The Long Tall Texan On His Return to the Spotlight, Sucking Fingers and the Two-Beer Buzz
from E!Online
by Jeanne Wolf
Not many actors in Hollywood become A-list sensations the way Matthew McConaughey did. Here's an interesting piece of casting: Matthew McConaughey, the guy who became famous virtually overnight, is now starring in a movie about a guy who becomes famous virtually overnight. In EDtv, a comic treatise on the price of fame from director Ron Howard, McConaughey brings his unique perspective to the lead role.
Ed is a regular guy whose entire life becomes a televised event, with surprising results for the hero, his girlfriend (Jenna Elfman), his brother (Woody Harrelson) and everybody else around him.
It's not an unfamiliar scenario for McConaughey, an easygoing East Texas native who burst onto magazine covers and talk-show couches in 1996 with A Time to Kill.
With his striking good looks and piercing blue eyes, the actor immediately drew comparisons to Paul Newman and Tom Cruise. Then he all but disappeared, save for a few minor roles (including a redneck trucker in Larger Than Life, a presidential advisor in Contact, a good-hearted lawyer in Amistad).
Now McConaughey is back. And maybe this time, he'll live up to the hype.
Q: Seems you can relate to Ed's overnight celebrity.
A: Yes. Getting famous did happen to me very quickly-it happened over the weekend A Time to Kill came out. Sunday I was walking around observing everybody else, and Monday, kaboom, everyone was observing me.
Q: What was it like the first time you saw yourself on a magazine cover?
A: It was like in the movie, when Ed first sees an ad of himself on the side of a bus. I was tickled pink, just like he was. I started singing that song, "...on the cover of a magazine..." I was at the checkout counter at the supermarket, and I remember telling the lady, "Check this out, it's a pretty good-looking guy on there, isn't it?"
Q: But isn't that kind of instant celebrity tough to deal with?
A: For eight months, I was sort of on autopilot. I didn't really appreciate it to the fullest. It's like setting a record in sports-it's always easier to put it in perspective in hindsight.
Q: Let's talk about the flip side of that adoration: When you're not getting the attention, how do you deal?
A: Whatever path it all takes, I'm going to keep being true to myself and enjoying myself, whether I'm in demand or not. I've been just as happy in this past year or two when I wasn't as hot. It's like you get some time in the shadows to look back in the bright light that you were just in.
Q: What kind of guy is Ed? And why does he strike such a chord with America?
A: He's what I call a "weekend character." I like "Monday through Friday characters," who are serious and have a lot of responsibility. But I also like weekend characters like Ed. They're guys with sort of a two-beer-buzz outlook on life. When I'm with my friends, I'm more of a weekend character.
Q: How did you prepare to play a weekend character?
A: The research was hanging out with my buddies on Saturday nights, telling them a joke about Smokey and the Bandit and quoting Burt Reynolds. We started kidding, "What if Ed really took that literally? What if Burt is the famous face Ed worshipped?" And that's how Ed's obsession with Burt Reynolds ended up in the film.
Q: Have you idolized anyone?
A: Honest to God, one of my idols has always been the Incredible Hulk. I liked his code: Mess with me one time and I'm gonna go my own way. Mess with me two times and I'm gonna say, "Please stop intruding." Mess with me a third time and you're gonna get terminated.
Q: You make playing an ordinary guy look easy, but it takes a lot of skill to make Ed someone we can identify with. How much of what you bring to the screen are you aware of?
A: I'm still learning what my greatest assets are and what I have that no one else has. In real life, my greatest assest is getting on the right wavelength with people very quickly. I don't go into any situation with my guns loaded. When I meet people, I sit back and listen. I like finding the common denominator. You don't have to speak the same language, be the same sex or the same age. I take pride in trying to find what I have in common with everyone I meet.
Q: Ed finds fame changes his life dramatically, affecting his family, his friends amd the girl who loves him. Have you had that experience?
A: When you get a little bit of fame, you find out who your true friends are. You've got a lot of people who were just kind of acquaintances and, all of a sudden, really want to be your good friends. But that first moment of fame was fun. It was, "Man, let's party!" Then it settles down, and you go, "Okay, this is part of my life. And I can't just keep running around being really impressed with myself."
Q: The media is always dying to get a piece of you. Where do you draw the line?
A: At my private life - me and my family and friends. How I spend my private time is really no one else's business. It's the only thing I have that is no one else's.
Q: You and Woody Harrelson play brothers in this film, and it's really believable - you two look remarkably alike.
A: Growing up, if someone saw me and thought I was someone else, they alwyas thought I was Woody. When we got together, we found not only did we kind of look alike, but we're kind of out of the same mold. We hooked up like brothers pretty quickly. He and I were always kidding that we're pretty sure we've lived a couple of past lives together.
Q: You have some major kissing scenes with Jenna Elfman, who swears you were sometimes chewing tobacco between takes.
A: I have to say I might have been guilty of that, but it tastes good and I think Jenna liked it. Actually, no one wants to have bad breath when you go out and kiss somebody. I might have dipped tobacco between scenes, but I wouldn't go up there and kiss her with the dip in my mouth.
Q: You also have at it with Elizabeth on a dining room table. Fun?
A: Hell yeah! You want to talk about great things about being famous? I get to do a wild, clear-the-table, feeding grapes, sucking fingers, swapping-spit love scene with Elizabeth. As far as getting into it, well, you've seen Elizabeth Hurley; that's not a hard thing to do.
Q: It seemed like the feeling was mutual.
A: We said to each other, "Okay, this is one that could really push the envelope." We were thinking The Postman Always Rings Twice-you know, that sex scene on the kitchen table. We kind of looked at each other and went, "You ready to pump it up a notch?" And we both went, "Yeah!"
Q: There's a very moving moment in EDtv when you get the news that your father has died while making love to your mother. Ironically, that's how your real father died. Is that why it's in the movie?
A: It's a beautiful way to go. I'm not sure they put it in the movie because of me, but it brought back an emotional moment, I have to admit.
Q: You're very funny in this film. Does it come naturally?
A: I've always had sort of a wierd side. I have a wierd sense of humor - I will crack up at things other people do not think are funny at all. I've never been a guy who can sit and tell jokes, but I don't mind looking foolish. I look foolish a lot.
Q: In fact, you cracked up EDtv producer Brian Grazer the first time you met him, right?
A: I guess I did. I spilled some Coke on the coffee table in his office. I just naturally got down and sucked it up from the table like I used to do as a kid. Brian said, "Look at that. Now, that's funny!"
Q: When you're not slurping Coke, what do you do for fun?
A: I like golf and I like landscaping. I love going to the nursery and getting some plants that are right for the season and putting them down.
Q: Did growing up in Texas' Bible Belt help you keep a perspective on fame?
A: Sure did. I call it a Texas state of mind. There's things you do and things you don't do. We don't accept liars and cheaters. And as for being famous, no one there follows me around. It's like they've got better things to do in Texas than suck off the life of someone who's made a few movies.
