Matthew McConaughey, actor and writer: «Life can become poetry»

Star, sex symbol, storyteller, exemplary father and husband, responsible citizen, university professor, believes in the values ​​handed down by his father: honesty, courage, never tell lies, never say I can’t. His sense of humor, irony and a disarming friendliness and natural ability to communicate then contributed to making Matthew McConaughey, 54 years oldone of the most popular and beloved characters by the American public.

After the success of his memoir-bestseller Greenlights. The art of running downhill (Baldini+Castoldi), the star of The Time to Kill e Dallas Buyers Club publishes his second book, Just because... (The ship of Theseus), written for all the children of the world, and their parents.

Matthew McConaughey, not a very lonely star

I remember that Vanity Fair America cover story well. Title: Lone Star. Why Hollywood is burning with passion for Matthew McConaughey. It was August 1996. He, in blue jeans, shirt open on his tanned and robust chest, leather belt, muscular arms, had the air of a perfectly healthy American boy. That half-smile of his, confident and cheeky, transformed him into the new star of Hollywood in the space of a few weeks. At 26, the boy from Longview, Texas, was already a star, even before his film, Time to kill (based on the novel by John Grisham), was released in theaters. Joel Schumacher, the director, who had seen it in Life is a Dream by Richard Linklater, had chosen him for the role of the protagonist Jake Brigance, saying no to Brad Pitt and Val Kilmer. Matthew was the new Paul Newman, according to Schumacher, a Marlon Brando in his early days. Hollywood bet everything on him, and he wasn’t wrong.

Happiness is living in Texas with your family

After a series of critical and box office successes (A Time to Kill grossed 152 million dollars, Contact, the next film with Jodie Foster, 170), McConaughey became the darling of studios and producers, chosen for dramas, action films but above all for many rom-coms, the romantic comedies that made him in 2005 The Sexiest Man Alivand, the sexiest man alive according to People’s annual ranking. Then, one day, just as he had arrived, he abandoned the beaches of Malibu where he loved to dominate the waves of the Pacific with surfing, he loaded the whole family, his wife Camila and three children Levi, who is now 15 years old, Vida, 13, and Livingston, 10, onto a camper and returned to Texas.

And there, in Austin, the McConaughey family has lived happily since 2012. He, who considers himself animated by the impulse to always move forward, a workaholic-perfectionist, slowed down his work pace in Austin to write a memoir, Greenlights. The art of running downhilland with this notebook, funny, easy-going and philosophical in its own way, he had notable success, remaining for weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.

I met him in Los Angeles during the promotion of his second authorial effort, Just because…a concise illustrated album – there are about thirty pages – in which he summarizes – once again – his existential principles. Written for children but also recommended for adults: they are rhyming verses, little poems in couplets that summarize his way of seeing and facing the world. The tone is brisk, practical, constructive. I listen to him while with a strong Texan accent, in a t-shirt and jeans, the inevitable cowboy air, invites parents to read thoughts together with their childreni like: «Just because I forgive you doesn’t mean I trust you/ There’s what you do. There’s what I do. And what you do is not a priority for me.” A simple page, with two sentences, illustrated by two drawings. Again, for example: «Just because I’m at the top doesn’t mean I can’t fall down».

Or: “Just because I lied to you doesn’t mean I’m an unpunished liar». In the two scenes drawn we see two children and the older one takes the blame for a glass broken by a baseball. McConaughey’s intention: «I wanted to show in a simple way the contradictions and complexities that exist in each of us and explain that if you can contain them, listen to them and overcome them, life can become poetry». The audience follows him attentively, amused, he seduces them with his simple and charming speechand, he tells personal anecdotes from his childhood, emotionally remembers his inflexible and much loved father, at times transforms into an inspired preacher, urges everyone to understand, to be generous, empathetic, to look within and not judge. And then, a clever diplomatic move, on stage to interview him is Katherine Schwarzenegger, his writer daughter – coincidentally Arnold, former governor of California, Hollywood star and charismatic Republican, and Maria Shriver, of the Kennedy dynasty, inflexible Democrat. Matthew and Katherine, close-knit and in unison, discuss family, faith, honesty and responsibility. A seductive duet, right?

