Matthew McConaughey covers the November issue of GQ and it’s one of the most comprehensive interviews I’ve ever read. Full stop. MM gave a lot of decent-to-good interviews last year during his Oscar campaign, but now that he’s successfully rebooted his entire career and become an Oscar-winner, Matthew has thoughts. Deep thoughts. About everything from the name “Redskins” to his rom-com past to God to… everything. You can read the full interview here (prepare yourself for the McConauniverse). Some highlights:
His rom-com past, his early fame: “I’ve never had fears that I was stuck in one thing. I’m sure we’re going to talk about the years when I was in romantic comedies and I was seen as the guy who was on the beach, running around shirtless. I did that. Damn right that was me. I wasn’t scared like, “Oh God, I’m going to be stuck here.” But I was like, I understand at some point that that is in italics now. [The italics part of my life] has two parts. One was the myth that was branded and created. Second, yeah, it’s me. I did Fool’s Gold in Australia, had a summer in Malibu, and made a surfer film—basically, when you edit those all together, it was one continuous ninety-degree day on the beach without a shirt. But also, I worked hard to live in Malibu, California. I’m going to the beach! I’m gonna go surfing! No, I don’t want to wear a shirt. I want to get a tan and feel the sun on my bones. And it’s Tuesday. You’re recording it? Good for you…. I’m not going to apologize for enjoying what I do.”
He’s proud of those rom-coms: “Absolutely. These things aren’t easy. What’s hard is to make them look easy. Those kinds of movies are what they are. They get pooh-poohed by critics. They get pooh-poohed by actors themselves. And in a way I get it, but in other ways it’s completely unfair. There’s a buoyancy you need to make them work. I believe I gave them buoyancy. And some of the shoots were very difficult, with me trying to fight for the balls on the guy…Look, I’m happy if you think I “cruised through” those. I did my work.
Babies are his secret weapon: “Never is a man more of a man than when he is the father of a newborn. Whatever decisions you make in the first six months of becoming a father, double down on them. I mean, you’re meeting the Courier. You’re meeting the Shepherd, the Future Prince. You immediately have something you don’t have to think about. You know what’s important. Bam! And the clarity of that is like, “Whew.” I definitely got more selfish. And at the same time, I think I got more compassionate, which don’t always go together, you know?
Being a lifelong Redskins fan, on whether they should change the name: “Man, it’s twofold. What interests me is how quickly it got pushed into the social consciousness. We were all fine with it since the 1930s, and all of a sudden we go, “No, gotta change it”? It seems like when the first levee breaks, everybody gets on board. I know a lot of Native Americans don’t have a problem with it, but they’re not going to say, “No, we really want the name.” That’s not how they’re going to use their pulpit. It’s like my feeling about gun control: “I get it. You have the right to have guns. But look, let’s forget that right. Let’s forget the pleasure you get safely on your range, because it’s in the wrong hands in other places.”
Whether it would hurt to see the Redskins logo gone: “It’s not going to hurt me. It’s just… I love the emblem. I dig it. It gives me a little fire and some oomph. But now that it’s in the court of public opinion, it’s going to change. I wish it wouldn’t, but it will.”
He goes to church every Sunday: “Yeah. In Texas. It’s non-denominational. It’s based in the faith that Jesus is the son of God, that he died for our sins, but many different denominations come in.
There’s so much more in that interview. I didn’t want to just give you the motherlode of McConaughquotes, but he talks a lot about going back to church after his kids were born, why he and Camilla decided to marry, how he feels about Lance Armstrong, and whether he thinks vanity is a good thing (spoiler: he believes in vanity). It’s a really fascinating interview and a lot of it is Classic McConaughey because he’s talking about space and time and the waves, bro. As for his stuff about the Washington Redskins… actually, I don’t think there are many Native Americans who are really A-OK with the name. The name needs to be changed. Bro.
Photos courtesy of Peggy Sirota/GQ.
Miles Teller needs to read this interview on how to talk about past films with some humility and genuine enthusiasm
Right? I love that he doesn’t shit on his past work.
