Matthew McConaughey names the director with a “Buddhist quality”
Over the years, Matthew McConaughey has been afforded the opportunity to work with some of the biggest and best directors in the movie industry, although perhaps his romantic-comedy period of the 2000s left him feeling starving of quality direction and in need of some serious talent.
Eventually, though, the Texas acting legend got the chance to perform for filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese in The Wolf of Wall Street, Christopher Nolan in Interstellar and Guy Ritchie in The Gentlemen, the likes of which proved his quality as an actor.
But of all the wonderful directors that McConaughey has worked for, perhaps few are as important to his career as Richard Linklater, the filmmaker who took a chance on the young actor and gave him his first big break in Dazed and Confused. McConaughey once spoke of his respect for the director in a documentary about him.
“He puts a charming light on things,” McConaughey began. “He has that sort of innocence with the below-the-belt poke, but yet it’s charming. He loves characters; he loves characters that can drive and push his story. There are other positions and other directors who, in the back of their minds, are going, ‘Yeah, but I’m not thinking about just the story. I’m not worried about that.’”
“He loves that,” the actor continued, “There’s not a demarcation behind the camera to in front of the camera, and that’s a real talent that I try to carry on throughout because he doesn’t make it feel precious.” There’s a beauty to Linklater’s direction that is rare in the position, and it’s something McConaughey admires deeply.
According to the McConaughey, Linklater wants his shoots to be natural and says things on set like, “You guys are talking? Let’s keep having the conversation right from behind the camera, in front of the camera, keep on chatting and okay, whenever you’re ready. It’s rolling.””
McConaughey admitted that he’s never heard Linklater say the word “no” to anybody as a director and claimed that he possesses “a Buddhist quality” that other uptight directors seem to lack. He often just says, “Yeah, let’s try it. Wanna shoot it?” or, as McConaughey puts it, “Everything lands.”
The result is that the ownership is placed on Linklater’s actors, whether they are ready for it or not, but at the same time, they’re a lightness to proceedings, and the proof of his excellence as a director is shown not only in Dazed and Confused but also in Before Sunrise, School of Rock, A Scanner Darkly and Boyhood.
