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Matthew McConaughey
Biography
Matthew David McConaughey was born
November 4th, 1969 in Uvalde, Texas. He's the youngest of 3 boys born to
Kathrine, a substitute teacher, and Jim, who sold pipe and couplings in
the oil business. His father also played football for the Green Bay
Packers between 1967-68. Jim died in 1992 from a heart attack.
He graduated high school in 1988,
where he played football and was fittingly voted "Most
Handsome". He then spent a year as an exchange student in Australia
where he worked helping a law firm. Matthew went on to study at the
University of Texas in Austin. He initially went to University to become
a lawyer but changed his focus to film direction and he graduated in
1993.
In his junior year he met Don Phillips,
who would introduce him to Producer/Writer Richard Linklater. That
meeting led him to be cast in 1993's "Dazed Confused."
Linklater liked Matthew so much that he expanded his onscreen character
to include more lines. He was then cast in the sequel to "Texas
Chainsaw Massacre" that same year. Then came the role as Drew
Barrymoore's cop boyfriend in "Boys on the Side" with Whoppie
Goldberg and Mary-Louise Parker.
In 1994 he played a baseball player in
"Angels in the Outfield." It wasn't until 1996 that Matthew
was given the opportunity to play the lead in a feature film. It was in
"A Time to Kill" with Ashley Judd. His performance and success
of the film put Matthew on the Hollywood "A-List". His
charming good looks and superb character acting talent shone. In 1997 he
starred with Jodi Foster in "Contact" where he played
religious advisor Palmer Joss. The movie boasted a star filled cast and
out-of-this-world special effects and was one of the top grossing movies
of the year.
Next he teamed with Sir Anthony
Hopkins and Morgan Freeman, in the Steven Spielberg slave-ship drama
"Amistad. In 1998, Matthew re-teamed with Linklater for the
"The Newton Boys" which was based on a true story about a bank
robbing bunch of brothers. In 1999 he starred in the Ron Howard comedy
"EDtv" where he played a video store clerk whose life becomes
the subject of a 24-hour television show.
He signed a deal with Warner Bros.
that will allow him to produce, star and possible direct films through
his own production company j.k. livin' (short for just keep living). His
latest film is "U-571" a World War 11 drama about an American
submarine crew's battle against time and their own fears while carrying
out a daring mission to capture a top-secret encrypting device from a
Nazi U-boat.
Some other interesting facts about
Matthew is that he has a dog ( ½ lab and ½ chow) which is named Ms.
Hud after a Paul Newman movie, he drives a new black BMW, has recently
quit chewing tobacco and resides in Austin, Texas (where he was arrested
in the fall of 1999 for playing the bongos naked and partying too loud).
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ACCOMPLISHMENTS
 | The Wedding Planner (January 26, 2001)
| Reign of Fire (2001)
| Frailty (2001)
| Dexterity (2001)
| U-571 (2000)
| The Last Flight of the Raven (2000)
| EDtv (1999)
| The Rebel (1998)
| Newton Boys, The (1998)
| Amistad (1997)
| Contact (1997)
| Making Sandwiches (1997)
| Glory Daze (1996)
| Larger Than Life (1996)
| A Time to Kill (1996)
| Lone Star (1996)
| Boys on the Side (1995)
| Scorpion Spring (1995)
| Submission (1995)
| Angels in the Outfield (1994)
| Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The (1994)
| Dazed and Confused (1993)
| My Boyfriend's Back (1993)
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AWARDS & RECOGNITION
1997: MTV Movie Award--Best Breakthrough Performance--"A
Time to Kill"
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Sure. Delicious MATTHEW
MCCONAUGHEY is one hot Hollywood property. But he’s much more than
just a pretty face, you know. Through movies like “A Time To Kill”
and “EdTV” - he’s proven he can not only bring ‘em in at the box
office, but that he’s also a damn fine actor. And he’s had his fair
share of leading ladies.
In addition to working with Elizabeth Hurley, Jenna Elfman and Jodie
Foster, he’s been spotted hanging out once again with his former
gal-pal Sandra Bullock … oh the babies these two could make! If that
wasn’t enough, Matt shares his birthday with BeatBoxBetty (November
4th), so you know he’s one determined motha’ with his eye on the
prize.
Recently, I met up with my Scorpio twin to talk about his new movie
“U-571” and what it was like working with an all male cast...
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BETTY: Okay.
What the heck are you drinking?
MATTHEW: It’s
Yerba Matte. I’d love to have a cup of coffee, but this doesn’t have
any caffeine in it. If I drink coffee all day, I’ll crash by 3PM –
so this is just another way to keep me up – but it’s all natural.
It’s just a green tea. It’s clean and really good for you.
BETTY: I’ll
have to try it someday. Hey – you’ve been in plenty of movies, but
what’s your own personal favorite movie of all time to watch?
MATTHEW: Hmmm …
my favorite film was “Hud” and my favorite comedy was “Raising
Arizona” - but my most enjoyed film of all time was “King Kong.”
There’s no other film I enjoyed watching as a kid. That was pure
enjoyment.
BETTY: What
about music?