Matthew McConaughey’s intolerance for romantic roles

When the actor recalls his early Californian years he does so with a touch of melancholy: «I had become the guy in romantic comedies who appears shirtless on the beach. A thing, in short, an object »he says in the memoir. Tired of that image that bounced around every tabloid, for some time he had felt a sense of incompleteness, of strong existential unease. He was looking for his ego, his sense of being. For weeks he would isolate himself in Africa, far from Hollywood and his world, then he would return to work and start all over again.

The meeting with Camila – at the Hide Club on Sunset Boulevard – a Brazilian model “with caramel-colored skin”, the dream of building a family, becoming a father, the loss of anonymity, freedom and little by little of his identity, all of it was pushing in one direction: change image, change profession, change life. At one point he imposed a veto on romantic comedies, but the studios turned a deaf ear and continued to offer him tens of millions of dollars. The more he sidestepped and backed away, the more the others raised their offer: 8 million, 10, 12, 14.5. All exclusively romantic roles.

For two years Hollywood offered him nothing else. Matthew began to doubt himself and one day, in 2007, finally the turning point: they sent him the script Dallas Buyers Clubthe story of an HIV-positive worker, Ron Woodroof, an outcast on the fringes of society who later becomes an activist against AIDS. He prepared for a whole year, met the Woodroof family and read Ron’s diaries. From 83 kilos he dropped to 61. Nobody, however, had the slightest intention of financing the film, so Matthew and director Jean Marc Vallée shot it for less than five million dollars: in the end McConaughey with that role he won the Oscar for best leading actor.

A leap forward and we return to today, to Just because… The actor says it took him years to condense his experiences as a father into a few sentences. The idea for the book was born from a dream, with the rhythm and melody of a popular songand: «I woke up one night and started writing» he remembers. «I think and dream, with the rhythm of the songs, in a melodic way. At the time I didn’t even know I wanted to write a children’s book, I thought I was writing it just for myself.” The result is a collection of couplets, about forty, which begin with Just because, each accompanied by an illustration by Renée Kurilla: they are life lessons based on her own experience and directed to her children as well as to children all over the world and – underlines the star – to every parent. Katherine Schwarzenegger – also the author of survival guides, self-esteem and children’s books, as well as the mother of two little girls (Lyla and Eloise) – looks at him raptly as she talks to him on the stage of the Culver City theater. The conversation about fame, success, family and faith is inevitable between the two.

McConaughey, a convinced Methodist, defines himself as «a mystical optimist». Once he distances himself from Hollywood, he continues to cultivate easy and happy relationships with both his liberal and more conservative fans. It’s no secret that the Texan actor has been preparing his debut in the political world for years. His candidacy for governor of Texas in 2021 had already been announced, but was then retracted. In September last year you mentioned the possibility of running for president in the 2024 elections, then, once again, he backed out. If the time is not ripe for an official position, today he insists in many public speeches on improving healthcare for mental health, and on the use of firearms done with full knowledge of the facts.

With age, more wisdom

At the moment, McConaughey he seems more interested in an academic career. He told me during the promotion of his latest film, The Gentlemen, three years ago: «I am a professor in the College of Communication at the University of Texas. I teach a course that explains in detail the path of a film from screenplay to screen. About ten years ago I began to notice how budget cuts, changes to shots during filming, and even my favorite scenes that were later deleted, could radically change the script. In short, the final product was far from the original idea. When I work with journalists, directors, producers, writers, marketing experts, I love a collaboration that is profound… I am convinced that these different skills must enrich each other. A belief that comes from thirty years of experience.”

And what have you learned in the last ten years? «I am sure of one thing: we would all be better off if humor were our first emotion. When you don’t know how to react, a laugh saves you: it doesn’t make what you say any less meaningful, and there is great truth in humor. I don’t want to deny their importance, belittle them or underestimate them, but many things and events are often there to laugh at. In conclusion: at this age I hope to have become a little wiser, otherwise what’s the point of growing old?».

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