Matthew McConaughey

by Neil Daniels

  Empire’s Dan Jolin wrote: ‘At the eye of this silly, swirling desert storm is the winning buddy act of McConaughey’s Dirk and Steve Zahn’s Al Giordino. Buff, browned, with a blinding ivory grin and twinkly baby-greens, McConaughey fills out Pitt’s grubby khakis perfectly. Here’s a guy you believe can have a solution to every life-threatening problem, who matches brawn with brains and who rarely breaks a sweat, even when the bullets are flying.’

  Total Film said: ‘If the new plan is to dim down the star dazzle and focus on the action, then it’s worked. Matthew McConaughey has coasted for too long now, and, perma-tanned and pearly toothed, he wholeheartedly dives in to Dirk Pitt, swiping Indy’s raffish swagger but also factoring in bits of Bond, Brucie and even, briefly, The Life Aquatic’s Steve Zissou. Whether the character is universal enough to sustain a series remains to be seen, but McConaughey’s work is certainly done.’

  The documentary, Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D, opened in US cinemas in September 2005. McConaughey was one of the voiceover narrators along with an ensemble cast featuring Matt Damon, Paul Newman, John Travolta, Morgan Freeman and Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston. Tom Hanks is the main narrator and co-wrote and produced the documentary, which includes NASA footage and re-enactments, plus CGI about the first people on the Moon as part of the Apollo program. Mark Cowen directed it, and though it is only forty minutes in length, it received positive reviews. Maggie McKee wrote in the New Scientist: ‘Though some such scenes are overly sentimental, the movie leaves viewers with the sense that they have experienced the Moon first-hand – and raises questions about how difficult a return to the desolate landscape may be.’

  McConaughey was then cast as a gambling protégé to Al Pacino’s gambling mogul in Two for the Money, which opened in the US in October 2005 and in the UK in March 2006. Directed by D.J. Caruso and set in the world of sports gambling, McConaughey plays Brandon Lang, a former college football star who takes up handicapping football games after his career ends due to an injury. He is so successful at it that he comes to the attention of Walter Abrams, played by Pacino, who runs one of the biggest sports consulting operations in America, and the pair begin to make huge sums of cash.

  McConaughey was asked by MovieWeb’s Evan ‘Mushy’ Jacobs if he saw parallels between his character’s rise and fall and that of the Hollywood lifestyle. ‘What I saw was a guy who was a winner and all of the sudden starts losing,’ he responded. ‘That’s where the drama was for this character for me. What do you do if you’re a winner? Not that you think you can win, you are a winner. And you all of the sudden are not winning. What do you do? You go back to the world where it all made sense when you were winning. And all of the sudden you find out that that world wasn’t real. That was all an illusion. Uh-oh, you go to people that have kind of become your family, and you find out that that rug has kind of been pulled out from under you, too. To top that off, you don’t only need to win to get somebody’s money back, you need to win to survive and help your family survive, because some of the people that lost the money took it real personal, and went to make threats on your family.’

  McConaughey thought it was a terrific story about a winner who starts losing. If you’re a winner or have a consistent streak of winning things and then start losing, how do you change that? How do you start winning again and return to good fortunes? McConaughey saw great potential in his role when he first read the script. His character, Lang, finds out that the gambling world is an illusion and that everything is not as it seems. When Lang discovers this, and finds out that his relationships are also not what they seem, he decides he wants out as he realises there’s more than just money to lose. McConaughey saw it as a survival story. McConaughey was attracted to the dramatic side of the tale in that his character loved football and excelled at it, but lost the ability to play again, which happens every day in some form another, so his character looked to other things that he was good at, one of which was picking the winner. He gets offered money by people to gamble, but the world he enters is not what it seems and it tries to corrupt him. It’s not the gambling that changes him, nor his winnings, but rather the people who enter his life. McConaughey was drawn into the realism of the film.