MATTHEW:
There’s a couple of killer soundtracks out right now and I have this
question for you … I loved the [music] to “Blue Streak” in the
film - but I bought the album and they put all these heavy lyrics on top
of everything. So in the movie, it had this 70’s cool groove to it and
it was real mysterious and fun, but the album doesn’t have the same
stuff that was in the movie.
Same thing with “Ghost Dog” - the soundtrack in the movie was heavy
instrumental, and I bought it, but they have all this heavy rap on top
of it. I like it, but it’s just not the same. I’m looking for what
was just in the movie!
BETTY: I hate
when that happens!
MATTHEW: Yeah,
and the last couple of years I’ve been into World Music. Anything with
some bass and some percussion I’m really into.
BETTY: Speaking
of music, what was it like working with Jon Bon Jovi?
MATTHEW: I had
listened to his music in the 80’s but I didn’t know him … but
right off the bat he was 100% committed to doing the best job he could
acting and playing his character. He was very humble to the craft and he
wasn’t coming in with his rock-n-roll stage presence. He was always
asking questions and trying to find angles for the character. It’s
good to have your ego out of the way of you’re acting, and there was
none of that on the set when he was there.
BETTY: While
we’re talking about ego, you had to lead these young guys in a teeny
tiny sub during wartime. How’d you develop such a great sense of
authority about you in this role?
MATTHEW:
Everybody on this film has the luxury of not having to worry about going
to war or not. As an actor, you’re an independent soul – but when
you put that uniform on, there’s a regiment and a class organization
with rules and regulations and a structure. That’s what we all had to
learn.
BETTY: How did you
prepare for this role as Lt. Andrew Tyler?
MATTHEW:
I didn’t have anybody in mind. My choreography in this part was
learning the military environment. After that, there were things that I
developed from my relationship with my father. In the military,
there’s a structure that, maybe you don’t always get what you want,
but if there’s a job to do – you don’t pout - you don’t hold
grudges … you just do it.
BETTY: What are
the dynamics of working with an all-male cast? I mean, there’s not a
woman around for miles in this movie.
MATTHEW: I was
thinking about that earlier. Somebody asked me why there were no women
– but of course there weren‘t. Every woman and child in the world
since 1942 is the romance of this thing. Because if we don’t go out
and win this war, what’s going to happen? What’s Hitler going to do
when he shows up?
You know, working with all these guys – you have a lot of testosterone
running around and with 14 men all hanging out – and there’s certain
things that do go around. When you’re together for 5 months in small
quarters, you’re going to have some crossing of attitudes and
personalities – but nobody ever let anything get in the way of the
work we had to do. There can be a real tendency for groups to clique-up,
but we had a team environment early on.
BETTY: Well it
certainly shows. Thanks for taking the time to yack with me, Matthew.
We’ll look for you and the boys in “U-571”.
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| Matthew's
interview. (Matthew McConaughey)(Interview)
Author/s: Graham Fuller
Issue: August, 1996
GRAHAM FULLER: When and where wore you born?
MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY: Uvalde, Texas, '69. It's a
small town - twelve-thousand people - west of San Antonio. Mom and Pop
were married for thirty-nine years. I got two older brothers, aged
thirty-three and forty-three, both oil-pipe salesmen. We had a pretty
conservative upbringing. You got your butt whopped for lying. It was
church on Sundays. Pop had been a football player; he played under Paul
"Bear" Bryant for the Green Bay Packers in the NFL in '53. He
then drove trucks and ran a Texaco station, bringing the bread home. Mom
was a teacher - she taught me in one of my kindergarten classes - and a
professional mom. That's what she did everyday, raised us boys.
GF: When did you know you wanted to act?
MM: When I was around twenty-one, twenty-two. I
never thought of the arts during my youth. I only saw one film in a
theater before the age of ten - Orca [1977]. I was building tree houses
and swimming in swimming holes out in the river and crawdad hunting and
frog gigging. In 1980, I moved with Pop to a trailer park in Longview,
east Texas. He and Mom were separated at the time, and he went up there to
get work when the big Texas oil boom happened. Then Morn moved up a few
months after we got settled and found a house to live in. Longview is in
the Bible Belt: Baptist churches and barbecues. Two weeks out of high
school, I went to Australia for a year on an exchange program and did
eleven different jobs. When I came back, I went to the University of Texas
at Austin, as a psychology-philosophy major planning to go on to law
school and become a criminal lawyer. Then I had a change of heart. I
didn't have any passion for law. I felt I had some good storytelling
instincts and I wanted to translate some of this point of view right away,
so I transferred to film school at Austin to learn directing. One night I
was out having a drink with my girlfriend at the local Hyatt, and I met
producer Don Phillips, who was in town casting Dazed and Confused [1993].
He asked me if I'd done any acting. I said not much, but he told me he
thought there was a part I might be right for in the film. I went down and
picked up the script and started working on the character, Wooderson. Went
back, read for it with [writer/director] Rick [Linklater], and got the
part.
GF: After Dazed and Confused, I remember you came
by the Interview office to meet some of the editors. I was struck by how
different you were from Wooderson. Whereas you're on this leading-man
track now, you started your career in a character part. Wooderson's an
apprentice good ol' boy going nowhere fast.
