Matthew McConaughey on return to acting, ‘real detective’ season 4

On the first day ‘the rivals of Amziah King’, Matthew McConaughey, his right eye swollen from a bee stitch, rose, the set rose, stabbed his hand and asked: “Is anyone else nervous except me?”

The cast and crew were a collective smile. “Okay, okay, okay, I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t the only one,” said the actor, sounding like a mix of a preacher and a surfer with his characteristic drawl.

But McConaughey was not a joke. He admits that he felt cracking return to the screen after a six-year-old hiatus, in which he wrote a memoir, “Greenlights”, a few voice roles included in films such as “Sing 2”, spent time with his family and held a lower profile. “I had to write my own story, direct my own story on the page,” says McConaughey about his time away from the camera.

But when he came across the script of Andrew Patterterson, which focused on the charismatic owner of a honey operation in Oklahoma and his relationship with his foster child, he was attracted to the originality and a strong feeling of place. The part fit like a worn jeans.

“It is not where I grew up, but I know these people and these places and these kinds of characters who live in the middle of the country,” says McConaughey. “This group of people in Southeast -Eoklahoma where the film takes place know the Constitution, they know the rules they live on, and they do not look for or receive approval from the rest of the world. I understand them. “

Patterson had worked on the project for years and at a certain point it increased in a mini-series of seven episode before he returned it. He always felt that McConaughey had the free-wheeling charm he needed for Amziah, who has a wandering group of bee keepers and musicians who follow him as a caravan of apostles.

“I wanted an actor with the type of personality where he could hang out with them for hours,” he says. “It had to be someone who was so disarming, who would just do their thing in this world that I tried to evoke, and who could be comical in a dramatic film. There are not many people not. “

Even on the phone, McConaughey, with his tendency to monologue, shows that kind of magnetism. He likes wandering, runs away from a question, before he goes back to an answer with an easy insurance that makes you more interested in the trip than the destination. And McConaughey does not want this to be a one -sided conversation, and asks me what I thought the meaning was behind a certain scene or for my view of the national background of the film. “Well, you go there,” he says encouraging after I thought my (not very original) that what I like about films such as “The Rivals of Amziah King” is that they bring you to places different from your reality.

“I think you are quite far away from that world for a New Yorker,” he says. “So you could see a people and place and go like that:” Oh, I didn’t really know it existed, right? ” Which absolute Is the best of films. ”

McConaughey says that making ‘the rivals of Amziah King’, who opens at SXSW on 10 March, helped him rediscover his love for his profession.

“I remembered a few things,” he says. “First of all, how much I really like to perform. Two, I remembered, Hey, McConaughey, you are damn good at this. And three, I remembered that acting is a vacation for me, and what I mean by vacation is that when I perform, it is my unique focus. When I walk out the door in the morning, my wife says: ‘Go kick some ass. I have the children. We are good. “That’s vacation. Because I’m not multitasking. I am not compartmentalized. I am fully focused on finding the truth of my character. ”

He thinks that writing the book, which saw him combing through pages of diary entries to collect something that combined poems, prayers and memories, also improved his acting.

“The memoirs was extraordinarily honest and it forced me to be honest with myself,” says McConaughey. “It has cleared things that you have thought of for 35 years. And it makes you realize that that is who you are, Matthew. Let’s admit that and shake the hand. Bravo. That gave me even more confidence in myself, because, you know, there was less to hide me about myself. I shared it. So that made it easier for me to be honest as an actor. ”

That Honesty Extends to His Thoughts on the State of “True Detective,” The Twisty Anthology Series That Helped Kick Off “The McConaissance” When it debuted on HBO in 2014. After teasing the mystery of the yellow king, it’s successulululululululululululululululululululus, Thefessfulululululululululululululululululululululululululululated For Three Moittentent, Recent of which, “True Detective: North Country,” Aceed in 2024 and starred Jodie Foster and Kali Reis.

“I looked, I saw it. Yes, there is a lot that I appreciated, “says McConaughey, silent. “My favorite season – and I feel that I can say this lens – is season 1.” He picks up steam here and sounds tickled by his own admission. “I happen to be in it, so I thought that was incredible, incredible television and a great series. I saw it weekly, just like everyone else, on Sunday evening, and that was an event for me. And I had to lean back and enjoy. I loved the water cooler talking on Monday morning. Although I made it, I forgot what was going to happen. It was one of the great events on TV. ”

‘True Detective’, in which McConaughey shared the screen with his good Buddy Woody Harrelson, was a two -handed one that required his stars to have easy chemistry. The same applies to ‘The Rivals of Amziah King’, where McConaughey shares the task to wear the film with newcomer Angelina Lookingglass. She plays Kateri, Amziah’s long lost Pleidendaughter, which he brings back to the family business. Lookingglass got the role after an extensive national search with the production test that tests more than 200 native actors.

“Angelina had the most infectious smile, but she can put it on a dime and just stare a hole through a person,” Raest Patterson. “We knew as soon as she read with Matthew that it was part of her.”

McConaughey cannot praise as a praise, and enthusiastically about her capacities several times during our interview.

“She only knows how to do what so many of our actors forget to do when we learn to quote, not -second, act, who are listening and reacting honestly to the truth of a situation,” says McConaughey. “That’s it. That’s the secret. An actor does not want to be caught acting. Every actor who is worth his salt knows what I am talking about. ”