  McConaughey appreciated that his character was the one person in the story who was not addicted to anything and that’s where much of the film’s drama comes from. He’s sucked into a world filled with addicts; people who cannot control their gambling. It’s a business where people get addicted, rich or poor, and Lang is drawn to it. McConaughey didn’t think gambling corrupted Lang; he’s a winner and was good at what he was doing until he had a losing streak. McConaughey wanted to root for his character; he wanted Lang to keep on winning. Lang is not cheating, lying or stealing and McConaughey admired that. Sure, Lang has slicked back hair and talks a little faster than most people but Lang is a winner and McConaughey saw Lang as someone more than black and white. Winners, and indeed losers, go through role reversals when their fortunes change but it doesn’t make them corrupt.

  With varying credits to his name, McConaughey hadn’t been in a drama like this for a while, so when it came across his desk he jumped at the chance to switch from light-hearted comedies to a meaty drama. The other side of Two for the Money that appealed to McConaughey was that he too enjoys sports and competition. Romantic comedies are designed for escapism but dramas depict real life, and McConaughey wanted to try his hand at something serious.

  ‘He was so dedicated,’ Rene Russo enthused to Rebecca Murray of About.com: Hollywood Movies about working with McConaughey. ‘It was unbelievable. He was so serious about this part. During rehearsals he would ask questions, he was just so into it. It’s wild working with him. You get the feeling that he’s like really in the film. The character has taken him over. That’s how much he’s in it. It was fascinating to watch. You always learn something from everybody, but he was just like “Whoa!”’

  Part of McConaughey’s responsibility for the role was getting in shape. The Texan was portraying a quarterback and the one thing he hates about sports movies is seeing actors play sports people who don’t have the right physique for the part, so McConaughey was dedicated to making himself look like a quarterback. There is a leadership mentality to playing a sportsman. McConaughey enjoyed the physical and mental training that came with the role of Brandon Lang. In fact, McConaughey spent some time with the man who inspired the part; the real-life Brandon Lang. He listened to him and learned from his experiences. McConaughey tried to pick up on lines and listen to the way he spoke. He gained first-hand knowledge about the gambling industry and touting services and learned a few secrets. McConaughey saw his character not as a gambler but as a winner.

  McConaughey, speaking to MovieWeb’s Evan ‘Mushy’ Jacobs, said: ‘I also did a lot of my own homework. Whether it was the football stuff, the actual playing of it, or calling a lot of these services on my own. And hearing different sales pitches, and types and Brandon’s… there’s all different kinds of ways you do want to hear that certainty, in that uncertain world. And that’s one of the lines in about the whole racket, yeah know [sic]? If the phone is ringing, that person on the other end of the line is looking for direction. So you’re already there. There’s some great stuff in the movie about, “the person’s already calling, TELL them what to do.” As for what Brandon’s pitch would be? Don’t be the sell, sell, sell guy. He just says, “Hey man, I’m gonna tell you the truth. Here’s what I know because I’ve played the game. I love the game. Now also, as well, both are true, if you want to make some money call the number at the bottom of the screen, let’s do it.” He didn’t see it as an act.’

  In some respects McConaughey – as with any other actor – is a gambler. Every film he makes is a gamble. Will it be a success? Or will he lose and struggle to get another part? He bets on himself in that sense, so he is more in control of winning. When he plays a game of golf he bets with his brothers, but he’ll bet on himself too, so if he misses the shot
the only person he’ll be bugged at is himself. By betting on himself it makes betting very simple which is the way he prefers it. He’s always been in a position where he’s had money that he can’t afford to lose, so if he slips up he can’t pay the rent or his bills. That’s a type of lifestyle he has always been drawn to.

  There’s an emotional scene in the film where Pacino’s character fakes a heart attack. It was at a time in the story when Lang cares about Abrams. McConaughey, much like his character, doesn’t play games with people; especially with those you’re supposed to care about. You don’t play with God and you don’t tempt fate. McConaughey has a strict personal philosophy on that. He has a moral compass that he abides by. His character also doesn’t like playing around with life and death. It took McConaughey back to his childhood when his parents told him that lying will bite you in the ass one day.