MM: If Wooderson came from anywhere, he came from
the image of my middle brother. When I was eleven, he was eighteen, and he
was the kind of athletic guy who hung out in the smoking section.
GF: Did your brother look like Wooderson?
MM: Not at all. I put a lot of hair spray and a
tight T on. I was ready to get ugly. Wooderson was about rock 'n' roll,
his car, women, and pot. If it didn't have to do with those four things,
he wasn't interested.
GF: Did that first acting experience give you the
bug?
MM: Yeah, I got the bug. I began to get real
excited about the idea of the mind travel you experience when you get into
the head of a character. And I began to notice that I was evidently a
better actor than a director. Right after I graduated, I played the killer
in Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre [1995], and that was a blast.
Then I came out here to Hollywood.
GF: How did you go about positioning yourself for
good roles?
MM: That's part of the chance thing that's just
happened to me. Up until ten months ago, I was like, "I want to work,
man. What's the role? I'll do it."
GF: It was obvious to me that the clean-cut cop
you played In Boys on the Side [1995] was going to get you some mainstream
attention.
MM: But that guy was such an Abe, such a
righteous character. I was in a bit of a funk coming off of that, and I
didn't work for eight or nine months. I wasn't doing very good in
auditions. I was being a little too righteous myself, saying that if
people don't get what I'm doing then they just don't get it. So then I
went ahead and co-wrote, directed, and acted in an eighteen-minute short
called The Rebel. It's about this guy who breaks arbitrary rules and
thinks he's a big-time criminal. We shot it in five days and that brought
back the recklessness to my acting when I went in for auditions. I was not
as needy. I was much more like, "O.K., I did that, y'all got what'cha
want? 'Cause I gotta go edit my film."
GF: It obviously worked, because you were cast in
the lead role in Joel Schumacher's A Time to Kill. Your character, Jake
Brigance, is a small-town Mississippi lawyer who defends a black man, Carl
Lee Hailey [Samuel L. Jackson], who has shot dead, in the courtroom
building itself, the two men who raped his little daughter. Apart from the
amazing career opportunity the role gave you, what appealed to you about
Jake?
MM: I like a character with some kind of code - a
line not necessarily drawn in the sand, but a line drawn in your head and
your heart. I like a character who walks that fine line between insanity
and genius. As I see him, Jake's decided he wants to be a great lawyer,
but he's in this small town, he's not doing that well, and he's married
with a child; that responsibility - being a father - was the main
difference between us that I had to come to terms with. I think that Jake
grows up and becomes a man by the end of the film. He has a sense of fight
and wrong about this case, but his impetus for taking it is that he wants
to rock the boat and be a star. He says, "Hey man, I'm taking this.
I'm the guy! If it makes me unpopular with people, fuck 'em." But
he's not really taking [the case] for the pure reason that his client has
a chance to be proven innocent. He discovers that through his journey. He
comes to realize that if it had been his own daughter who'd been raped,
he'd have done the same as Carl Lee Hailey did - he'd have killed those
guys. That was the code part of the character that I loved.
GF: The movie - starting with its title - implies
that there are occasions when, in an Old Testament way, taking justice
into one's own hands is acceptable. It could be construed as an
endorsement of vigilante justice. Isn't there a danger In that?
MM: Definitely. You can't just give that license
to everyone. That's why we have we have laws. Jake's argument is that this
is an extreme situation where [a rape has been perpetrated] against
someone's [Hailey's] blood relative, his daughter, an extension of him, a
relationship that everyone can connect with. He argues that Hailey's
actions were more forgivable given the character of the two evildoers, who
are the kind of trash society needs to weed out anyway.
GF: Willem Dafoe once told me that, as an actor,
he didn't feel it was his job to make moral judgments about the characters
he plays.
MM: I would agree with that. I know that to
understand Jake and to pull the role off, which I hope I did, I needed to
understand why the prosecutor [played by Kevin Spacey] was fight from his
perspective. It wasn't just a question of justifying why I [Jake Brigance]
was right.
GF: The climax of the movie is your extremely
moving summation for the defense. How did you feel when you were doing
that scene?
MM: That was probably the most epiphanous day. I
guess I learned more about myself and more about acting on that day than
at any other time. I first had to strip away all of the legalese from the
speech as [screenwriter] Akiva Goldsman had written it. Then I sat down
and started saying it in my own words, which were obviously not as
eloquent but were on a much more guttural, primal level, and devoid of
reason. I think I cussed. I was talking about blood and guts and
devirginizing; it was real sickly explaining the scene to myself: Although
the process of making it mine involved going away from the script, when
you do that it always comes fight back - if it's good writing in the first
place - to what the writing was originally, and that's what happened here.
The big day came. I knew Jake had to go to this
place and really become a man by conceding, by losing his ego completely.
He sees that this case is about so much more than what he got into it for.
And what he did, and what I did, was to honestly let God take over that
day. That morning I ran out across a field. The sun was shining and I
stripped my shin off [laughs] and sat there and read my second scroll of
Og Mandino's The Greatest Salesman in the World and found out what the
scene was about - the love Jake has for his family. The second scroll goes:
"I will greet this day with love in my heart." I lost all
aggression, and I went in there and I was somewhat in a trance for the
next couple of hours. Oh, and this is really cool! I broke a big sweat, I
kept going to the bathroom, I got a bloody nose for the first time in
almost six months. Every orifice was flowing. I know that sounds weird but
that's really what happened. It was this great release.
