The Metamorphosis of Matthew McConaughey

Matthew David McConaughey, an actor known to many as the shirtless hunk or the rom-com guy with a Southern American accent. Guys would here the name McConaughey and tell their girl, "No way am I watching that film!" I know because I was one of those guys.

Born in Uvalde, Texas, Matthew had originally studied to become a lawyer showing little interest in his father's oil pipe supply business (unlike his two older brothers). One day however he stumbled upon the book "The great salesmen of the world" by Og Mandino, he had heard his calling. Shortly after he changed his major from law to film.

McConaughey first stared in a few Texas commercials and the odd student film until he got his big break. In 1993 he met director Richard Linklater through a casting director in a bar. Richard had been working on his second project after Slacker, the coming of age cult classic Dazed and Confused. Originally Linklater had written only three scenes for Matt, but after improvisations encouraged by Richard himself, his role soon grew to over 300 lines and became one of the iconic characters of the film.

I would like to say this was my introduction to McConaughey, but it was his next film which he had a small role in as one of the players, the 1994 Disney remake of Angels in the Outfield alongside Danny Glover & the young Joseph Gordon-Levitt (I was 8 years old ok...). After this, he got a few roles here and there until he got what I think is still one of his best films, Lone Star. In 1996 he played legendary Sheriff Buddy Deeds who is remembered by the town as a stand up honest sherif, but his son Sam Deeds remembers things differently.

That very same year he was cast in A Time to Kill, which wasn't exactly a great film (by far). It was however a massive hit and it put McConaughey on the map and this got him plenty of roles working alongside some terrific stars such as Bill Murray, Jodie Foster, Woody Harrelson and director Steven Spielberg. But with McConaughey's excellent physique, bright blue eyes and being named People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive, it wasn't long until Hollywood started offering him endless scripts of rom-coms with actresses such as Jennifer Lopez, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kate Hudson. Thus begins the unbearable rom-com decade.

With the exception of another one of his best films, Frailty and one or two other films, the 2000s is where he completely got lost in the insufferable rom-coms, which most made around $100 million world wide, mainly due to taking his shirt off in at least 3 scenes. Let's start with The Wedding Planner in 2001, then came How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Tiptoes, Failure to Launch, Fool's Gold and finally Ghosts of Girlfriends Past in 2009. Oh and lets not forget Sahara.

By this point, just hearing the name Matthew McConaughey was enough to put me (and most guys) off the film. His name became an endless pit of piss takes, he even had the honour of being mocked on Family Guy at least 4 times in 4 different episodes, once where Stewie meets McConaughey in a diner and Stewie tells him that he is "...just awful" and another where Stewie shoots him with a bow through his eye.

Alas, this all came to an end in 2009 when he didn't do any form of work on film or TV for 2 years. He even turned down the chance to make an appearance in the Magnum, P.I. reboot for $15 million (according to the Hollywood Reporter). He was re-thinking his career and he wanted to show the public that he had it in him to do some serious work again or as he has stated, "...spice things up a little."

In 2011 McConaughey stared in the thriller The Lincoln Lawyer where he plays a criminal defence lawyer and drives around L.A in his mobile office, a black Lincoln Town Car. The film wasn't exactly a first rate thriller, but it was enough to show us that he was onto the yellow brick road. 

But it was the year after, when bad boy director William Friedkin (The French Connection / The Exorcist / Sorcerer / To Live and Die in L.A.) cast McConaughey in Killer Joe, (which was also a return to form for the director himself) giving us his greatest and most sinister performance to date. Like a force of nature, McConaughey played a cop named Joe who also happens to moonlight as a contract killer and was not shy about moving in on the ladies, the young kind. He even had a scene that was enough to put certain people off KFC forever. The new and improved McConaughey has arrived.

McConaughey also reunited with director Richard Linklater again for the first time in 13 years since The Newton Boys, in the black comedy Bernie with a great supporting role as the district attorney. This lead to various other rolls such as The Paperboy and Magic Mike, he even managed to work with the great Martin Scorsese in 2013, taking on a terrific cameo in The Wolf of Wall Street. The chest beating sequence was apparently requested to be inputted into the film by Leo as he witnessed Matt beating his chest and humming on the set (apparently Matt does this when he is nervous).

2013 was defiantly the year of Matthew McConaughey, for he also stared in Jeff Nichols's third feature film Mud, which is currently my favourite film of McConaughey that deserved more acknowledgement. He played the title role of Mud, a fugitive on the run for the murder of a man who is hiding on a tiny island in the Mississippi River where he is found by two boys. Later it is found out that not only is he on the run from the police, but also from the family of the man who he killed. It's a near masterpiece.

Yet the film that did in fact grab the Oscar buzz was the great Dallas Buyers Club, in an absolute tour de force performance. McConaughey lost 23 kg to play Ron Woodroof, a homophobic rodeo cowboy diagnosed with AIDS in 1985 who after given 30 days to live, finds a way to smuggle unapproved pharmaceutical drugs in from Mexico across the boarder that were in-fact improving his symptoms. He later devised a scheme to not sell these drugs but to sell memberships at $400 a month to those in need of the drug and give the drugs for free, thus being exempt from charges of drug dealing.

Seeing this great sudden move in acting, I can't help of being reminded of Leonardo DiCaprio back in 2002 when Scorsese got a hold of the blue eyed beauty and formed him into the great actor he is today. I am utterly flabbergasted by his amazing turnaround in what people are calling the "McConaissance".  From the chick flick stereotype to Oscar nominated (hopefully winner) brilliance, 

So what's the next step for McConaughey? Well the new Christopher Nolan sci-fi epic Interstellar, Gus Van Sant's Sea of Treas, and a new TV show called True Detective along side Woody Harrelson. The future looks bright for the McConaissance, I hope to see him in many films to come, lets just hope he keeps his shirt on.