How Matthew McConaughey managed to enjoy the worst movie of his career: “That was a hoot, man”
Matthew McConaghy might now be renowned for his world-class acting chops in the likes of Dallas Buyers Club, Interstellar and True Detective, but he’s had his fair share of dud roles.
In fact, before the ‘McConaissance’ of the 2010s, the actor was mostly known as a rom-com heartthrob. After a few decent leading man roles in the ’90s, the actor suffered a long spate of typecasting and some pretty mid-level films in the noughties. While How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days has its charm, then there’s Ghosts of Girlfriends Past and The Wedding Planner…yikes!
Yet, nothing truly compares to his, thankfully, long-forgotten surfer movie Surfer, Dude, the 2008 comedy that stars McConaughey as a dazed, stoner surfer who goes through some sort of existential crisis due to a lack of waves on the Californian coast.
The film barely has its own Wikipedia page and doesn’t even feature as a blip in the actor’s own, except for his listed filmography. It even has a whopping zero rating on RottenTomatoes that some truly awful films haven’t even come close to.
Hilariously, McConaughey produced the film, as well as starring in it, and it somehow also features Woody Harrelson. Yep, that’s right, the icon duo’s bromance has been going way before their critically acclaimed turn in True Detective. Actually, they first worked together on the film EdTV, but even that was better than Surfer, Dude.
Harrelson even said that the film was the most “non-work” he’s ever done, but in McConaughey’s famous devil-may-care, free-spirited style, he doesn’t seem to be bothered by what is most definitely the worst film of his career, for seemingly, he was living his best life playing a chill dude who flies around the world surfing, smoking weed and charming the ladies.
Hell, that seems pretty close to what I imagine his real life is like. “That was a hoot, man,” he said about the movie, “As a producer, I had to be fiscal about the budget, so we cut the wardrobe”. The only real thought he seemed to give the movie was being tight on budget, which he achieved by being pretty much half-naked the entire time.
In all but two scenes, the actor is topless, which is probably a little dig at his own reputation as a sex symbol, but truly, only McConaughey could be chill enough to let such an egregious mark on their talent slide by so easily.
Then again, he probably was having a hoot with his buddy Harrelson, actually getting stoned and hanging out on beaches. I can only judge so much, when the reality is, don’t we all wish we had the ability to just goof off and make a random film with our friends? And, it’s “alright, alright, alright“, because he repaired his reputation with the fantastic performances he’s put between himself and this weird time in his career.
