Matthew McConaughey

by Neil Daniels

  McConaughey liked that Tripp wasn’t turned into a slacker and a bad son because he lives at home. Tripp is a good son, a good friend and a good employee. It plays into the recent phenomenon that is happening with adults who stay with their parents because of financial pressures or failed relationships. It happens with both men and women. In some cultures people don’t leave their parents’ house until they’re married. It often boils down to economics: some adults can’t afford to leave home and some are forced to move back because their general expenses and costs of living are too high.

  ‘The main thing I could understand is that he’s got a great relationship with his parents,’ McConaughey explained to Chud’s Devin Faraci his opinion of his character: ‘He had a great relationship with his friends. He’s a good friend to them and a good son. He loves women. One of the things why that was important and cool to me is that it would have been very easy to make the story that his parents want him out of the house because he’s a pain in the butt; but he’s not. They like him there, and he likes being there.’

  One of the elements of the story that McConaughey liked about the script was that Tripp had never gotten over his true love. He had a woman who left him yet he still has love for her in his heart. Tripp hadn’t gone out and purposefully met a woman because he still had love for his ex. He’s a dignified guy, but he’s troubled. His parents want him to evolve and to open up his heart by sharing it with someone else. He needs to move on with his life and his parents allow that to happen. It’s not a heavy drama, and although it does try to tackle weighty issues that are relevant to many adults, it does so with humour.

  Tripp thinks he’s got his situation under control but it turns out to be something that it isn’t and that’s where the comedy comes from. McConaughey understood that as soon as he’d read the script and knew how to handle his character. Also, like his character, McConaughey enjoys keeping his relationships in the fun zone. His view is that life is hard and you face many challenges on a daily basis and so a relationship with someone should be all about having fun together and, if it’s with the right person, looking forward to building a future together. At this time he was dating Penélope Cruz. They’d been together for almost two years and were still enjoying being with each other. They knew each other’s likes and dislikes and how to make each other laugh. They’d also learned how to deal with the physical distance if they were both working on separate projects in different parts of the country or the world at the same time.

  One aspect of making a romantic comedy that McConaughey found challenging in some ways was keeping it buoyant. He wants to make it light. Acting as though you are in a heavy drama doesn’t work in this sort of genre so McConaughey learned to skim across the surface. In some respects he felt it had a similar vibe to How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, another film he enjoyed making.

  ‘You know what surprised me is he writes a lot,’ Parker said to Rebecca Murray of About.com: Hollywood Movies about McConaughey. ‘I didn’t know he was a writer. He writes a lot. He really works on the script a lot. He really thinks about it. He breaks it down. I guess what was surprising is that he was really into talking about it and working on it, and taking it apart and putting it back together. I probably would have – if you’d given me truth serum before the rehearsal process – probably thought it comes pretty easy to him, which it does at the same time. And he probably gets a script, you know, but no, he was much more interested in fixing and doing things to it that he felt were important for the story.’

  The sailing scene in the film was fun to shoot. McConaughey went sailing before filming so he could get used to it. He’s very active and energetic and loves the outdoors. He’s not a great sailor, though, but his character thinks he is so that was fun to play. His co-star in the film found that he liked to be in charge, that he has sort of traditional ideas about that.

  Parker had made a return to the big screen with the film, after becoming a household name with the hit TV series Sex and the City. McConaughey admitted he had a crush on her in the series and the cult film Honeymoon in Vegas, but sadly for him she’s been with actor Matthew Broderick for years. ‘He has a sort of easy, breezy quality about him,’ she said of McConaughey to The Cinema Source’s J.P. Mangalindan. ‘He’s very engaging and very effective on camera. It’s quite easy to flirt with him. Let’s just put it like this: it doesn’t take a lot of effort for him to do what he does.’

  A trashy, throwaway film, Failure to Launch received poor reviews and grossed over $90 million worldwide with a $50 million budget. McConaughey’s career wasn’t going so well after the commercial failures of Sahara and Two for the Money, and now Failure to Launch. This once promising young good-looking actor with box office appeal was in dire need of a hit film.

