I’m pushing onward, he told me then.
Decidedly unsexy but hearkening back to his blue-collar roots.
McConaughey grew up the youngest of three boys, in a Bible Belt town in East Texas.
While luck played a part, very little of the path he’s taken since was random.
People were thinking he’s some surfer dude.
But he’s very good at seeing steps A, B, C, D and achieving them.
He’s not random he knows what he’s doing.
And so began his next reset, an era he calls his McConnaissance.
I remember saying, Eff the bucks, I’m going for the experience, he recalls.
He was on fire, says director Jean-Marc Vallee of McConaughey’s intense focus during the 25-day shoot.
He gets the humanity of people who are suffering.
Which is the gist, he tells me, of his latest McConnaissance.
But perhaps, also, to move far beyond the big and small screens.
In the ensuing months, he posted messages of hope and unity on social media.
I’m interested in finding our common denominators, he says.
There it was, the tan, the dimples, that bourbon-infused drawl.
But he’s dead serious about trying to help America heal.
Coming together that’s the radical move right now.
That’s the dare, he says, and we have the ability to do it.
How to Just Keep Livin
Though I love em,facts only go from the neck up.
Storytelling is the best way to communicate.
We’re raised on stories and folklore.
If you dramatize the facts, we listen and remember more.
