by Neil Daniels
Peter Stack wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle: ‘McConaughey’s Willis is driven to crime to finance his dream of becoming an oil millionaire. Flashy and jaunty, McConaughey isn’t very convincing as the big brother who drafts his younger kin as soldiers in his larcenous army. When he goes after cigar girl Louise ([Julianna] Margulies) at a fancy hotel, he comes across as dapper cardboard.’
Though McConaughey’s performances in A Time to Kill, Amistad and Contact had brought him varying degrees of critical acclaim, it seemed that some of the projects he’d been cast in towards the end of the 1990s were not connecting with audiences and McConaughey was worried about losing his bankable appeal. The way Hollywood studios and producers market an actor to audiences is incredibly important in the commercial success of a film. Lone Star, Larger Than Life and The Newton Boys were not commercial hits.
1999’s EDtv was also a box office disaster. They had high hopes for the film but 1998’s The Truman Show, which carried a similar reality TV theme and predicated the obsession with reality TV of the 2000s, eclipsed it.
McConaughey was disappointed the film did not performed to expectations. ‘There were some reviews at the time where people would say, “this is where I think McConaughey was true and good and funny,” or “this is where he wasn’t,” and I would go back and compare. I would look at diaries and see what did I think I was doing, compared to what I actually did, compared to what got edited – there is always a gap between those things and the goal is to close those gaps,’ McConaughey explained to The Film Stage’s Caitlin Martis. ‘That’s why actors go into producing, because they want complete control. I’ve got some constructive criticism along the way where I’m like, “he’s right, good point.”’
The film, directed by former Happy Days actor and renowned filmmaker Ron Howard, is an adaptation of the Quebecois film Louis 19, le roi des ondes. McConaughey plays Ed Pekurny, who along with his brother Ray (played by Woody Harrelson), is being filmed twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. The film also stars Jenna Elfman, Ellen DeGeneres, Martin Landau, Rob Reiner, Sally Kirkland, Elizabeth Hurley, Clint Howard and Dennis Hopper.
‘He had recently come out in A Time to Kill and was the next big thing,’ Harrelson said to Variety’s Jenelle Riley about his first meeting with McConaughey at a CAA event. ‘He was very nice. And funny. I asked if he wanted a shot of tequila. He declined, as it was noon and he had a lot to do that day.’
It was released in the US in March 1999 and grossed less than half of its $80 million budget. It reached the UK in November. Sadly, the film disappeared without a trace though it does have its fans. It is a decent film, but at the time it was overshadowed by a similar, bigger film with a bigger actor.
Janet Maslin wrote in The New York Times: ‘In a perfect casting coup, the film presents Mr. McConaughey and Mr. Harrelson (who do share a resemblance) as brothers who don’t easily adjust to Ed’s growing fame. Mr. Harrelson is a particular treat as Ray, the show-off Pekurny, who like Ed is easily lured into airing private matters while a camera is in his face.’
David Edelstein wrote on Slate: ‘The problem with EDtv is that Ed’s life looks and sounds like a tedious sitcom before the TV cameras ever show up. McConaughey’s manner is TV-talk-show bashful. (Is this supposed to be the point? That he’s deformed by television before he’s ever on television? I don’t think so.)’
Even in the 2010s, McConaughey was still affected by the failure of Amistad and EDtv as he told Details’ Bart Blasengame: ‘That hurt, and it pissed me off. Because everybody’s telling the truth in Hollywood, right? But then I went, “It’s not personal – get the joke.” And six years ago I didn’t get the joke. But I learned you don’t do your business in Hollywood’s game. It’s a great town for hustlers, so you can’t get mad. You play your own game.’
Post A Time to Kill and Hollywood’s newest kid in town was riding on a series of box office flops. They were not bad films but they didn’t take enough box office receipts. It didn’t worry McConaughey, though. He simply moved on to other projects. ‘That movie [EDtv] was backed, marketed, had all kinds of money on it, and it just bombed. I thought we had a home run,’ McConaughey admitted to Cinema.com. ‘I had experienced that kind of overnight success which was not dissimilar to what Ed went through. So it was also an interesting role to play.’