  The New York Times’ Stephen Holden wrote: ‘The director Tom Dey obviously cherishes 30s comedies, and he confidently guides a screenplay (by Tom J. Astle and Matt Ember) that has some of the sass and bite of those oldies through the screwball rapids. It’s all about tone. And until the movie succumbs to sugar shock at the end, it remains brisk and tart. Mr. McConaughey and Ms. Parker (in a role not far removed from Carrie Bradshaw) make well-matched sparring partners.’

  Entertainment Weekly’s Lisa Schwarzbaum wrote: ‘If, for example, you like McConaughey’s affect of sexy, sleepy-eyed drawl – is he toasted, or just a sun-kissed Texan? – then you are meant to like Tripp, even though screenwriters Tom J. Astle and sitcom-savvy Matt Ember abandon all hope of squaring the childish, spoiled-by-Mom slacker that Tripp appears to be pre-Paula with the far more competent, complicated, and sensitive thirtysomething adult he proves himself to be later on. This character is a bundle of What-If-We-Made-Hims who dribbles away his leisure with similarly unattached goofball pals, yet also takes seriously his responsibilities to a jaunty African-American boy he calls his nephew. And little black kids don’t appear for nothing in a white creampuff comedy like this.’

  Total Film said: ‘Failure to Launch is a sometimes jarring mixture of Farrelly brothers-style slapstick, amusing musings on what it means to grow up and schmaltzy relationship patter. Parker aces in a role seemingly written for Jennifer Aniston, but McConaughey, alas, has the sexual charisma of a battered cod.’

  How does McConaughey react to negative feedback?

  ‘There are good bad reviews and there are bad bad reviews,’ he explained to The Tech’s Alison C. Lewis. ‘The good ones are very critical, very constructive. The [writers of the] bad ones don’t have critical right. They just like to hear themselves talk. They were just having a bad day.’

  McConaughey was dating Penélope Cruz, the stunning Spanish actress and model he’d met when filming Sahara. ‘There’s a bit of a language barrier, but it’s like poetry when it happens,’ he admitted to Details’ Bart Blasengame. ‘What I really love about her is that she sees everything for the first time, every time. And she’s one of the best listeners I’ve ever met. She’s not a right-and-wronger.’

  They’d gone to Mexico together after filming Failure to Launch. McConaughey relaxed there. He ran each day, took the dogs for walks, swam, sat on the beach and read, went out for dinner and had dances and massages and generally enjoyed himself with his on-off girlfriend. McConaughey spoke to Metro about Cruz’s opinion of McConaughey’s less than glamorous Airstream. ‘She likes it. It’s not very hi-tech but it has got running water – if I have a place to hook up – and a stove you can cook on or you just build a fire. It has everything you need. It’s very relaxing and highly luxurious – if you want a new front yard every morning, or a new view over a river or over a new ocean, you can get it.’

  Questions came up in the press as to how serious the relationship was. Would they live together? McConaughey has admitted he wouldn’t be the easiest guy to live with. Travelling is his favourite thing to do and in many respects he is a very adaptable guy. He tries to stay in every place he visits long enough to absorb the culture and way of life of the residents. He loves Spain, Cruz’s nati
ve country, and even mentioned living there.

  Though he has dated many beautiful women, his life was very much that of a bachelor’s. He lived alone, ran his own business and often worked out and travelled alone. The paparazzi usually snapped pictures of him running on a beach with his shirt off, or working out by Venice beach or somewhere equally beautiful in Southern California. His love of the great outdoors – either outdoor pursuits such as hiking or working out as opposed to exercising in the gym – and working out goes back to his childhood when Kay, his mother, wouldn’t let him stay indoors during daylight hours. ‘It’s always been a lifestyle,’ he said to Men’s Fitness writer Joe Warner. ‘Then it became something that was like, “Hey, it’s also good for my job.” I’m not a professional athlete, but I have a job where I prefer to look good and be as healthy as possible.’

