Matthew McConaughey — Twenty years ago when he was a wild and crazy man

                                                June 2001 By Philip Berk

In person he’s smaller than you expect , delicately built, with small hands, but there’s no denying he’s a good ole Texas boy.  All those stories you’ve read about  his fun-loving carousing,  they’re all true.

But what you don’t know is he’s on a search for inner peace.

When he arrives at his press conference you can’t believe your eyes.

His once thinning hair is suddenly thick and full.

And it’s not a hair piece.

As he explains, “It’s called Regenix. It’s a product that somebody turned me onto. You just rub it in and damn if my hair didn’t just come back. And I tell you my hairline’s lower than it was when I was eighteen.”

And damn if a lot hasn’t happened to him since then.

Mainly Dazed and Confused, which inspired him to leave Austin and move to Hollywood..

Soon after that he found roles in Boys on the Side and Lone Star, but it was A Time to Kill that made him a star.

Then followed high profile roles in important films with important directors:  Contact with Bob Zemeckis and Amistad with Steven Spielberg.

But the sad truth is, ever since,  he hasn’t done much. 

And when he’s been offered roles they’re usually the director’s second choice. (He replaced Michael Douglas in U-571 and Aaron Eckhardt in The Wedding Planner.)

At the moment he has two films out, a small independent film called Frailty and a big studio thriller called Reign of Fire.

Neither has brought him as much attention as a barroom brawl he engaged in two years ago when he was arrested for drug possession and resisting an officer.

Eventually the charges were dropped, but not before pictures of him looking disheveled were plastered in newspapers all over the world.

Off screen Matthew has always been a tough nut to crack.

He’s been linked with a number of famous women but he’s never been married and he seems to prefer it that way.

At his press conference he’s as fuzzy and outlandish as ever.

Only this time he’s off into yet another dimension

Asked about an expedition he recently undertook to a third world country where he wrestled with his demons, he’s happy to talk about it.

“It’s my favorite thing to do,” he tells me. “Whether it’s Peru or Africa, anywhere where I don’t speak the language. My first eight days there are always about shaking some demon or some crutch that we have in society. When I’m there I find myself speaking aloud, then turning around, and no one’s there, so you start talking to yourself. But then you want to communicate with others, so you use charades. You break everything down into nouns and verbs. Once you go with the pace of whatever the place is, things really start to happen. The trip starts to unfold.”

In what way?

“It happened last December l4 in Peru. There’s always a day where I’m walking along. After a long hike in the middle of nowhere, all of a sudden something comes over me. I feel I could live there for the rest of my life. And when that feeling happens  I have to stay there until I know it’s okay to come home. Once I’ve given that place the justice it deserves, once I’ve gone into that culture, and I’ve learned from it,  then I come back here, and there’s no better place in the world to come back to than America. Things I’ve take for granted, I  now appreciate.”

Sounds scary?

“But it isn’t. I was staying with tribes who practice human sacrifice, but I soon realized the last person they’re going to pick on is me. I’m not a tribesman. I’m not an animist. If they have a famine, they pick the holiest person in the village. Or he wants to come forward and is privileged to be chosen. If you respect the rituals of a place, you get respect back.” 

Does it require a lot of preparation? 

“Before I go I do some reading. But when I get there, I go to each village and I ask for the chief. We don’t speak the same language, but he looks you in the eye, stares at you for a few seconds, and if he likes what he sees he puts up a hand and you do a very gentle handshake. And from then on, you are welcome. You can’t speak the language but they know how you feel. They give you the best chair, the softest mattress; you’re given food, and  then you’re taken to a river where you bathe. I’ve never felt safer in my life.”

Obviously this has been a new experience for him.

Was it in response to his arrest?

“Things that happened a year and a half ago, happened so rapidly, I didn’t feel them. There’s a difference between understanding and not really feeling it. Whether you call those times ‘in the shadows,’ you need them. You need time in the spotlight. I love to take time to just let go, it felt good, it was fun. I enjoyed it. But two years later when I’m working in my garden, and no one’s around for a couple of weeks, or when I take a trip to a third world country, you discover what’s really important.”

Is he now where he wants to be?

“I’m qualitatively happy about where I am right now. I understand myself a lot more. I’ve changed because I’m in my thirties now.  My thirties have been beautiful. The twenties were excellent. I’m more liberal minded. I know a lot more, I know what makes me tick a lot more. I like where I am right now. It feels comfortable.”

And professionally?

“I’ve done a number of independent movies recently and that has invigorated me. I really enjoy the team work. I like the sharing of ideas with the director, the writer, the cinematographer.” 