Ryan Phillipe, too. Yes, I thought MM’s take on the rom-coms was darn near eloquent in its graciousness.
See to me it’s different because those movies made McConaughey very rich and gave him options. So he got a lot out of them even though they were awful. It’s easy to be gracious in that situation.
Miles really got nothing out of Divergent, he wasn’t paid well, he got minimal exposure from it and he’d be better off without it on his resume. And Ryan has to do awful work just to pay the bills, which is demoralizing for anyone.
Interesting points, although I still think graciousness is the best way to go when you’re speaking publicly, no matter how much crap you’ve done.
He doesn’t strike me as the bitter type to complain, had he not made money off the rom-coms, and he has received a lot of ridicule for them professionally. It would be easy for him to apologize for or shrug them off, but instead he stands by them, which I think shows class and yes, grace.
Half of what he says I have no idea what he’s talking about (“Courier?”), but it’s refreshing to hear from an actor who’s not shading past films. Sad that he stands out for that.
Hes so likable. I can’t Get Enough of seeing him.
I won’t lie, I love Matthew McConaughey rom coms. I didn’t think he was a good actor until I saw True Detective and Dallas Buyers Club, but he’s right, we shouldn’t poo poo on his past work LOL.
You need to see Magic Mike. He was really good in that film too.
The picture in the truck is very nice. He’s finally starting to look more like himself. That weight loss wiped out for a couple years it seemed.
Agreed… was so hard to watch in TDBC…He completely lost his looks…understandably so. He’s finally getting back to his old self …needs a few more pounds maybe. Me thinks he looks pretty damn good though!!
My first thought as well. He looks great in that pic-healthy and happy.
Actually, I was wondering if Mariah Carey’s photoshop expert, had fixed these pictures of Matthew. He has not looked this good in a couple of years.
This is him last night… and it was not pretty. At all.
http://goo.gl/aVSPcB
That is not pretty. I have mention in the past, that he probably skipped out on Magic Mike…. because he wouldn’t be able to get that body built up in time.
There is that old saying… after 40 it is either your face or your ass that you get to keep.
It looks like he had decided to have a smaller ass and take the hit to his face.
He is looking like Sarah Jessica Parker’s, new twin brother.
And that needs to stop.
He looks terrible and his wife looks none too happy. The article didn’t make me cringe, though.
Oof! You weren’t lying!
Yup, I agree. Bummer that this appears to be photoshopped because he really does look good in that pic!
I think his wife is gorgeous but Can someone explain why his wife always looks so miserable and sad? She’s practically giving Charlene-sadness( real or not) in a lot of her redcarpet appearances and this has been going on for several year.
I’ve noticed for years , his wife looks so utterly sad and sad eyes too.
She is a stunning woman and their children are absolutely adorable, but Im just wondering whats up with her looking so sad most of the time?
🙁
I have always liked him and he and Tommy Lee Jones are the only 2 from my home state that I actually like to listen speak. Very melodic.. I can’t say that when I arrive at IAH or go to Kroger. He seems happy with his lot and who can blame him I guess.
Right — they both have such great voices. MM lulls me into sexual euophoria.
And as much as I think Redskins is a highly offensive name that needs to be changed, he didn’t infuriate me with what he said. Could’ve though.
Why does his head look so large and his body so small on the magazine cover? Not a great photo. Good interview though
Fun fact – most actors have very tiny bodies and very large heads. It’s a combo that looks great on tv/film but is very noticeable in real life and sometimes in stills. It’s not just him.
I love Matthew MC. He is very likable on screen and off. He’s looking like himself again. I find him very handsome.
True , He has moviestar head. 🙂 Bigger head than body. It’s something a lot of stars are said to have. Big heads look great on film.
I Saw Bill Murray in person filming years ago in NYC and was surprised how big his head looked, I immediately remembered that, saying that many actors have bigger heads.
Clark Gable , Cary Grant, John Wayne, etc ,many other classic movie stars were said to have big heads, it looks better on film for some reason.
