The father, the friend, the husband, the artist I aim to be.” What’s the best way to say you’re sorry?
I think the best way, which I need to sure get better at, is saying it immediately and not making it a big deal. Now look, I don’t think any of us want to get in the habit of having to say I’m sorry all the time. It’s like, “Well why are you a repeat offender, bro?”
Someone’s just getting to know you. What’s something that would surprise them?
I need nine and a half hours of sleep a night.