  In the 1990s he tried his hand at thrillers, action, science-fiction and dramas; mostly serious films that were cold, but when he did The Wedding Planner, which is something light and fluffy, he realised he could make a whole lot of money. He got famous over the weekend after A Time to Kill and then he starred in films that he wanted to do because the director and the story meant something to him. The rom-coms didn’t mean anything to him as such; they just made him very rich and raised his profile. The studios offered him fewer dramas as a consequence, and films such as The Newton Boys and Two for the Money didn’t make much in box office receipts or see the studios come to him, but they were fun to make.

  McConaughey then went on to star as Marshall head football coach Jack Lengyel in the film We Are Marshall, which opened in US cinemas in December 2006 and went straight to DVD in most foreign countries. Directed by Charlie’s Angels director McG, We Are Marshall sees former Party of Five actor Matthew Fox as assistant coach William ‘Red’ Dawson as the pair try to rebuild the Marshall University Thundering Herd football team after the 1970 plane crash that killed thirty-seven football players, five coaches, two athletic figures, the athletic director, twenty-five boosters and the five members of the airplane crew. There were no survivors aboard the McDonnell Douglas DC-9 that transported the team to Greenville, North Carolina, via Stallings Field in Kinston, North Carolina.

  It is the story of the year after the accident when the town was divided between those who wanted to drop the program and go out gracefully and those who wanted to fight and carry it on. It wasn’t about winning but about keeping the spirit alive in honour of those who lost their lives. McConaughey was more than pleased to be part of the drama given the nature of the story and his love of sports. It was an interesting role for him to play, being a coach rather than a player given his obvious athleticism. He was thirty-seven when he made the film and in fantastic shape.

  It’s an outsider’s film and as such they wanted to do two things: make it as honourable as possible so as not to upset the relatives and local townsfolk and to bring the story to those who did not know about it. McConaughey plays the outsider who was able to be part of the healing process and manage a tough job at the same time. His agenda was never to heal the town but to do his job, which was coaching.

  ‘A lot of it for me with Jack was the rhythm of his speech,’ said McConaughey to Andrea Tuccillo of The Cinema Source. ‘That’s where it started for me as far as from the outside in. Also, people in general sort of have three walks. You’ve got the pelvis walk, the heart walk, or the head walk. And Lengyel was a head first guy, he always led with his chin. So I think that just worked into a sort of physicality that allowed a conduit for me to understand him and also give my portrayal of the guy.’

  Filming began in Huntington, West Virginia on 3 April and was completed a few months later in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s a tragic story and they wanted to tell it as truthfully as possible, which is why they chose to film it in the same West Virginian town where the actual events occurred. Naturally it brought a lot of scepticism from the locals. The tragedy happened thirty-five years before the film was made, but because it was such a major catastrophe it was still fresh in peoples’ minds. A couple of weeks into filming and the locals started to visit the set and were shown script pages by the crew to see how scenes were being shot. The crew wanted the locals to see they were doing the story justice.

  ‘I got knocked on my butt the first day of filming. We had the kids do a drill, and I went to give one a chuck and I landed flat on my keister,’ McConaughey admitted to People magazine’s Natasha Stoynoff.

  The film premiered at the Keith Albee Theatre in Huntington on 12 December 2006 and special commemorative screenings were held at Pullman Square. The film caused controversy because aspects of the storyline were changed for dramatic purposes, which is typical of Hollywood when dealing with real life events as previously seen with U-571. The producers, Deborah Novak and John Witek, of the 2000 documentary Marshall University: Ashes to Glory filed a $40 million lawsuit against Warner Bros. and others associated with the film citing fraud, copyright infringement and breach of contract. The case was dismissed in October 2008.

  ‘From my experience, in a true story there’s obviously a blueprint,’ McConaughey explained to Andrea Tuccillo of The Cinema Source. ‘So you have a certain responsibility. Not necessarily to go out and imitate what happened but to emulate what happened and to recognize that you’re bringing it down to two hours of celluloid.’