Joel called out, "Lunchtime!" I said,
"Joel, you want to hang out here? I want to tell you what I'm
thinking about this scene." I told him and he said, "You're
ready, man. Let's shoot it." So we shot it and I gotta tell you, that
whole day I had no idea what I was saying, except I knew what the words
were and they were coming out.
GF: Were you drained at the end of the day?
MM: I was spent. It was really peaceful, though.
I was probably glowing.
GF: It's a spine-tingling few minutes. The way
you did it reminds me of James Stewart's filibuster in Mr. Smith Goes to
Washington [1939]. I'm curious, Matt - would you ever play a venal
character?
MM: I would, possibly, if it was the right one,
if he had his reasons or if he was ignorant. Ignorance licenses certain
kinds of behavior. The most interesting characters like that are based on
real people. What was wrong with them? What was their history? But I can't
say that I'm real high on abuse-excuse movies.
GF: On a personal note, I believe you wear a ring
that contains the gold from your mother's teeth in it.
MM: Yeah. It's the meltdown of my mom's and dad's
class rings and the gold from my mother's teeth.
GF: Is your mother dead?
MM: No, my father is. He died August 17, 1992.
GF: Do you ever regret that he didn't have the
opportunity to see you succeed?
MM: I miss him sometimes. But he knows what's
going on. He's up there cooking gumbo and eating lemon-meringue pie.
GF. What's the most important thing you've
learned so far?
MM: It's about the work, man. Do the work. Don't
half-ass it. It's also about not fearing failure. I've noticed that the
best things have happened to me when I took a risk and came closest to
failing.
GF: Is being in the public eye beginning to take
its toll on you?
MM: I'm noticing that. There are wonderful things
that come with anonymity and, realistically, that's about to leave me.
It's nice to have the money to buy anything I want on every aisle in a
supermarket. I've got the truck that I've always wanted. Obviously, when
you get confirmations that the work you're doing is being understood, your
confidence level rises. I've changed in that way.
I'm in the stroking period right now. Everyone's
stroking me. La-di-da-di-da-di-da. But in a year, if not sooner, the
bullshit side of journalism, American and worldwide, is going to be after
me and there's no way I'm gonna let that make me cynical. I don't pursue
being a star. If that's a by-product of doing good work, then thanks!
What's important is that the work should be the library that I am able to
look at and go, "Good job McConaughey, man." All the rest is
flattering, it's very seductive, and I understand how you can get wrapped
up in it, but it's just packaging for the product. The same things have
got to get me off now - make me smile - that have always gotten me off.
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ARTICLES
Tuesday, September 11, 2001
Director praises hero star
By BRUCE KIRKLAND -- Toronto Sun
TORONTO -- A lot of women are talking about how lucky Festival-goer Janice
Flisfeder was to get mouth-to-mouth resuscitation from Matthew McConaughey
after she fainted at the premiere of his Thirteen Conversations About One
Thing.
But (a) she was out of it at the time and didn't remember it.
And (b) She might not have wanted to, given he'd had chaw in his mouth.
"He was a hero," Thirteen Conversations director Jill Sprecher said.
"But the embarrasing part is I'm pretty sure he had chewing tobacco in
his mouth at the time."
That's one way around the no-smoking bylaws.
Sunday, Sept 9, 2001
Movie star aids fainted woman
By KEVIN MASTERMAN and JIM SLOTEK
Toronto Sun
A real-life drama unfolded at the Toronto International Film Festival after
heartthrob Matthew McConaughey came to the rescue of a woman who collapsed at
a screening of his latest movie.
Janice Flisfeder, 49, never expected to play a starring role at the Friday
night screening of Thirteen Conversations About One Thing, which she attended
with her husband. The festival's an annual ritual for the couple.
Leading lady
"I fainted. I think it was not eating much and standing in lines all day,"
said Flisfeder, embarrassed by the front-row incident after 11 p.m. at the
Elgin Theatre.
But her appearance as a leading lady wasn't all bad.
"I felt a man stroking my hair and kissing my forehead saying 'it's okay,
sweetheart,' and realized it wasn't my husband," the mother of three said
last night. "When I opened my eyes and looked back to him I just thought
'nahh can't be.'"
It was only as she was being loaded into the ambulance that she realized she'd
had a close encounter with the star of The Wedding Planner, U-571, Ed TV and A
Time to Kill.
But in Hollywood form, the show did go on as the projectionist ignored calls
from the audience and kept the spool rolling.
"Matthew was the first to the scene. It was like a movie," said the
film's director, Jill Sprecher, who watched the mayhem unfold in front of her,
concerned about the health of the woman rather than the screening of her
newest film.
"He is a heroic guy -- a very kind person who is always considerate,"
she said.
On screen, actor John Turturro had just asked a character why he had become a
doctor when a man came bounding up the aisles in search of one.
A doctor was later found and helped at the front of the theatre where
Flisfeder fainted.