In 1999, he also voiced the character Rad Thibodeaux in an episode of the quirky animated comedy series King of the Hill called ‘The Wedding of Bobby Hill.’ According to online movie bible IMDB, McConaughey cropped up in a cameo as the character Nathan in the French film Bonne Nuit in 1999, but almost nothing else is known about this film. That same year he was arrested after police knocked on his door to find him playing the bongo drums naked with a bong nearby. His neighbours had filed a noise complaint. He spent the night in jail with his friend who was also hauled off with him. McConaughey was arrested for resisting arrest and possession of marijuana. The charges were ultimately dropped but he was slapped with $50 fine for disturbing the peace. Not much for a man who could demand $4 million a film. He sang sing-alongs with his cellmates and even had T-shirts printed that read, ‘What part of naked bongo playing don’t you understand?’ Hilarious.
The incident was a turnaround point in his life. He later told the Daily Express’ Garth Pearce: ‘It was something that never left me. It kept on being mentioned. I needed to make changes in my life, the way I was living and the movies I was doing.’
McConaughey has since confessed he loves to play the bongos naked. His mother didn’t even put him and his brothers in a bathing suit at the country club until they were nine. The residents of Austin had a sense of humour about McConaughey’s arrest – if he hadn’t have been naked it wouldn’t have been as funny or as widely publicised. He also had a house in LA which he shared with Miss Hud, his Chow / Labrador cross, but his true home was Austin, close to his roots. Texans respected his space and tended to leave him alone – he was just one of the locals rather than big shot celebrity who’s ‘gone all Hollywood.’ He managed to maintain a fairly normal life, though there was a bit of a cowboy in him, opting to hit the road whenever he felt the itch to travel, much like a character in a Jack Kerouac novel.
‘It is an effort,’ McConaughey said to Pop Matters’ Cynthia Fuchs when asked how he maintained his sense of distance and down-to-earth attitude during his early years of fame and fortune. ‘It becomes something that you tenaciously seek out. It’s going back to the ranch for twenty-five days, taking that drive to Texas. I have a nice car named Midnight. It’s a midnight blue 740 IL BMW, the ultimate driving machine.’
When he’s out with his friends, they do things together; watch sports, play sports or go to a nice bar or restaurant. He doesn’t watch movies. Being famous means that everyone knows a little something about your life, which for McConaughey meant that conversation was imbalanced, especially if he met a stranger whom he didn’t know anything about. He grew to like Hollywood and enjoy the lifestyle. The one thing he wanted to do was to live a story as well as tell one.
It was around this time, to keep up his Hollywood image, that he started to use hair products. ‘Regenix,’ he later explained to Ellie’s Holly Milea. ‘Back in 1999, my hair was fallin’ out, so I started this stuff. And son of a gun if I didn’t bring my hair back so well that people think I went and got plugs.’
In the space of just a few years as the decade was coming to a close McConaughey had gone from bit parts and cameos in dreadful long-forgotten B-movies to working with Hollywood’s elite such as Spielberg, Zemeckis, Howard and Schumacher. Those earlier films certainly helped to get him noticed, and while he wasn’t one of the finest actors working in American cinema he had a certain humble charm, obvious good looks and an everyday Texan attitude about him that helped propel him into the lower ranks of the A-list of Hollywood stars. But to become a household name and to demand millions of dollars for consecutive films he had to make some changes to his choice of roles. He had to star in cheerie
r films that would attract the mainstream audience more than the likes of Contact and Amistad, which were great for critical reverence (to an extent) but not so great for his bank balance. Michael Caine once said that there are two films you do as an actor – films for the money (The Muppet Christmas Carol and Jaws 4: The Revenge et al) and films for the critical respect as an actor (Little Voice and Harry Brown et al). This is certainly a path McConaughey was going to follow. Doesn’t every actor? Every actor has to make a buck somehow.