What about relationships.

Isn’t it time he started thinking of marriage and starting a family? 

“I dream about it. I see the future, but it’s not something I’m chasing after. I really like my own company. Even the first few days on those trips when I  get sick of myself  I tell myself, like it or not , we’re stuck with each other.  My favorite subject is working on the study of man, studying myself. I’m thirty two, but I’m not one that’s ever going to follow a program. But I do think timing is important. The right woman in the right time. Maybe I’ve met her but it wasn’t  the right time. Maybe I haven’t, and it definitely hasn’t been the right time for me.”

Doesn’t he ever feel a need for companionship?

“I think about it. It makes me smile. I dream of it. I see a family and I look forward to that day.  I’m hoping it will be the right time. I’ll look up and my two kids will walk in the room and I’ll go, When did it all happen? I see it as natural selection. I’m happy right now, but I look forward to finding a woman that I want to be with, who makes me happy as I am with myself, but twice as happy with her.”

What type of woman attracts him?

“I like strong women.  I like women that aren’t afraid to be women. Generally I’m attracted to people, and specifically women, who are comfortable with themselves.  I like women that understand that there’s a difference between men and women. And that’s exactly what’s so beautiful  – we don’t  have to homogenize the sexes.  Let’s not do that.  I don’t think we want to do that.  It’s the differences that are so wonderful that keeps us all on our toes.”

Is he still close to his family?

“I’ve always had respect for my parents, and my brother and my friends. It’s always been based on respect.” 

The story about his father dying during lovemaking. Is that true?

“We’re very proud of that. He woke up Monday morning 7:30 after a weekend of golf, made love to my mother, had a heart fibrillation, and passed away on top of her. He always said, ‘That’s how I’m going to go out,’ and damn if he didn’t.” 

Is he less idealistic than he used to be?

“You mean, have I become cynical? I don’t think so. If I quit trusting mankind, then the bad things will happen, and that would mean they won, and I don’t plan on letting them win.  Am I jaded?  I don’t know if jaded is the right word.  There’s some things that I’m wiser about.  Gentle as a dove, sly as a fox. I understand that. I’ve learned a lot about discernment. But I have good people that I work with, and I have good friends, and I have good family, so that’s my weather vain.”

What’s his definition of friendship?

“That’s a good question. I’ve got some good ones.  My best friends, we give a lot to each other.  We unconditionally love each other.  I do my best to promote them, and they do their best to promote me and what they feel is best about me. If I get off track, they help steer me back, and if I’m really burning on some really good stuff, they’ll add fuel to that fire by saying, ‘Soar with that more.’  My definition of a friend is someone I can walk out the door and turn my back and  know that everything is taken care of  just as they would know I’d do the same for them.”

What inspired him to go into acting?

“You mean how did it happen?   I needed some money. I was at school, the University of Texas, studying directing.  Very interested in acting, I had done some acting in high school. I had also done some things with pieces that I was directing. One night I met a man named Don Phillips, the guy who cast Dazed and Confused. We met in a restaurant bar in Austin.  I was  there with my girlfriend, and the bartender introduced me to this guy.  We talked for about three hours, and at the end of the night he asked if I’d come down and read for this part. The next day I picked up a script, and worked on this part.  It was like two lines. I worked on it for like two weeks and I got the part. Then we started  adding stuff so instead of working two days, I ended up working three, four and soon it was three weeks. I established a really nice character in the film and then when it was over I went back to school.  

“I finished another film, graduated from the university, packed up, and came to L.A. to try acting and also to look for work as a production assistant.  Fortunately I got work quickly.  I got an agent off of Dazed and Confused , started going to auditions, got a few parts, and the rest you know.”

For the record, Dazed and Confused introduced to the screen such future stars as  Renee Zellweger, Joey Lauren Adam, Milla Jovovich, Ben Affleck, Parker Posey, Jason London,  and of course Matthew McConaughey.

AND THREE YEARS LATER

                                                By Philip Berk

If only Matthew McConaughey in person was as irresistible as he is on screen, he’d be Tom Cruise!

In his latest Sahara he’s an absolute hoot.

The best he’s ever been.

But in person he’s his usual flaky self, acknowledging that he’s just stepped out of his dilapidated mobile home — an eyesore if you’ve ever seen one — which is parked in front of the posh Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, where Paramount is hosting the junket for the film.

SAHARA is painted all over the vehicle.

What’s that all about? I ask him.