Film festival organizers were worried about Flisfeder's health, but neglected
to get her name before she was taken away by ambulance.
Close encounter
McConaughey "plays a young attorney whose career is affected by a single
event" according to the film festival guide.
The guide calls the film a story involving karma, happiness, and hope which
Flisfeder might have been thinking about during the encounter.
But McConaughey, who barged to the scene, was sheepish about being an action
star at a press conference yesterday and did not comment.
But as he squirmed, actor Amy Irving confirmed "Matthew's a hero ... He
gave her mouth-to-mouth."
Joked actor/director Alan Arkin: "Which we found out afterwards was why
she had the seizure."
But Flisfeder, although excited about her brush with fame, did not remember
any liplock.
"I think I would have remembered that," she said from her Thornhill
home yesterday.
-- With files from Bruce Kirkland and Sheila Reagan
Monday, April 30, 2001
McConaughey still friends with ex-loves
By LOUIS B. HOBSON -- Calgary Sun
HOLLYWOOD -- Matthew McConaughey has been dating Salli Richardson, one of
the stars of Family Law, for almost nine months, but that doesn't stop him
from gushing about his former girlfriend Sandra Bullock.
"I would never categorically rule out the possibility that Sandra and I
might get back together. We both have a lot of strong feelings for each
other," says McConaughey.
"It's just not the right time now and it wasn't the right time before.
I do love her and I always will love her."
McConaughey says he still has strong feelings for most of his former
girlfriends, who include Ashley Judd and Renee Zellweger.
"I always form a friendship first and, whether it works out
romantically or not, that friendship remains intact. Just because a woman
and I are no longer meant to be lovers does not mean we're not meant to be
friends."
Next up for McConaughey is the sword-and-sorcery drama Reign of Fire, which
shoots in Ireland.
"It's the near future (2024) and dragons have taken over the world.
Christian Bale and I have to destroy the bad ones. I get to slay dragons and
save the world. Rob Bowman of The X-Files is directing."
Tuesday, January 23, 2001
Man with no plan
McConaughey takes romance as it comes
By LOUIS B. HOBSON -- Calgary Sun
HOLLYWOOD -- When it comes to love and romance, Matthew McConaughey has no
plans.
Unlike his parents, he just lets nature take its course.
"My mom fell in love with my dad the moment she saw him. They were at
opposite sides of a gymnasium. She pointed at my dad and told her sister she
was going to marry him and she made sure she did," explains McConaughey.
"That sort of thing hasn't happened to me. I've had my knees wobble a
little bit and I've definitely had butterflies in my stomach, but nothing
stronger."
When McConaughey does start courting, his romantic instincts kick in -- but
they're not always on time.
"I'm the kind of guy who gets really romantic on an ordinary Tuesday.
I'll buy a puppy, but then I'll botch up and forget an important date like
Valentines Day."
In the romantic comedy The Wedding Planner -- opening Friday -- McConaughey
plays a lovesick puppy who gets smitten the moment he bumps into Jennifer
Lopez.
One small problem.
He's already engaged and Lopez is the wedding planner his fiancee has hired
to orchestrate the big day.
McConaughey replaced Brendan Fraser at the 11th hour when Fraser chose to
star in Bedazzled with Liz Hurley.
"I was on one of my solitary camping trips in the mountains of North
Carolina when the studio delivered the screenplay and told me that (director)
Adam Shankman wanted to meet with me."
McConaughey read the script, packed up camp and drove to a roadside diner in
Arizona to meet with Shankman.
"I'll never know why Adam didn't get up and leave the moment I walked
into the restaurant. I'd been in the woods for about five weeks.
"I had a pretty good facial growth and a nice scent."
Shankman offered McConaughey the role on the condition the actor meet with
Lopez.
"I wanted to know if Jennifer and I had any chemistry and I assumed she
wanted to know the same. To me, that means the person has a good sense of
humour and Jennifer certainly does."
The actors met in Las Vegas and then flew to L.A. to do a screen test. It
was at this screen test that McConaughey first met Lopez's boyfriend Sean (Puffy)
Combs.
"He was a gentleman. He didn't threaten my life or anything,"
jokes McConaughey, who accompanied Lopez to the Golden Globes on Sunday
night.
Once Lopez and McConaughey convinced each other, Shankman and the studio
they could create the appropriate romantic sparks, the real work began.
The couple had to learn to tango for one of the film's key scenes.
"I'm not a dancer, so I had to spend weeks working on that tango,"
recalls McConaughey.
"The big problem is that Jennifer and I have to deliver reams of
important dialogue while we're dancing. It all has to fit perfectly."
Next week, McConaughey flies to Ireland to begin work on the futuristic
thriller Reign of Fire.
"I'm going to slay myself a few dragons. The year is 2030 and dragons
are taking over the world. There are only 3,000 people left alive and it's
either us or them."
Wednesday, October 18, 2000
'U-571' star, 'X-Files' director team up
Matthew McConaughey, last seen in the second world war pic
"U-571," will travel across time to battle fire-breathing dragons
in "Reign Of Fire."