Despite some misfires McConaughey was cast in the tense and controversial American World War II submarine drama U-571, directed by Jonathan Mostow and produced by heavyweight Dino De Laurentiis. Set in 1942, McConaughey plays Lieutenant Andrew Tyler who, along with his comrades from a disguised United States Navy submarine, board a German submarine attempting to capture her Enigma cipher machine, which was used to send secret cryptic messages by the Germans during the war. The film caused considerable controversy in the UK because the fictitious storyline was based on the real life story of the British officers of the HMS Bulldog who captured the Enigma machine from U-100 in the North Atlantic in May 1941. This was before the Americans had even entered the war. Even the British Prime Minister Tony Blair said that the film was an ‘affront’ to British soldiers. The U-571 in real life had never been involved in any such events and had been sunk by a Short Sunderland flying boat from the Royal Australian Air Force in January 1994 off the coast of Ireland. Filming of U-571 took place in the Mediterranean Sea near Rome and Malta. It stars Bill Paxton, Harvey Keitel, Thomas Kretschmann, Jon Bon Jovi, Jack Noseworthy, Will Estes and Tom Guiry. It was released in April 2000 and was fairly well received by critics, though journalists in the UK were dubious when it was released in cinemas in June.
Michael Atkinson wrote in the Village Voice: ‘The characters are familiar – hot young fearless leader Matthew McConaughey, second banana Jon Bon Jovi, seasoned sarge Harvey Keitel, Noo Yawk greaseball Erik Palladino, black cook T.C. Carson, greenhorned spy Jake Weber – but the work is the story, blessed with only a single sacrificial death (offscreen, even) and no speeches.’
George Perry wrote on the BBC website: ‘If U-571 had been good this would have been forgivable. Alas, it’s a noisy, cliche-ridden, incomprehensible mess. Matthew McConaughey, shaven-headed and sunken cheeked, plays a young officer denied command until he proves himself. He is given a mission to capture a U-boat by pretending to be a German supply crew.’
Writing in Variety, veteran film critic Todd McCarthy said: ‘The key quality is not noble, but necessary: It’s the ability to send soldiers into deadly situations without hesitation or regret. Paxton leaves the audience in no doubt he can do that. McConaughey leaves the audience in no doubt that he can’t – not yet. U-571, among other things, is the story of a good soldier who, under pressure, grows into a commander. To compare U-571 to Saving Private Ryan is like comparing a miniature to a mural, but there is one point of similarity: The audience is made to feel the full weight and terror of combat.’
U-571 was perhaps the wrong film for McConaughey, but as an actor who strives to explore his talents and as someone who wants to challenge himself both professionally and personally it was a film he was pleased to be a part of. Ultimately, it was another one that didn’t win him any critical favours. The shaven-headed look didn’t work for him, either.
In 2000 he cropped up again on TV, playing himself in an episode of Sex and the City called ‘Escape from New York’. It’s not uncommon for Hollywood actors to play themselves or make character cameos in hit TV shows – Bruce Willis had cropped up in a few episodes of Friends.
Throughout the late 1990s McConaughey was cast as the lead role or key supporting character in several major productions, including Robert Zemeckis’ Contact and Steven Spielberg’s Amistad. Those roles were not necessarily the right fit for his Texan accent, looks and charm, and after the failure of The Newton Boys and EDtv, Hollywood was slow to respond to his calls. McConaughey took some road trips to clear his head and to live a little. For some reason, though, the magic just didn’t stick and he became just another Hollywood gimmick. He was no longer the next Paul Newman or Marlon Brando, but nor was he George Hamilton.
It was around this time when McConaughey had a change of heart about which direction his career would move towards. The paychecks were calling. The lure of the great Yankee dollar was too much to resist. His shirt was coming off.
CHAPTER FIVE
HOLLYWOOD’S LEADING MAN
‘I’ve read all my bad reviews, and got them all out a few years ago. It’s a big file and I read them all.’
Matthew McConaughey, The Film Stage, 2013
The early 2000s saw a drastic turnaround in the career of Matthew McConaughey. Though he continued to be cast as a leading man, he was frequently starring in romantic comedies rather than dramas. He needed a formula that was suitable for his persona. McConaughey took a complete career change after U-571 by starring with pop star-actress Jennifer Lopez in The Wedding Planner.
‘There was a lot of responsibility on [U-571] because it was based on real events and there are conflicts [sic] to overcome,’ McConaughey, then aged thirty-one, told Cinema.com. ‘[The Wedding Planner] was looser and not so structured. I got to be the lover, the knight coming over the hill. Being a romantic comedy there was more room for improvisation. My character’s a doctor but he’s not someone who’s defined by his occupation. It’s more about his affairs of the heart and how couples can stay friends after they break up.’
