Matthew McConaughey On Starting Out

I went to the right bar met the right guy name is Don Phillips he was in town casting a film five hours later we got kicked out of so said barn he said have you ever done any acting before and I said I was in a miller lite commercial for about that long been really count it was like he's not even really a modeling job it was just like that that was me right there and no one really recognized me but he said there's a different film the script I'm in town casting for this apart you might be right for come to this address picket pick up the script tomorrow morning I did 9:30 the character had three lines was in a few scenes and I remember going back home to Long Beach from and working on this character for two weeks came back a Red Fort and got at the film and the role as David Wooderson in film dazed confused which was my very first film now when I went read for that it was obvious to Rick that I was not that guy one I was when I was in fraternity I had my jeans pressed I tucked in I shaved before going for this job interview because that's what I was brought up to do right but um he as soon as I said okay let's let's read I kind of kicked back and did my version of Watterson and he goes I remember going you you a you're not this guy and I wouldn't know but I know who he is and who the guy was for me that time was who I thought my brother was when I was 10 and he was 17 so I had a very romanticized view my brother was seven feet tall on my eyes his car was the fastest car his Concord system was the best system sound system in the world and I remember seeing him leaning against the wall in the smoking section at school and he was cooler than James Dean to me so it was a it was a romanticized view of who he was but that's when I I mean that my first job and how I started to approach what I was doing even though I don't know if I really knew what I was doing was okay I may not be this guy but if I know who this guy is or I know someone like this whether they're that way in real life or its how I perceived them I I'll tell a quick funny story on the way to learning what it is that I do and some some pitfalls that I learned along the way dazed confused I end up working for three weeks there's a lot of improvisation other actors never login through lob and me lines and I remember having a feeling like boy I feel like you could put a blindfold on me and I can be this guy Wooderson I feel like you could blindfold me press record and put me a new situation I'll go to the 7-eleven I can buy I remember going what would they would they buy with five dollars at the 7-eleven or what world they're that character lives in what would they know what they would buy what they would wear what they were doing any kind of situation well after about three weeks on that which it was averted as I said a lot of improvisation I went on back to school came back out to Los Angeles and got a few roles and it was around boys on the side I had played a few very conservative roles and I had about a year and a half I would audition and I would get one callback two callbacks three callbacks and I and I never got the part and I'm ever feeling like I'm too tight you know what I mean I think maybe I'm studying too much I remember telling my talk to myself maybe I'm studying too much about the import of the line and everything and you know what I think I need to go back to doing what I did when I first started which is I was just a guy and I improvised so I had a head of film that I was cast for when I was playing this on the border Mexican druglord and I told myself I said I'm not going to look at the side I'm not good even gonna read the script it's an on the border Mexican drug lord I hear the synopsis if I know my man then I'll show up and just obviously I'll read it right before I go on and if I know my man that'll be like well that's exactly what he'd say foolish I go I go I go to set that that morning all right I'm just gonna all I gotta do is have a glance at it and it'll be like yeah I know I know how to do it well I look at it right before about to say action and it was a page and a half monologue in Spanish oh and I remember I felt this drip of sweat come up on the back of my head and go down and I and then for whatever reason I looked over and I said um and uh can you give me about 12 minutes why I said 12 minutes I don't know I figured it was like not long enough to be inconsiderate but but long enough to maybe get a little bit anyway it was I think I was horrible in it I stammered through some Spanish and tried to look at line so then I was like okay that's not the way to go there's a blend here of having to do your due diligence do your studyin but then being able to go there on the day and relax and throw it all away

Channel: Film at Lincoln Center

Views: 460,628

Rating: 4.9689212 out of 5

Keywords: Film Society of Lincoln Center, Matthew McConaughey (TV Actor), Dallas Buyers Club, Oscars, Academy Award (Award), Actor, Celebrity, Talk, Interview, Q&A, HIV, AIDS, True Detective, The Wolf Of Wall Street (Film), Television (Invention), Magic Mike (Film), Dazed And Confused (Film), Exclusive, Official

Id: C2nrmgP8RuI

Length: 4min 54sec (294 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 28 2014