Variety reports McConaughey has agreed to star in the big-budget film, which
is being directed by "X-Files'" Rob Bowman and begins production
in Britain next year. McConaughey will star as a dragon-slayer who teams up
with Christian Bale to battle a fire-breathing monster.
McConaughey's next release will be "The Wedding Planner," with
co-star Jennifer Lopez.
-- JAM! Movies
Sunday, April 16, 2000
Matthew McConaughey's on board
McConaughey steps forward to take care of
business in new movie, U-571
By BOB THOMPSON
Toronto Sun
HOLLYWOOD -- Matthew McConaughey is a changed Texas playboy. It's not like
he's become a cagey city slicker with a passive-aggressive agenda. But he is
less of a laid-back, pick-up-truck-driving cowpoke than he used to be.
McConaughey, conveniently or not, sees his new role in U-571 as a reflection
of his new attitude.
In the film (opening Friday), the actor plays a World War II U.S. submarine
commander trying to obtain a code device from a stranded German U-boat in
the Atlantic Ocean.
Besides McConaughey, Bill Paxton, Harvey Keitel, Jon Bon Jovi, David Keith
and Jack Noseworthy co-star in the big-budget production produced by Dino
DeLaurentiis and shot in Malta and soundstages in Rome.
Old-fashioned tension and classic heroics replace special effects and
high-minded, sci-fi what-ifs in the war picture.
"And it's about time," says 30-year-old McConaughey, who reports
that directness is what his generation wants and needs, and what he wants
and needs.
"It's very manual," says the Austin resident of U-571. "It's
not laser beams, it's not UFOs. It's right at you. That's what I want. I
want to see the man take care of business. I don't want to see everybody
have big psychological struggles.
"Our generation has had the luxury of pondering everything. But I don't
want to hear the griping on the street or in movies. I want to see somebody
be the man and take care of it."
Serious stuff from the naked, bongo-playing dude who was arrested at his
home last October and who spent a night in jail. He later paid a $50 fine
for violating a city noise ordinance, but remains unfazed by the experience.
The guy still wants to have fun. "I'd get too tired if I was intense
and serious all the time," he says. "But let's face it: I got to
where I am for a reason. I was always raised in the Baptist tradition of
accomplishment. You get out and you do it. You execute."
He did that from the beginning when Richard Linklater expanded his role as
the Dazed And Confused former high schooler. So impressed was Joel
Schumacher with McConaughey that he cast the unknown in the film version of
John Grisham's A Time To Kill.
Since then, he's been featured in mostly misses -- Lone Star, Contact,
Amistad, The Newton Boys and EDtv. Some insiders say that he even goes out
of his way to promote the anti-glamour slacker cowboy, but in fact he has
embraced fame and all that comes with it.
Reports have him dabbling in certain spiritual pursuits in his quest for
happiness. He gave up chewing tobacco. Sometimes he can be caught drinking
herbal teas.
"I drink teas instead of coffee," he says. "I don't get the
high and the low, but these days I do need a little pick-me-up. Tea keeps me
at even keel. And, yeah, it does taste a little earthy."
The movie industry hasn't shied away though. McConaughey just completed The
Wedding Planner with Jennifer Lopez, and he replaced megastar Michael
Douglas in U-571.
"He is a bona fide movie star," says U-571 director Jonathan
Mostow. "Every director in town wants to be his director. Matthew just
has that certain noble quality."
Mostow says that he also has "a tremendous work ethic, which would have
him sleeping in his trailer on the set to stay focused.
"The other actors," says the director, "fell in line and
maintained that level of commitment."
Sandra Bullock, his Time To Kill co-star, former girlfriend and good buddy,
agrees that McConaughey is single-minded when it comes to acting.
"It's his down time that makes him such a guy," says Bullock,
referring to his bongo-playing arrest and suggesting that McConaughey should
be allowed to go naked "before it all gets saggy."
Says McConaughey when he's told Bullock's thoughts: "I am naked more
often than I used to be," he says smiling. "But I think I can wait
for awhile before it starts to sag."
Maybe the Texan hasn't changed that much after all.
The U-571 File
- The production crew at Malta actually constructed a 600-ton, full-sized,
sea-going replica of a German-style U-boat.
- Gotz Weidner, Das Boot production designer, served as the production
designer for U-571, so there are lots of similarities between the two films.
- Vice-admiral Patrick Hannifan was a technical adviser on the movie, and is
quick to point out that the S-class U.S. submarine featured did leak as much
as shown.
- McConaughey says he has a special place in his heart for Michael Douglas,
whom he has never met. But it was Douglas, in the early stages of
pre-production, who refused to spend the whole shoot on Malta. He convinced
the producers to move half of the shoot schedule to Rome, then promptly
backed out of the picture, making way for McConaughey.
- Historically the British Navy, not the American equivalent, retrieved the
enigma code from a U-boat, but U-571 explains that at the conclusion.
Saturday, April 15, 2000
Fame surprised Matthew
Actor just wants to be a good ol' Texas boy
By LOUIS B. HOBSON
Calgary Sun
HOLLYWOOD -- Matthew McConaughey never claimed he was a movie star.
That's what the press agents, studio heads and magazine editors claimed.
McConaughey just considered himself a good ol', laidback Texas boy.