“That’s my trailer. I own it. It’s mine. It’s an Airsteam trailer. I sleep in it every night. I drive the truck that pulls it. I’ve driven it thirty-two days around America, 6000 miles. I pulled up here last night and we’re getting back on the road in a couple of days.”

 Does he do all the driving?

“About ninety percent. I like to drive. So it’s a good way to go door to door, place to place, see the places and faces.”

He talks with his customary lilting Texas drawl.

As co-producer of the movie, he proudly confesses, “I’m still on the clock. I’m still working. It gives me an extra thing to be proud of. It’s fun doing it the way I’m doing it.. We’ve been handing out t-shirts and hats, stopping at gas stations and RV parks. Hopefully it translates into public acceptance”

Saraha is where he met costar Penelope Cruz, and they’ve been an item since.

Penelope won’t talk about the relationship, but Matthew is as open as ever (more later.)

On screen, I tell him, he’s never looked better, all buffed up, gently tanned, with thick flowing black hair.

Two years back he was well on his way to baldness.

Until he discovered Regenix.

“It’s a product that somebody turned me on to,” he told me then. “You just rub it in and damn if my hair didn’t just come back. And I tell you my hairline’s lower than it was when I was eighteen.”

This time he doesn’t mention it.

Instead he points to his diet, his physical regimen (mainly boxing,) lots of water, a new  product called C-Silver (“good for your joints.”) and the challenge of the work itself.

“I felt good inside and out. I really had a blast making this. I was able to give a lot of myself to it,” he responds.

And he really identifies with the leading character Dirk Pitt?

“Yeah I do. I haven’t gone off and saved the day as Dirk does,  but like him I enjoy traveling to different places, getting lost, and finding my way back.”

Two years ago he had been on expedition to Peru where he wrestled with his demons.

“It’s my favorite thing to do,” he told me. “Whether it’s Peru or Africa, anywhere where I don’t speak the language. My first eight days there are always about shaking some demon or some crutch that we have in society. When I’m there I find myself speaking aloud, then turning around, and no one’s there, so you start talking to yourself. But then you want to communicate with others, so you use charades. You break everything down into nouns and verbs. Once you go with the pace of whatever the place is, things really start to happen, and the trip starts to unfold.”

So it happened again when he was in Mali, where the film was shot?

“I’ve been to Mali a couple times before. Grab your backpack, go get lost, and come back hopefully a month later. So I was excited to go back over there because I really like this part of the country. I like the people. So that helped me feel at home quicker than for others who had not traveled there. It’s a very mystical magical place the desert.”

Why Mali, and not say Senegal?

“Well to be fair, that’s where story took place, but my personal reason is because one of my favorite musicians is from there. I decided to go find him.  So I packed up, flew over there, and hitchhiked and found a guy with a boat and went up the river, and two weeks later I found him and we sat down and played some music.”

The film has been in development for seven years (at one time Tom Cruise was attached.)

Why the delay?

“Clive Cussler had let one of his book be made into a film called Raise the Titanic, and he wasn’t happy with how that turned out. So he was apprehensive about handing over the rights to any of his books. Besides he didn’t need to. His books have sold over ninety million copies. He didn’t need to pay the rent.”

So what changed his mind?

“He and I talked off and on. He got to know me. I got to let him know why I like Dirk Pitt. I think he just started to see that I was Dirk Pitt.”

Although he and Penelope have no love scenes in the film, their chemistry on screen is palpable.

What makes her so appealing? I ask him.

Responding to my question — unlike an indignant Penelope who refused to talk about him — he replies, “First of all I’d say she’s pretty easy on the eye; she freezes my eyes. Second she has a lot of respect for herself, her history, her past, her family. She has a lot of respect for who she is now and who she’s going to be, and all those things are connected with her, and I respect that person. She being from Spain and me being from America, she from Madrid and me from Austin, Texas. I speak some Spanish, English is my first language. Spanish is her first language. English her second. When she speaks English, she malaprops, and when I speak Spanish I do the same, so we have this kind of third language, which can be very funny but occasionally in her case it’s better than English, when for instance she uses the more descriptive ‘I want to show you a song’ rather than ‘I want you to hear a song.”

Will he join her in Spain this summer?

“She’s going to Spain this summer?” he asks incredulously.

He didn’t know?

“I didn’t know. I get into trouble for this all the time,” he adds.

She’s making a film with Pedro Almodovar, I tell him.

“Oh, it’s that one? Is she doing it then? I knew she was doing it, but I didn’t know when. I have been on the road thirty-one days and she’s been flying all over Europe back and forth. We just haven’t checked on that.”

They seem to be apart more than most couples.