  The film was not a box office hit (its budget was $65 million but it grossed little more than $40 million) but McConaughey’s performance won acclaim from critics who marked it as the film’s highlight. After the risible Failure to Launch, McConaughey had (sort of) saved his credentials with this excellent albeit sadly forgotten little drama.

  Roger Moore from the Orlando Sentinel gave it four stars out of five and said in his review that ‘We Are Marshall (it’s the rally cry of the team) doesn’t always have a handle on the grief, but it does keep emotions close to the surface. That allows McConaughey to be the most refreshing, funny and believable he ever has been.’

  Frank Lovece of Film Journal International said: ‘Leaving aside Matthew McConaughey’s quirky performance as replacement coach Jack Lengyel – which actually does grow on you – yes. Very much so. Despite what qualms one might have had about pretentiously named ex-music-video director McG (a.k.a. Joseph McGinty Nichol of Kalamazoo, Michigan), whose only previous features are the two blustery Charlie’s Angels movies, the guy clearly has enough human empathy and experience that his film conveys real emotion and not schmaltz.’

  Empire’s Helen O’Hara said: ‘It tries hard to tug the heartstrings, but between McConaughey’s eccentric mugging, director McG’s uninspired helming and endless scenes of people coping with unbearable tragedy, it doesn’t succeed.’

  Still, despite the poor box office performance McConaughey was proud to be part of the film. ‘I’d do movies like Marshall and Two for the Money that might look more like meter readers, and, as far as my stock in Hollywood, someone would go, “He’s got a [price] quote for a romantic-comedy, but he don’t get that quote for [dramas]. You want to do that movie, you’ve got to take a pay cut for us to take a chance.”’

  That same year he provided voiceover work in an ad campaign for the Peace Corps and on 21 January 2008 McConaughey became the new spokesman for the national radio campaign ‘Beef: It’s What’s For Dinner’ replacing actor Sam Elliot. The biggest piece of news came in January when he announced via his blog, ‘My girlfriend Camila [Alves] and I made a baby together…its 3 months growin in her womb and all looks healthy…we are stoked and wowed.’

  As if The Wedding Planner, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and Failure to Launch were not embarrassing enough, McConaughey was cast as Benjamin ‘Finn’ Finnegan in Fool’s Gold. He is a treasure hunter on a quest to find treasure from a Spanish galleon called the Aurelia that was lost at sea with the 1715 Treasure Fleet. His wife Tess (played by Kate Hudson, his How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days co-star) divorces him and finds a job as a steward on board an expensive yacht owned by multi-millionaire Nigel Hone
ycutt, played by Donald Sutherland. Finn’s coordinates take him to the yacht, The Precious Gem, and he convinces Honeycutt, his daughter, Gemma, and Tess, to help him find the treasure which ultimately helps Tess and Finn rekindle their estranged relationship. Along the way they meet gangsters Bigg Bunny (Kevin Hart) and Moe Fitch (Ray Winstone) who are also after the treasure.

  McConaughey and Hudson had a fantastic rapport on set, often joking with each other and having fun on the Australian beaches. They had wanted to work together again and a few opportunities had come up, but Fool’s Gold felt like the perfect project for a second collaboration between the two big screen actors. McConaughey knew there’d be people out there who wanted to see them pair up on screen for a second time and Fool’s Gold was not only perfect for the script but also the exotic locations. The pair felt it was an extension of How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, yet at the same time it was a different story with two different characters.

  McConaughey spoke to IndieLondon about his friendship with Hudson. The pair are more like sibling rivals than anything else, often winding each other up. ‘We’re a pain in each other’s ass,’ he admitted, ‘but that’s a part of what works, I think, seeing us on screen in our relationship in real life. She said before: “We love each other but we don’t like each other the whole time.” And it’s still true. We fight well, and we flirt well.’

  ‘I think it’s just a personal thing, our relationship. We can drive each other crazy,’ explained Hudson at an LA press junket. ‘It’s also one of those things where it is like when you start knowing someone so well that you love them, like my brothers or even in relationships, the things that drive you crazy, you love even the things that drive you crazy about them.’