"I never went in search of fame. It came and bit me in the butt. It
made my life crazy for a couple years," admits McConaughey, whose brush
with celebrity began when he starred as the young lawyer defending Samuel L.
Jackson in A Time To Kill.
"I was actually cast in a small role as a small-minded, big-mouthed
bigot. (Director) Joel Schumacher was auditioning a lot of big names for the
lawyer."
Woody Harrelson, Brad Pitt and Val Kilmer had all met with Schumacher, but
wouldn't commit.
"I got up my old Texas courage and asked Joel if I could audition. I
wasn't after fame. I was after a great part.
"I lost good roles in A Family Thing, Mrs. Winterbourne and The Great
White Hype. I didn't think I had anything to lose asking Joel to let me
audition for A Time to Kill."
McConaughey nabbed the role and a cover story for Vanity Fair.
"The day before that magazine hit the stands, I was a people watcher on
Venice Beach. Suddenly, people were watching me. It was really strange and a
bit unnerving."
The same studios who just a year earlier had seen no potential in
McConaughey were offering him their choice projects.
He starred opposite Jodie Foster in Contact, Anthony Hopkins in Amistad and
played a Texas trainrobber in The Newton Boys.
The films weren't huge box-office hits, but Ron Howard's EDtv was supposed
to change all that. This was the film that was going to re-establish
McConaughey's place in the Hollywood firmament.
It was a huge box-office disappointment, but fortunately for McConaughey,
he'd already been signed to the lead in Universal's submarine thriller U-571
which opens Friday.
When Michael Douglas pulled out of the sea adventure about an American sub
that tries to intercept a crippled Nazi sub, the project was rewritten for
McConaughey. Instead of an aging officer on his last voyage, McConaughey
would play a young officer trying to prove his worth.
"I liked the script that Jonathan Mostow had written. I didn't love it,
but Jonathan said he would consider some of my ideas."
The film was shot last year in Malta and Rome. McConaughey insists he was
relieved to discover "the European paparazzi didn't know or care who I
was. They were far more interested in stalking Jon Bon Jovi and Harvey
Keitel, who play two of my fellow marines."
Mostow says Universal Pictures were prepared to treat McConaughey like a
movie star but he deferred.
"He had this great 10-room apartment in Rome that Anthony Minghella had
occupied when he was shooting The Talented Mr. Ripley in Italy. Matthew
rarely used it," says Mostow.
McConaughey says he spent as much time as possible on the set of U-571
"to feel as if I really was in a submarine.
"Growing up, I didn't see any submarine movies. They weren't part of my
generation. As soon as I got the part, I watched Das Boot. It is such a
daunting picture. It's magnificent.
"I wanted to keep that feeling of claustrophobia."
Monday, April 10, 2000
Humour beats bongos
U-571 star Matthew McConaughey takes
ribbing in stride
By BOB THOMPSON -- Toronto Sun
HOLLYWOOD -- Poor bongo boy Matthew McConaughey. He has been the butt of
jokes from his buddies since his barenaked brush with the law last October.
"But what are friends for," says a smiling McConaughey, promoting
his latest movie, U-571, at the Four Seasons Hotel on the weekend.
The 30-year-old actor was arrested Oct. 25 after getting into an altercation
with police at his Austin home. Authorities said they were answering a noise
complaint when they looked through the window of a house and saw a naked man
playing bongos.
McConaughey, arrested at the scene, spent the night in jail and later paid a
$50 fine for violating a noise ordinance.
Five months later, the actor seems to be taking it all in stride. To prove
it, the easy-going Texan was wearing a T-shirt, given to him by a friend,
that read, 'What part of naked bongo playing don't you understand?'
"He made me about 30 of them," reports McConaughey, who maintains
that he's trying to keep the incident in perspective.
"There's a difference between making a joke out of something and having
a sense of humour about it," he explains, sipping an Argentinian green
tea concoction. "It happened, but I do have a sense of humour about it."
In U-571, opening April 21, a fully clothed McConaughey plays a WWII
submarine officer assigned to retrieve a German code encripter from a
stranded U-boat in the Atlantic Ocean.
That challenge was nothing compared to learning how to take the ribbing from
his pals, contends McConaughey. What else did he take away from the
incident? "Get naked, but don't get caught."
Meanwhile, U-571 co-star Jon Bon Jovi confirms that his group Bon Jovi will
tour after the release of the group's 10th album, Crush, next month. "It's
a big happy rock record," says the singer-songwriter.
That doesn't mean he's giving up acting. "Much to the band's chagrin,"
says Bon Jovi, who plays an ensign in the McConaughey war picture and is
currently filming Play It Forward with Kevin Spacey in Las Vegas.
"I'm hooked," he adds. "I'm building my actor's resume."
Monday, December 13, 1999
McConaughey will be Lopez's groom
Matthew McConaughey is eyeing the co-starring role in Jennifer Lopez's film
"The Wedding Planner".
McConaughey ("A Time To Kill," "Ed TV"), is currently
negotiating a $5 million salary to star in the film, according to Hollywood
Reporter.
Brendan Fraser was originally slated to play the role of a groom-to-be who
falls for a wedding planner (Lopez).
