Exploring Matthew McConaughey’s ‘McConaissance’ period
Arguably, there has never been a revitalisation in the career of a Hollywood actor quite in the same way as the dramatic resurgence of Matthew McConaughey in the early part of the 2010s. Dubbed in journalistic circles as the ‘McConaissance’, the period saw McConaughey re-emerge from the wasteland of romantic dramas and comedies of the 2000s into some of the best acting performances of the 21st Century thus far.
McConaughey had first appeared on the big screen in Richard Linklater’s glorious stoner-comedy Dazed and Confused as David Wooderson, an older-than-most-of-his-friend former high-schooler who still rolls around in the same circles, refusing to grow up. It was through Wooderson that McConaughey delivered one of the most-quoted film quotes of all time: “Alright, alright, alright…” and it would follow him around for the rest of time.
A few years later, McConaughey got his shot at being the leading actor in a film when he performed in the southern court drama A Time to Kill in 1996. It was a stellar performance and showcased McConaughey’s deep talent for his craft and, as a result, a number of dramatic roles followed in the shape of Contact, Amistad and U-571. However, throughout the 2000s, McConaughey’s career took a twist — though it would not be for the last time. He began starring in several romantic comedies, primarily for his exquisite looks but also his highly-adept acting skills and natural humour. Amongst them was The Wedding Planner, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Failure to Launch and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, as McConaughey looked destined for easy typecast paychecks for the rest of his career.
Yet there was an evident frustration in McConaughey throughout that period. While the cash was rolling in nice and steady, the actor believed that he was more than just a pretty face to stroll along the beach with his top off. He was a truly talented actor, and people ought to have recognised that. Unfortunately, by the end of the decade, he had been typecast. The only thing that McConaughey could do was to take a break from acting, and even though his agent warned against it, he started to turn down the steady stream of job offers for the romantic comedies that he had already worn to death.
“I quit trying to project how something would be received and decided to just be an actor for hire again,” McConaughey said of his decision. “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.”
After an initial and natural lull in his career, eventually, McConaughey began to get those parts that he had long desired, roles that would actually put his acting skills to the test. He said: “I knew I could say no to the things I’d been doing. In saying no to those things, I knew work was going to dry up for a while. A year and a half, still nothing. At two years, all of a sudden, in my opinion, I became a new good idea for some good directors.”
And fortunately for us as well as him, McConaughey’s fortunes did change. Suddenly, he was hot property, but this time, for all the right reasons. The upturn began with The Lincoln Lawyer in 2011 and continued with Bernie that same year and Magic Mike the year after. However, things ran into full motion in 2013 when McConaughey played Ron Woodroof in Dallas Buyers Club.
It was as though the world was not ready for the ‘McConaissance’, but McConaughey put every ounce of his effort and talent into playing an initially homophobic character who comes to recognise the plight of the LGBT community when he contracts AIDS, exposing the American government who had been dragging their feet when it came to providing proper care and treatment for people living with AIDS. McConaughey rightfully took home the Academy Award for Best Actor that year, and his transformation was complete.
And if that weren’t enough, McConaughey immediately followed up with arguably his best-ever performance in the first season of True Detective alongside Woody Harrelson. McConaughey played Rust Cohle, a deeply troubled Louisiana homicide detective with a penchant for profound spiritual philosophising. McConaughey is simply a revelation.
Yet despite the seeming upturn in events, McConaughey himself thinks that the ‘McConaissance’ is less of a movement than it is played out to be. Rather, it was him sticking to his guns and going after roles that actually interested him. He said: “That whole thing was much less of a 180 for me 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, ‘Fuck the bucks – I’m going for the experience’ in the things I was choosing.”
Regardless of how Matthew McConaughey saw an upturn in his acting career, he has proven that he is one of the finest actors of his generation, as he always was suspected to be back in the 1990s. While the ‘McConaissance’ had now slowed somewhat, his performance in Harmony Korine’s The Beach Bum in 2018 was equally glorious to his efforts in the early 2010s, and his memoir Greenlights shows us how we can inspire a little renaissance of our own.
