STACK #121 Nov 2015

EXTRAS

FEATURE

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From a penchant for rom-coms and an aversion to shirts, to a career revival and an Academy Award. MATTHEW McConaughey

The ‘90s “My life is the road, man. I need to keep moving.”

Friday before it came out, you could have shown my picture to 100 people and asked if they knew who I was and you’d have gotten 99 no’s and one yes”, the actor recalled. “And the next week, it flipped in the opposite direction.” McConaughey had ‘arrived’. With his star power percolating following ATime to Kill , it seems appropriate that McConaughey followed it with a film called LargerThan Life (1996) – a comedy starring Bill Murray and an elephant. He then worked with two high profile Hollywood directors, appearing as a property lawyer in Steven Spielberg’s Amistad (1997) and a Christian philosopher in Robert Zemeckis’s Contact (1997). His next film reunited him with Richard Linklater for the period crime drama The Newton Boys (1998), based on the exploits of the eponymousTexas bank robbers during the 1920s. McConaughey was perfectly cast as the slacker whose life becomes a realityTV show in Ron Howard’s Edtv (1999), which also marked the beginning of a long-term friendship with co-star Woody Harrelson, or as he puts it: “My good man Woody Harrelson, man. Whatever it is, we turn each other on. We really have a comfort with each other. Always good value withWood-man. Classic, classic wild man.” The ‘00s “I personally don’t like to go see romantic comedies. But people do want to see them, and they seem to want to see me in them.” In U-571 (2000), director Jonathan Mostow’s historically inaccurate WWII adventure, McConaughey found himself aboard the titular German submarine along with Bill Paxton, Bon Jovi and an Enigma code machine. TheWedding Planner (2001) may have made money, but in hindsight it was a bad move for the actor. But who could have predicted that this seemingly harmless J.Lo rom-com would be catalytic in sending its hunky leading man down the road to typecasting hell?

“To understand me, you need to understand Texan logic.” Born and raised in the Lone Star State (Ulvade and Longview, respectively), Matthew David McConaughey initially intended to become a criminal defence lawyer but ultimately wound up playing one in a movie. After spending a year in Australia as a Rotary exchange student at the age of 18, he graduated from the University of Texas at Austin College of Communication in 1993 with a Bachelor’s degree in Radio-Television- Film. According to McConaughey, his first acting gigs saw him “picking up $1,500 here and there from commercials. I did a commercial for Miller Lite and made like $6,000 – and that was huge!”Following a memorable debut in Dazed and Confused (1993), several supporting roles playing characters like “Guy #2” and “Rental Truck Guy”, and a breakout performance in A Time to Kill (1996), audiences – in particular the female demographic – fell in love with this handsome, tanned Texan and his Southern drawl. “Hollywood is a pleasant place, when you are hip to the game and you enjoy it for what it is really,” he says. “It’s important to realise that fame is a dance, and I’d like to think I’ve got my dance down better now.”

A meeting with casting director and producer Don Phillips resulted in Matthew McConaughey landing the role of ‘toolie’ DavidWooderson in Richard Linklater’s cult comedy Dazed and Confused (1993). He made an immediate impression, adopting his character’s catchphrase “Alright, alright, alright!” and life philosophy, “Just Keep Livin”, as his own. His first LA audition was for Disney film Angels in the Outfield (1994), in which he appeared alongside fellow newcomer Adrien Brody. “I was getting $48,500 just to act and play baseball,” the rookie star noted at the time. “I thought I was rolling in dough.” McConaughey is just one of many Hollywood stars who have a horror film skeleton in their closet. His is TheTexas Chainsaw Massacre:The Next Generation (1994), a dubious honour he shares with Renée Zellweger, who played a potential victim. His agent reportedly pressured the studio not to release the film theatrically, fearful it would damage his client’s imminent star status, and following a major hullabaloo, the movie was shelved until its eventual video release in 1997. Boys on the Side (1995) did for McConaughey what Thelma & Louise did for Brad Pitt – introduced a new Hollywood heartthrob in a chick flick road movie, with the actor providing a love interest for Drew Barrymore. He next appeared (via flashback) as a sheriff with a dark secret in John Sayles’ terrific crime drama Lone Star (1996), before landing the breakthrough lead role that would make him a household name and an object of desire for a legion of female fans. McConaughey may have abandoned legal studies at uni, but he still got his day in court playing a defence attorney in ATime to Kill (1996), based on John Grisham’s racially charged best-seller. He received the endorsement of Grisham, who was “happy we were able to find a kid like McConaughey”, and the MTV Award for Best Breakthrough Performance. “The

“Alright, alright, alright!” Dazed and Confused (1993)

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