Hahah, I’ll have to tell my large headed husband this one.
Hahah Yes, I’ve seen it in Hollywood dokumentaries on the old studio system.
Darryl Zanuck, Louise B.Mayer and several studio bosses, were said to have noted the big head theory. Then it came up again in the 1980’s or 90’s in stories on film stars.
A makeup artist once told me Marilyn Monroe and Meryl Streep had(have) large heads too. Which I thought was funny. I never thought of either as having a Bigger head. 🙂
I am officially rescinding my Wax-Cumberbatch-With-Robotic-Hands-and-Special-Parts birthday gift for Kaiser. Good day, Kaiser. I said GOOD DAY!
I will now buy these for mimif, instead:
http://www.entertainmentearth.com/hitlist.asp?theme=Breaking+Bad
Yassss! Yo, bitch! I AM the danger. Restrain this! SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!
What? Oh sorry mom, I was just playing with my new toys.
Ha, someone figured out how to dogwhistle “those damned PC SJWs!” to other conservatives without actually saying “those damned PC SJWs poor me wah wah.” Gotta give him points for creativity and diplomacy, I guess. However transparent it was, and however much I disagree with him.
Because rich, white males sure know how Native Americans feel about the term “Redskins”. We were fine with a lot of things since the 1930s that we are not now. Ugh, just change the name, its ONLY football, its ONLY entertainment. Geez
True. I actually thought he came across like a bit of a redneck.
And it didn’t suddenly come up either. The discussion as to whether the name should be changed has been going on for several decades now.
Right, he said it came up so fast because it was ok in the 1930s?
Recent polls among Native Americans reveals that less than 10% feel that the Redskins team name is derogatory. 35% were in favor of keeping the name and the remainder had no strong opinion.
Interestingly enough, “Redskins” is the single most popular choice for Indian school sports team names nationwide.
Source?
That sounds like that shady Annenberg poll from 10+ years ago, in which participants were allowed to self-identify as NA. I find that the Natives who “don’t care” about the team name are almost across the board white people who claim to be 1/16 Cherokee. Sorry, but that’s not Native. Go to a reservation and ask around (which I have done, several times), and the most “positive” thing you’ll hear is, “I don’t like it, but we have much bigger problems than a football team’s name. I’d rather the resources being used to lobby about that were going to other Native causes.” I have never heard with my own ears a single Native person approve of the name. And the Natives dragged out by Dan Snyder as “proof” that the entire NA community is A-OK with the name almost always turn out to be in the turkey feather business: they sell replica regalia to white folk and Washington fans are big customers. It’s a racial slur, used against people who are alive in the world today, change the team name.
Algernon, well said. Jason Jones recently did an hilarious bit on this issue on The Daily Show with John Stewart. He does the same thing, interviews a group of people who claim to be Native. One woman claims to be 1/12?!?!? So funny. Anyway, its a good piece and really makes its point. You can see it on Stewarts site. Or maybe youtube.
It’s not your race being called a deplorable name, it’s mine.
Exactly. There’s been at least a 20-push to get this name changed. I remember people discussing this in the 1990s when I was a teenager. People didn’t just hop on the bandwagon and declare this name was offensive. Native Americans raised awareness about why this team name was offensive and attempted to educate the public about this. In high school, I remember a Native American being interviewed on television likening the Redskins name to similar slurs for blacks and Jews, which would never fly. We’ve grown as a country since the 1930s. That’s why there was no push to change the name then. He sounds like an idiot and I really hate those Lincoln MKZ commericals he does.
I agree. It’s a very insensitive point of view, and this debate has been going on for decades, so no one can claim ignorance.
I remember people down here talking about how the Essendon “Bombers” should change their name because of terrorism. That talk lasted about five minutes.
a similar thing happened in Washington DC. Their basketball team used to be known as the Bullets.
there was a time when DC was the murder capital of the US, and there was a push to change their name. they’re now the Wizards.