Fraser left the project two weeks ago to work on "Bedazzled";
McConaughey will only be making half of Fraser's $10 million salary.
Kevin Pollack ("The Usual Suspects") has also joined the movie,
which will be directed by rookie Adam Shankman.
"The Wedding Planner" starts filming in January.
-- JAM! Movies
Friday, 12 November, 1999
Judd, McConaughey might reunite
Ashley Judd and Matthew McConaughey -- who co-starred together in "A
Time To Kill" -- are poised to reunite for a new small-budget film,
according to Variety.
"Dexterity" is a romantic drama about a couple whose lives are
ruined when the factory in their small town closes, says Variety.
The movie has been in development since 1990. Both actors are in
negotiations to star, and screenwriter Karen Croner told Variety "these
are absolutely the right people for it."
-- JAM! Movies
Monday October 25, 1999
Matthew McConaughey arrested on drug
possession
Actor Matthew McConaughey has been arrested for possession of drugs,
according to police in Texas.
The Reuters news service said the actor, 29, was arrested by the sheriff's
office in Austin early Monday for "drug-related offenses,"
including possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia, although he was
not immediately charged.
Travis Weeks, a spokesman with the Travis County sheriff's department told
Reuters McConaughey had refused to get in a police car and would also likely
face charges of resisting arrest.
McConaughey is a native of Texas and studied film in Austin, where he was
discovered and cast in Richard Linklater's "Dazed And Confused."
He also starred in Steven Spielberg's "Amistad," the John Grisham
crime thriller "A Time To Kill" and "EdTV."
-- JAM! Movies
Friday, August 6, 1999
Weatherford film in works
NEW YORK -- Next for Matthew McConaughey, the story of William Weatherford.
Variety says Warner is filming the story of Weatherford, the part Scottish,
part Native American who led the Creek Nation into battle during the War of
1812.
To be called Raven Mocker or Red Eagle, the film is being written by Clint
McCowan.
McCowan knew the story of Weatherford because his great-great grandfather
was General Andrew Jackson's personal physician and the story was passed
down through the family. Weatherford led his tribe against Jackson.
Weatherford was part Scottish but chose to embrace his Native American
lineage, which came through his mother.
He was chosen by his tribe to take on Jackson and his troops, and was told
his family would be killed if he refused.
Weatherford defeated Jackson in three battles, giving the general and future
U.S. president his only defeats.
-- Toronto Sun
Thursday, March 25, 1999
Bittersweet taste of fame
Matthew McConaughey's latest film mirrors
his own real-life celebrity roller-coaster ride
By LOUIS B. HOBSON
Calgary Sun
SAN FRANCISCO -- It took just 24 little hours for Matthew McConaughey's life
to be turned upside down.
It was that day three years ago when McConaughey appeared on the cover of
Vanity Fair being touted as Hollywood's newest sex symbol.
"I was renting a little place in Malibu at the time, waiting for my
movie A Time to Kill to come out," says McConaughey.
"The day before the magazine came out I walked through a mall through a
crowd of a thousand people and not one head turned. The next day, when the
magazine had hit the stands, I walked through the same mall and people were
gawking and pointing.
"I didn't know what was happening because I hadn't seen the magazine
yet."
McConaughey went to a store, filled his basket with things he needed and
headed for the checkout counter. That's when he saw the stack of magazines
with his face on them.
"I couldn't believe what I saw. They never told me I was going to be on
the cover.
"I picked one up, handed it to the checkout girl and said: 'He's a
good-looking guy.' We both laughed.
"Suddenly it was fun walking through that mall with everyone looking at
me."
It didn't take long for the novelty of celebrity to wear thin.
"I didn't mind press people hounding me. I accepted it as part of the
game to publicize my new movie. It's when my family became involved that I
was upset.
"Journalists from shows like Hard Copy went to my mom's house in
(Longview) Texas. They came with such smiling faces that my unsuspecting mom
let them in.
"They asked to see my old room and she took them on a complete tour,
telling them everything they wanted to know. At that point I wanted the
press out of my family's life and out of mine, but that was not easy to
accomplish."
McConaughey, 29, got to relive those exciting and scary moments of his
career trajectory through Ron Howard's new comedy EDtv, opening tomorrow.
McConaughey plays Ed, a Texan living in San Francisco who allows a local
cable TV company to film his life for an unspecified stretch of time.
At first, Ed gleefully wallows in his celebrity, but when the cameras are
turned on his girlfriend (Jenna Elfman), brother (Woody Harrelson), mother (Sally
Kirkland), father (Dennis Hopper) and stepfather (Martin Landau), he vows to
do anything to get out of his contract with the devils of TV.
"At first he becomes addicted to fame. At first it seems to be such a
heavenly drug, but he soon realizes how hellish it can be."
Looking back at his own manic brush with celebrity, McConaughey insists he
doesn't regret his Vanity Fair cover story, but he certainly takes his
sex-symbol status with a grain of salt.
"If I have any sex appeal, it's probably because I'm comfortable in my
own skin.I like who I am.
"The sexiest people are those who are not trying to be sexy. It can't
be a conscious thing or it's as superficial as it appears."
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