How do they keep the romance alive?

He shrugs.

Do they talk?

“Sure you talk when you can, hopefully you want to talk a lot.”

What else?

“Nothing specific. One of the things we have is not putting rules on, like, you have to do this by this time. That’s not the way life works, especially when you’re in a relationship. We both got sort of the same jobs so we’re both gypsies. You understand when one heads off to Timbuktu for four months and the other is on the other side of the world. And that means you don’t fly in to see people for two day trips. I would go insane. it’s too much travel. So you grow, and you understand, and who understands better than the owl.”

Whatever that means.

Has he met her family?

“I got to meet some of those people that she respects.”

In the flesh, he’s smaller than you expect, slightly built, with small hands, but there’s no denying he’s a good ole Texas boy.

Is he happy with his wild boy image?

“I like to get my knuckles close to the ground,” he answers. “I’m doing the best, living my life the best I can. I work hard. I play hard. I’m leading a pretty good life. Life’s given me good stuff. I’m giving it back. And if t means saying yes to life in some ways, then I guess my life’s going to be a little more open. But it don’t worry me because when I did, it seemed a waste of time. So now I’m doing what I’m doing and if you agree, great, and if you disagree, you’re welcome to it. And, you know, that feels better.”

Are his wild ways behind him?

“In spite of what you read I’ve only been arrested once.”

For nudity and urinating in public, I remind him.

“If you really look at my track record, those are really nothing that harm anyone. Playing music late night, naked, that’s healthy. Going to the bathroom out in the back garden, that’s healthy. Everyone would rather do that. These are not breaking laws; they may be out of the realm of what everyone thinks should be done,  but I’m still very much a gentleman. And I do those things only because they make sense.”

So next time he’ll be more discreet?

“I hope not,” he jokes.

Is he happy? Is this the best time of his life?

“I’m happy. I’m thirty-five. I mean the evolution’s been nice from the time I’ve been born. When you get older it’s nice. The cool thing about the late twenties you don’t necessarily know what you want to do but you should know what you don’t like. It’s a process of elimination. But then in your mid thirties you realize you’re never going to figure those things out, but you can have a good time trying them out. I have a good time. I’ve cut my handicap in my craft. I’m working with teachers on the art of acting. I’m getting better. I’m  more conscious  of when I do something right. That feels good. My health is good, my family is good. I’m working.”

Twelve years ago he landed a role in Dazed and Confused, when it was filming in his home town Austin. Texas.

After that he tried his luck in Hollywood where he was cast in key  roles in Boys on the Side and Lone Star.

Which led to his being chosen by another author, John Grisham, to play the lead in A Time to Kill, where he met Sandra Bullock.

That film made him a star, and he quickly followed it with important roles in important films with important directors: Contact with Bob Zemeckis and Amistad with Steven Spielberg.

But after that his career sputtered,  and he had to content himself with hand-me-down roles replacing  Michael Douglas in U-571 and Aaron Eckhardt in The Wedding Planner.

His love life has also seen its ups and downs.

He’s been romantically linked with Sandra Bullock, Ashley Judd, and Patricia Arquette.

Yet he’s remained resolutely single.

Isn’t it time he started thinking of marriage and starting a family? I ask him.

Two years ago he told me, “I dream about it. I see the future, but it’s not something I’m chasing after. I really like my own company. But I do think timing is important. The right woman in the right time. Maybe I’ve met her, but it wasn’t  the right time. Maybe I haven’t, and it definitely hasn’t been the right time.”

Doesn’t his mom bug him about wanting grandchildren? I ask him.

“No she quit that long time ago. I’ve got two older brothers too, and they’re not helping her either!”

Does he want kids?

“I think about it. It makes me smile. I dream of it. I see a family and I look forward to that day. I’m hoping it will be the right time. I’ll look up, and my two kids will walk in the room and I’ll go, ‘When did it all happen?’ I see it as natural selection.”

Ironically when I asked him two years ago what the type of woman attracts him, he described Penelope to a T.

“I like strong women. I like women that aren’t afraid to be women. Generally I’m attracted to people, and specifically women, who are comfortable with themselves. I like women that understand that there’s a difference between men and women. And that’s exactly what’s so beautiful  – we don’t  have to homogenize the sexes.  Let’s not do that. I don’t think we want to do that.  It’s the differences that are so wonderful that keeps us all on our toes.”

Is that an engagement ring he’s wearing?

“No, that  M on my finger is for McConaughey. That was my father’s. It’s a melt down of my mom and dad’s class rings and gold from my mother’s teeth.