  McConaughey was in awe of Al Pacino, one of the greatest American actors alive, with a string of critically acclaimed movies to his name such as The Godfather, Serpico, Scent of a Woman and Heat. McConaughey told Evan ‘Mushy’ Jacobs of MovieWeb: ‘It’s like dancing, man. Dancing with a great partner. It’s fun. It’s free. It’s unexpected at all times. He gets on waves and he rides them all the way, sometimes they land in a perfect spot. Sometimes they don’t but he rides it. Every time. That’s one of the things I loved watching from the side. And also working with him, you give him something and you catch a wave. You don’t know where it’s going but while you’re doing it you’re not trying to stay ahead. And if you hit it, then you kind of have that feeling afterwards like, “Okay, I don’t know what that was but it worked.”’

  It was a forty-three-day shoot, which was ideal for McConaughey. On some of the bigger films he’s starred in there’s been an awful lot of preparation time which can get very tiring, and there’s a lot of sitting around in between scenes with little to do. A tighter shoot, on the other hand, means there is more focus and time is more precious. There’s no time to hang around and think too deeply about a shot or sit back and talk about a scene. You show up, discuss the scene with the director and get in front of the camera and act. The actors showed up on set in the morning and worked for twelve-hour days throughout the shoot. It was hard work but it was a learning curve for all involved.

  Two for the Money worked for McConaughey; from the pre-production to getting the cast grouped together to the shoot and into post-production. He also liked the director and the crew and thought there was a strong unity between all concerned. It had an independent feel to it where everyone got down to work and did their best to make a good film. The director gave his cast room to offer ideas and to see how the characters fitted in to the story before constructing the shots and setting up the cameras on set. There was vitality to the film, which McConaughey admired.

  ‘I think in a lot of ways it can encourage more and even better creativity because time is precious but you can’t be precious,’ McConaughey explained to Beth Accomando of KPBS on how constraints enrich creativity. ‘So sometimes the sun’s going down you have to combine two shots. Sometimes you have a scene and you don’t have time to shoot that scene. So how can we get across what we want in that next scene in this scene and get what we wanted in this scene, let’s combine them. You are always forced to compress, maybe you’re going from A to B to C to D, well how do you skip B – can you go from A to C? Or can we pick up B along the way and take it with us into C. You have to think about how to streamline it while still tell your story.’

  The entertainment board Bodog sponsored the world premiere of the film, which was held in Beverly Hills on 26 September. The reviews and box office performance of the film were poor, however. McConaughey’s career at the box office was not going so well.

  Simon Braund wrote in Empire: ‘Before you can say ‘mentor-protégé-surrogate-dad-dynamic’, Brandon (rechristened John Anthony by Walter because “Brandon lives at home with his mommy!”) hits a losing streak as disastrous as it is predictable, and the film careens across the border between mere silliness and outright “what-the?” absurdity with a flash of its arse to the customs officer.’

  The A.V. Club’s Scott Tobias wrote: ‘Inevitably, the personal complications that infect Pacino and McConaughey’s relationship coincide with a losing streak that’s every bit as profound as the 80-per-cent record that brought them to glory. McConaughey’s side of the story brims with gambling-movie clichés about the vacancies that his short-term victories create as the moral decay sets in; he’s even given two separate personas, one the drawling, unpretentious quarterback from the sticks, and the other a fatuous, Benz-rolling city slicker named “John Anthony.”’

  Although the reviews of Two for the Money were poor, the film picked up a cult fan base on DVD and fans occasionally chatted to McConaughey about it. The DVD is huge business with many fans getting introduced to movies via DVDs rather than the cinema, which is the more traditional route. For many people watching a DVD is far easier and more convenient than going to the cinema. A trip to the cinema is a social event – dating, family and friends socialising and so on, but some people just prefer to stay at home; plus it is cheaper. The idea of watching a film with two hundred other people just doesn’t appeal to everyone, so the DVD and pay-per-view and online markets have become a huge source of revenue for film studios.