GQ, Esquire, etc., do great in-depth interviews with male actors that are wide ranging that I always thoroughly enjoy. Female actors get what, women’s magazines that rarely go deep and wide-ranging on their careers and varied subject matter, always shorter in length. Although, Interview Magazine has some great interviews with both sexes.
“We were all fine with it since the 1930s, and all of a sudden we go, “No, gotta change it”?”
A lot of things that were ok in the 30’s “gotta” change Matty.
I wonder what kind of crucifying JLaw or ScarJo (Or anyone with a vagina) would get if they let this crap fall out of their mouths.
Not all of a sudden either.
Exactly. I’ll never understand why he gets such a pass. He’s an oily, conceited old frat boy who takes himself so seriously. He’s sorry that the name of his football team is going to change. Weigh that against insulting Native Americans, and he still thinks it’s a shame. I just can’t stand him.
Alllllright allllright allllright. Yuck.
I find it a little bit suspect that there isn’t the outrage in this post that was present in the Pharell post when he wore the headdress.
I’m overwhelmed by vomitousness.
Pretty much. I’m from Texas, and his ‘good ole boy’ routine is tiresome. Especially when he’s promoting the use of an Ethnic slur.
Exactly!! Well said GNAT!
+1000 GNAT!
I don’t understand how people can justify being upset over the name of a football team changing and yet disregard the hurt behind a racist term. Mind blowing really.
I completely agree. I have never thought much of him personally, but he can be a good actor in the right role, like True Detective or Dallas Buyer’s club. Besides the general fratty sense of entitlement, I have a huuuuuuge problem with people who smell but don’t care, and he is notorious for being aggressively funky. Rude!
ANY time someone uses the “it’s been that way forever” excuse as to why they don’t want to change something, I always use some version of what you just said.
slavery, women not voting, a ban on interracial marriage…all of these things were “that way forever” before they were changed. we are a constantly evolving society (sometimes more slowly than is needed) and for someone to say “because it’s been that way” is NOT AN EXCUSE for the status quo.
Whatever, I love him. That line about “you’re meeting the Courier, the Shepherd, the Future Prince?” SUH-WOON.
I LOVE men talking positively about fatherhood. Hot as hell.
I suspect changing the name of a football team is pretty low down on the list of priorities for a lot of Native Americans. When you’re facing disproportionately high rates of poverty, infant mortality, unemployment, and school drop-outs you’ve probably got bigger fish to fry.
Which is not a reason not to, obviously, just to say that MM may not be pulling the suggestion of NA ambivalence totally out of his ass.
I liked him in Sahara.
That’s how I feel too. Focusing on the name of an NFL team makes me think some people are pretty clueless about the actual issues surrounding Native Americans. But it’s easier, so there’s that.
@Courtney Native Americans are leading the fight against the Redskins name, and I think they realize the other issues affecting their communities, such as poverty, alcoholism, sexual violence, etc.
I’m black, and I can certainly take issue with how pop stars such as Miley Cyrus and Iggy Azalea have appropriated black culture and be concerned about more serious issues like racial profiling, the cradle to prison pipeline and other issues facing blacks.
It doesn’t mean that Native Americans (NA) can’t be concerned about and work on all the issues at once. It’s just that the name issue has only recently been on the mainstream media’s radar (NA activists have been protesting against that (and other) names for a long, long time).
I just think that’s the problem with PC culture right now. We’re so worried about how things appear/sound but don’t really care how things ARE.
I agree OhDear. The topics aren’t mutually exclusive.
@Courtney
The problem with mascotry is that is dehumanizes the subject. By reducing Natives to mascots, it makes it easier for non-Natives to simply not “see” the very real and urgent issues facing the Native community today. There are bigger problems, yes, but it’s hard to get anyone to care about them when their only perception of modern Natives is as a costumed mascot. It disassociates people from the humanity of the people they’re masquerading as at halftime.
A little boys’ team where I live were assigned this name and given a uniform and hat with a bright red devil-looking face logo. Parents were very uneasy. It happens the the team were anglo-saxon-y white kids…but we live in a hugely diverse area with plenty of Aboriginal kids in the mix. No one felt good about the name or the logo…and parents wrote to the American league to push for a change. A week later they had a more neutral name.
