Matthew McConaughey reveals his favourite role of all time
Who can forget Matthew McConaughey‘s performance as David Wooderson in Dazed and Confused? In his breakout role, the budding actor spouted lines such as “That’s what I love about these high school girls. I get older. They stay the same age”. Making his debut with such a slimy character could’ve launched his career to a questionable start, but McConaughey soon proved his diverse talents.
Within a few years, he had earned himself ‘Best Breakthrough Performance’ at the MTV Movie Awards for his leading role in A Time to Kill, putting him on the map as one of Hollywood’s most promising stars. The end of the decade saw him appear in various films, including the Bill Murray comedy Larger Than Life and Steven Speilberg’s historical drama Amistad.
However, in the 2000s, McConaughey became one of the most prominent leading males in the popular romantic comedy genre. For example, he starred alongside Kate Hudson in How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days, Jennifer Lopez in The Wedding Planner and Sarah Jessica Parker in Failure to Launch.
Attempting to avoid being typecast in romantic roles, McConaughey also starred in many dramas and comedies, including Tropic Thunder, We Are Marshall and Two for the Money. The 2010s saw the actor take on more serious roles, winning an Academy Award for ‘Best Actor’ in 2013 for his incredible performance as Ron Woodroof in Dallas Buyer’s Club. The following year, he appeared in Christopher Nolan’s space epic Interstellar, with his performance being particularly praised.
However, when McConaughey was asked to pick one of his favourite movies he’d ever made, he chose a lesser-known entry from his filmography. He selected Mud, a coming-of-age drama from 2012, which he starred in alongside Reese Witherspoon and Sam Shepard. Directed by Jeff Nichols, the film was critically acclaimed and a box-office success, even competing for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
Discussing the movie, McConaughey called it “probably, in a lot of ways, my favourite film I’ve ever done”.
He added: “So the South is definitely a character in the film, it definitely feels like a classic American film. But that’s also to do with Jeff’s directing style in this film, it’s very linear, it’s very deliberate. It’s very poetic, the script, but it’s [to do with] affairs of the heart, it’s very universal, it’s not only American.”
McConaughey continued: “[Nichols] wants this to translate to humanity and not just be a small Southern picture about these people that happen to be in this small place with these few characters. It’s not bound to that place in time, it’s not even bound to a time.”
Expanding on his leading role, the actor said: “It was really fun for me, it was a really fun four months in that heart-space and that headspace. He doesn’t compete, there’s no ego about his love, he’s not condemning her for leaving him, whether he understands her or not.”