  McConaughey is fond of the film despite its lukewarm reception. He was trying to stay loyal to the big Hollywood studios with films such as Reign of Fire but venturing towards smaller dramas that meant more to him on a personal level. There was no set pattern to his career. He picked projects that he found interesting; the story and the characters had to appeal to him. Even though it would take time for critics and audiences to fully recognise his talents as a character actor, McConaughey could plausibly jump from a romantic comedy to a period drama to a military film. He had learned how to deal with fame and not allow it to take over his life. Some actors let it swallow them up and as a consequence enter a world of drugs, drink and other substances. McConaughey was at peace with himself and his career. His celebrity status was not that of megastars such as Tom Cruise or Leonardo DiCaprio, but he attracted a fair share of entertainment and gossip journalists and photographers who were interested in his latest squeeze or what fashion labels he was wearing. As far as mainstream audiences went, his career was going through a tumultuous period, which lacked focus and confidence. He was about to star in one of the worst films of his career, yet another rom-com, with a top-named TV actress after having appeared in a film – albeit not a very good one – with one of cinema’s greatest actors in Al Pacino.

  McConaughey wasn’t simply making one film such as Two for the Money for his male fans and then a romantic comedy for his female followers. He’s drawn to films because of the characters and the story rather than the genre, though a successful film like How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days allowed him to make smaller dramas. He spent much of the decade moving between the glossy Hollywood romances to the smaller almost independent-type dramas.

  There is usually a formula to the romantic comedy: a couple gets together, breaks up and gets together again before the closing credits. Some films see the male protagonist begging on all fours to get back with the woman, but McConaughey never bought into that so in his rom-coms he tries to be a man’s man. He’s less interested in a film that’s about the battle of the sexes and more interested in one where the sexes are balanced. McConaughey tried to make his character not an outright deadbeat; he has sympathetic and empathic traits. He realises he messed up and tries to make amends but not by begging; it’s through choice, not desperation, that he chases after the woman. McConaughey’s view is that balancing the roles between the man and the women opens up the film to a male audience because the men can relate to the male protagonist.

  By their very nature, romantic comedies are films that make a lot of money for the studios because they are accessible. Guys take their girls on dates, mothers take their daughters, and girlfriends go togethe
r and so on. Also, compared to action movies they’re a lot less expensive to make, yet the returns can be very high so they’re not as risky as other genres.

  In 2006 Matthew co-starred with Sarah Jessica Parker in the rom-com Failure to Launch, which opened in the UK and US in March. A romantic comedy, McConaughey plays a thirty-five-year-old man named Tripp who still lives with his parents Al (Terry Bradshaw) and Sue (Kathy Bates) in New Orleans. Even his best friends, Demo (Bradley Cooper) and Ace (Justin Bartha), live with their parents, so he’s not too bothered. However, Tripp suspects his parents of setting him up with his dream girl Paula (Sarah Jessica Parker) so he’ll finally have to leave home. Paula is actually an expert hired by his parents to find out why he won’t leave home, and he ends up falling in love with her.

  ‘It’s a good romance and it’s got a lot of heart to it,’ McConaughey said to Empire. ‘I think SJP has great comedic timing. I think she’s got a real freshness and buoyancy. And she’s extremely cute. Kind of great sense of effervescence that’s nice about her.’

  For the role of Tripp, McConaughey had lost some of the weight and muscle mass he’d gained for Two for the Money by doing lots of running and Frisbee throwing.

  McConaughey thoroughly enjoyed the script when he first read it. It made him laugh out loud, not something he normally does. He felt there was more comedy in it than in other rom-coms. The film is not solely based on the male-female relationship; he liked the idea that his character has a problem but doesn’t think he does. Because of the loss of his fiancée in the past, Tripp struggles to move forward in life. His mum cooks for him and folds his clothes; his life is generally that of a teenager’s in many respects. There are still plenty of gimmicks and comedic scenes to keep the audience engaged in McConaughey’s character though.