I would have to disagree, racism is one of the root causes of the social issues affecting our communities. To others who see nothing wrong in using Redskins – The struggle to be viewed as equal but distinct is always on the forefront, always on the agenda. Our children in schools are still viewed as a stereotype, the right to simply be human appears to not exist, we have to fit some antiquated role forced upon us by Hollywood or a stereotype designed to justify our status as wards of the state. We are not redskins, we are not savages, we are human. So stop, just stop trying to justify a horrible demeaning term as who and what we are..
Why are the Redskins the only team getting the negative treatment? What about the Cleveland Indians, the Atlanta Braves, and the Kansas City Chiefs? Why are they getting a pass?
I hated him in Sahara. He was so cocky, I wanted to slap the taste out of his mouth. He got back on my good side with MM, TDBC, and TD.
This interview kind of turned me off of Matthew.
YAY! A convert. Come sit over here.
I’m going to defend him a bit because everyone seems to be glossing over this part:
“That’s not how they’re going to use their pulpit. It’s like my feeling about gun control: “I get it. You have the right to have guns. But look, let’s forget that right. Let’s forget the pleasure you get safely on your range, because it’s in the wrong hands in other places.”
I took that to mean that while he gets that there’s a faction of Redskins fans who don’t think the name should change and that it’s their right to keep it as it is, but the bottom line is if it’s hurting others then things need to change. Perhaps I’m giving him too much credit but he did say it was “twofold” and I took that to mean that he can see both sides of the argument.
I think he’s definitely just saddened that an emblem and team name he likes is actually hurting people. He doesn’t want that to be the case, but it is. Sometimes you don’t realize what hurts people. I certainly don’t always know. I think his heart is in the right place on this.
The Redskins had another emblem with the letter R before they changed over to their current emblem. I guess he wasn’t born when the R emblem was on the helmet.
I agree with you, I don’t think anyone’s actually read that part, like really read it anyways :/
I can’t stand him, but I see what you’re saying. He didn’t articulate it very well, but I think you may having interpreted his meaning better than I did.
I agree. I read the interview before I read any posts about it, and I was shocked that virtually no one has mentioned that he does say he understands it is harmful and needs to go on that basis alone, even if it isn’t offensive to him, personally.
Good point. Thanks Kitten!
My husband is Native American, and he doesn’t give a flying crap about the Redskins name – he just wishes RGIII would quit getting injured so that our son would stop moping around the house on game day.
Your husband sounds like my uncle who is also a die-hard Redskins fan as well.
Throwing this out there–I went to the premiere of Sahara back in the day and stood next to MM for a while. It was interesting to see him in person. He was much leaner than I would have expected. He looked muscley on screen but man was he lean. He was very tan with very white teeth. Not short but not super tall, average height. It’s almost like an exaggeration of a person is what looks good on screen.
As a Metis woman (my mom is white, my father was First Nations – the Canadian equivalent of Native American), I have to say,I really do wish the name would change. It’s not just the racist tone of it, but the cultural appropriation of it. And that right there is the crux of the argument, and the reason why the name won’t change. It’s still considered “ok” to use First Nations/Native American symbolism and way of life as a marketing ploy or joke. Case in point: people still think it’s an OK idea to put Pharrell on the over of a magazine in head dress, or stupid girls who go to Halloween parties as a “slutty Native Princess”. When was the last time you saw a white person on the cover of a magazine in black face or a “slutty slave” outfit at a party? That right there is the issue. Look at the Gap with their “Manifest Destiny” shirt a few years ago – a theory that was about ERADICATING THE NATIVES IN AMERICA! It’s disgusting.
