World News – UK – Matthew McConaughey is « Warts and Everything » in new « Greenlights » memories

The actor and writer talks about family, the art of living and learning from moments of break.

When Matthew McConaughey sat down to write his memoir « Greenlights, » he thought it would be an exercise to transfer what he had spoken to the page. He quickly leaned forward that this approach wouldn’t work.

« You have to find the right sentence, the right word, the right timing, and the right ellipses, » he said. « In the written word you don’t have my intonation in front of you or my raised eyebrow and you can see humanity the way I say it. But boy do you see it on the side? Hopefully. ”

After retooling his approach, the final product reflected the “voice” of McConaughey that so many fans know and love. It’s one that grew out of years of storytelling – a tradition passed down from his family, McConaughey told Texas Standard. He says the best stories are the most honest, the rawest.

“We tell these stories around the table and tell when we meet for Christmas and Thanksgiving. And the funniest are the warts and everything. We’re pretty quick and I’m pretty quick to have a sense of humor, if I step in a bunch of you you know what, ”he said.

For the past two months, McConaughey has been on a virtual book tour to search for “Greenlights. “He says it practically created ways to connect with fans in new and sometimes deeper ways.

« What I enjoy most is watching the book translate each other, » said McConaughey.

It also gave him more time with his family. He lives in Austin with his wife, Camila Alves, and three children.

Family plays a central role in the book and in McConaughey’s identity. The book begins with a graphic story about his parents’ passionate and sometimes violent relationship. They divorced twice and married three times. McConaughey says that this relationship likely shaped his approach to his own marriage to Alves. The two have been named for almost eight years, but have been together for over 15 years.

« We both just said, » Hey, we don’t want our love to be as hard as our mother and father, « he said. “Look, her parents did the opposite: They were married twice and divorced three times. So we get to it and say, « What the hell man! » But we have no plans to divorce so we can honeymoon again. ”

But beyond the family, the book is also about paying attention to the rhythms and the art of life. As the title suggests, green lights are a signal to keep moving. But green lights are not always good. Sometimes you need yellow and red lights to slow down, to have time to study and think.

« We don’t really like yellow and red lights because they slow us down or hold us up in our lives. And we don’t really like doing that. They stand in our way; They are an interruption, an intervention, a crisis, an emergency, ”he said. “We usually need them; You will have a lesson in them . . . now, tomorrow, next week, next year, on our deathbed. ”

In his own career, McConaughey enjoyed a self-imposed « extended yellow light period » for almost two years when he stopped accepting work that did not « fill his soul’s bank account ». After this hiatus, his career changed direction.

“Twenty months later someone says, ‘Hey, this job you want to do? Actually, we’re going to offer you and give you the option to do this job now, « because I haven’t had a brand in two years, » he said. “I had stepped out of the green light into a yellow light and had taken a break throughout my Hollywood career. “

The pandemic was another opportunity for McConaughey to take a break as it profoundly affected the film and television industries. It also immerses him in the role of an author – a job that can become his main job; He’s already thinking about his next book. He needs a compelling reason to be back in Hollywood, he says.

« It would take a lot of character and a role to keep me from being the character I love to play in my life right now, » he said.

If you found the coverage above valuable, please make a donation here to support it. Your gift will help pay for anything you can find on texasstandard. org and KUT. org. Thank you for your donation today.

© 2018 Texas Standard. A service from the Moody College of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin Contact Us

Matthew McConaughey, Camila Alves