Alright, alright, alright. It's hard not to smile when you're Matthew McConaughey. With a new Bourbon and three films heading to theaters this year (Serenity, White Boy Rick and The Beach Bum), the Oscar-winning actor recently sat down with Cigar Aficionado to candidly discuss his career milestones, his choice of roles, why he acts, how he approaches life and what keeps him busy outside of show business, among a variety of other topics.
The August cover story of Cigar Aficionado hits newsstands July 10. Select quotes include:
On the so-called McConaissance: "That whole thing was much less of a 180 for myself than people seemed to think...There was this narrative of 'then' and 'now.'...I didn't get a new acting coach or take a new class. I just said, 'f the bucks-I'm going for the experience' in the things I was choosing...I quit trying to project how something would be received and decided to just be an actor for hire again. So I shut down my production company and my music company and simplified the things on my proverbial desk. I love being an actor and going as deep as you can in a role, to really commit to the craft. I put my head down and went after roles that scared me."
On losing 47 pounds for Dallas Buyers Club: "I got in great physical shape for Magic Mike. Then I started losing weight and not working out. I did that through the filming of Mud, and, in five months, I lost 47 pounds for Dallas Buyers Club."
On Dallas Buyers Club surpassing his expectations: "...I didn't foresee the work translating on the level that it did."
On why Dallas Buyers Club resonated: "I didn't have to bulls or come up with an angle because I believed we had the goods. I never felt like I had to sell you on why you should like it. People connected to it on a personal level-and told us personal stories...That's when art translates, when you know it's resonated with someone's life."
On what winning the Oscar meant: "...Higher confidence and better choices in scripts. It's given me a larger, more qualitative platform. Making movies is still my favorite part of this. I like making them way better than watching them. It's the magic, the 'Oh, what this could be' of it, that turns me on."
On True Detective: "That was like shooting a movie with a 450-page script-I never knew how they were going to edit it to tell the story... so I was watching it every Sunday, one episode at a time, the same as everybody else. I was as excited as anybody else to put the kids to bed and watch the latest episode every Sunday night. I was having the same water-cooler talk on Monday morning. I'm glad I got to watch it that way; I was wowed like everybody else."
On working with Martin Scorsese on The
WOLF of Wall Street: "Marty has an incredible sense of humor-and he loves music. So we were communicating in almost musical terms. It wasn't even English."
On getting married: "I mean, the clock was ticking-I was about to be 40 and my plan was to be married and have kids by that age. But I didn't want to play the game of starting to feel anxious because, with too much anxiety, you can't find a mate. And then you make a hasty decision. I knew men who had made hasty decisions and women who had done the same thing. But at that point, I wasn't hunting. And then this amazing woman walked across my field of vision and I thought, Who is that? And it was Camila."
On being 48, and approaching 50: "I'm not a numbers guy. I figure I'm in the eighth fairway and I'm hitting my second shot, with 18 holes in this particular fairy tale."
On how he lives his life: You've got to watch in life who's wagging who-is the dog wagging the tail or the tail wagging the dog? I've noticed the tail wagging me from time to time and I have to say, Hold on-I want to be
THE ONE doing the wagging."
About Cigar Aficionado
Launched in 1992, Cigar Aficionado is the definitive lifestyle magazine for men. Dubbed "The Good Life Magazine for Men", the print publication and its accompanying website (CigarAficionado.com), focus on luxury lifestyle topics such as golf, travel, alcohol and accessories. Cigar Aficionado also sponsors events such as The Big Smoke, the country's premier event for cigar smokers. Parent company M. Shanken Communications also publishes Wine Spectator, Whisky Advocate, Market Watch, Shanken News Daily and Shanken's Impact Newsletter.
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