There’s a great documentary called “Reel Injun” from the NFB (National Film Board of Canada) that discusses how Natives/First Nations are portrayed in Hollywood. I’d really recommend folks watch it – you’d be surprised how our culture is seen as a gimmick.
https://www.nfb.ca/search?csrfmiddlewaretoken=1oU6IryFG154XIXYZwiyJgnc4vWyTlsR&q=reel+injun&btnG=Search
I really like him and after seeing Dallas Buyers Club I respect him as an actor. He was fantastic! Many cultures use feathers.They aren’t exclusive to First Nations. Plus there are slutty nurse costumes, slutty vampires etc. They’ve been around for some time. The Native’s culture isn’t the only one that has been used as a gimmick.
True Maddelina, there are costumes of all sorts, but I think we can all agree that there’s a bit of a difference between slutty vampires and slutty Native costumes. One is a gimmick, a fictional character who at the end of the day was best portrayed (in my opinion) by a singing Muppet in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. The other is a heritage that my father and his parents and siblings were forced to hide (and by association us a kids) because being though of as native was “dirty, disgusting and wrong”. My father sadly believed that about himself until the day he died, his parents and most of his siblings as well. At the end of the day, really there shouldn’t be any costume based on a race, for the same reason MM says, that in the hands and mentalities of some, it’s still ok to make “Indian jokes”, ask me if I make pemmican and assume I’m an alcoholic simply because of the stereotypes in my culture.
RedSoxGirl, my point is Natives arent the only race to be mocked. All have! And not just people of color, whites too! I think if you are going to get upset over something racial make sure it’s something important and will make a difference. How is changing a name of a sports team going to make a difference in your life?
Well said, RedSoxGirl.
My brother was a fan of the ‘skins back in the 80s (for some reason) and once when my mom heard him shouting “Redskins yeah!” or something, she actually got mad at him and told him she didn’t want to hear that word again, that it was equal to the N word. She then re-told her childhood stories of being with her Cherokee grandma; how they couldn’t walk on the sidewalk if white people were on it, how they were screwed by the government and oil company (Oklahoma) and how her grandma was always called epithets like dirty redskin, dirty squaw, lazy injun, and when my mom was with her, they would refer to the two of them as the dirty redskin and her little half breed. My mom adored her grandma and spent as much time with her as possible, and told us how she worked from dawn til night on her farm, the poor woman had a really tough life, but she endured everything and was always kind to everyone. My mom ditched OK at age 17 and only went back once, at age 20 to show her new baby to her grandma. Her grandma died the next year and my mom never went back. I probably told this story during the Pharrell post, so apologies if you’re sick of hearing it, but I thought I’d throw it in there, so people would know that those wounds never really heal completely. That damn football team should change its damn name!
It’s a sad and wonderful story at the same time. She sounded like an amazing woman who had to endure a lot of unfair sh*t in her life. Thank you for sharing it!
Thanks littlestar! She did have a really hard life, and I wish I could have known her. I named one of my sons after her last name.
Thank you. Agree.
Is it possible many in the US simply do not interact with people of Native ancestry? I was in Chicago once to discuss Aboriginal issues. I had more than one person ask, “You still have Indians there? (in Canada).?
Maybe you can do these appropriations more easily if your neighbours and peers aren’t members of the group you are riffing on???
Love this man.
One of my sisters thinks he’s the dreamiest dude in H’wood. All of the men I know think his wife is one of the hottest women around, way more so than any actress. You should hear them at the Oscar parties we go to every year.
His wife is stunning. I think she’s up there with Angelina type beauty , when Angelina was in her earlier healthier years.
But can someone tell me why his wife always looks so miserable?
I can’t stand him. He’s not a great actor and he’s annoying. So full of himself. he’s made far more bad movies than good ones and he’s always the same.
Maybe in support of changing the name, you should also stop using the racist term on your site. Other reputable journalism outlets have stopped and I would be even more of a fan of yours if you stopped also. Thanks!
It’s time to change that dehumanizing team name for good!
“I don’t think there are many Native Americans who are really A-OK with the name. The name needs to be changed. Bro.”
Have you talked to them about it first hand? or is this just an assumption ?
The ones I know think it is a non issue and want it left alone. The world has real issues, let alone the U.S.