In The Wedding Planner McConaughey plays a local paediatrician named Steve Edison who falls in love with Mary Fore (played by Lopez) who is planning to marry Massimo Lenzetti (played by Justin Chambers), a childhood acquaintance she had been re-introduced to. Party Of Five’s Jennifer Love Hewitt and California Man star Brendan Fraser were originally cast to play the lead roles but were then replaced by real life couple Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr. Lopez and McConaughey were subsequently cast after their predecessors left the project due to scheduling conflicts.
‘There’s a real optimism to this film,’ McConaughey said to Cynthia Fuchs of Pop Matters on his first romantic comedy role. ‘It’s buoyant, a fairy tale that we’ve all heard one time or another, that you’re going to meet someone and it’s going to be true love and you’ll know it. It’s very innocent. And it’s a comedy set-up, so the thing to do is to play it at an even keel and as straightforward as possible. The dialogue and situations are already comedic, so I was trying to ground it as much as possible. But when I saw it, there were things that were coming out of my mouth where I was wondering, “Did you just say that?”’
Filming took place mostly in Golden Gate Park. McConaughey learned how to tango during the making of the film. It’s a complicated dance but he managed it in the end. He took some lessons, though he knew how to dance in general. He’s got rhythm but he was a little unschooled and didn’t know any steps.
The Wedding Planner, directed by Adam Shankman, was released in the US in January 2001 and was poorly received by critics, as it was in the UK when it was released in April. However, with a budget of just $35 million it went on to gross over $90 million at the worldwide box office. It was a lucky escape for McConaughey because although it wasn’t a flop, and he received some negative reviews, his co-star Lopez was nominated for a Razzie Award for ‘Worst Actress’. For McConaughey, though, it was easy money. It’s one reason why so many talented actors star in romantic comedies: the money is good and such films, if the chemistry between the co-stars is spot on and if the story is engaging and funny, are usually always box office hits.
‘You’re not supposed to get, you know, Hamletian about it,’ McConaughey explained to NPR’s Terry Gross of the Fresh Air show about the genre. ‘You’re not supposed to go deep. You go deep on those, you sink the ship. I had fun doing that and also trying to do those without emasculating the male, which can be done in those romantic comedies often.’
The rom-
com has become a hugely successful genre much to the dread of most men who are forced to take their girlfriends or wives to the cinema.
Writing in Entertainment Weekly, Lisa Schwarzbaum compared The Wedding Planner to My Best Friend’s Wedding, and said: ‘Where Julia Roberts turned the world on with her huggability, Lopez’s vibe is that of someone afraid to get mussed. And where Rupert Everett was divine as a sidekick, McConaughey is mortally ordinary as a main dish who spends most of his time smiling like a party guest.’
Michael Thomson of the BBC wrote on the website that: ‘Unfortunately, after the two leads become less wired in each other’s presence, and the sexual tension begins to droop, everyone seems to be reading an autocue.’
Jessica Winter said in Village Voice: ‘McConaughey is insufferably smug as always, while the bewilderingly miscast Diva appears bored and impatient.’
Desson Howe wrote in the Washington Post: ‘Matthew McConaughey’s her squeeze-in-the-making, buffed up like most male actors these days and doing his adorable Texan thang. But The Wedding Planner is definitely Jennifer’s parade.’
McConaughey’s critical stature was saved by a long forgotten film called Thirteen Conversations About One Thing, which eventually opened in March 2002 to reasonably positive reviews. Directed by Jill Sprecher, and written by her and her sister Karen, the film is about five different individuals who are in search of happiness when their paths intersect in different ways and impact their lives. McConaughey plays Troy, a district attorney, who is bereft with guilt following a hit and run accident in which he injures a cleaning woman named Beatrice (Clea DuVall). This spirals into the story of Beatrice who reassesses her life during her recuperation and begins to think about her colleague Dorrie (Tia Texada). An insurance claims manager named Gene (Alan Arkin) struggles to cope with his son’s drug addiction and fires a cheery staff member but realises he made an error and feels guilty. A college professor named Walker (John Turturro), who teaches physics, has a midlife crisis and becomes embroiled in a relationship with a colleague, while his wife Patricia (Amy Irving) finds incriminating evidence in Walker’s wallet after it was stolen and mailed to their home.
