When the camera cuts, the interview isn\u2019t over. With \u201cCut for Time,\u201d TODAY.com asks the questions our anchors couldn\u2019t get to on-air.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019ve ever wondered what it\u2019s like to stand a foot from Matthew McConaughey, his steady gaze locked intently on yours, it is, in a word, intoxicating.<\/p>\n
His charisma is an 11 out of 10, and the Oscar winner somehow manages to make you feel that, despite standing in the crowded room to the side of Studio 1A, you\u2019re the only person that exists.<\/p>\n
Maybe that\u2019s why McConaughey has an Academy Award in the first place. Or, maybe it\u2019s because the 56-year-old is genuinely invested. Either way, he seems utterly present in the moment, even if that moment is answering a few hurried questions about his latest movie, Andrew Patterson\u2019s indie film \u201cThe Rivals of Amziah King.\u201d<\/p>\n
In recent years, McConaughey has stepped back from acting to to focus on other things, including his best-selling memoir, \u201cGreenlights,\u201d as well as a pair of other books: a collection of prayers and poems and a children\u2019s picture book.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s the title role in Patterson\u2019s feature, an ambitious Southern drama, thriller, father-daughter beekeeping tale, that\u2019s inspired his return.<\/p>\n
The \u201cDallas Buyers Club\u201d actor explains to TODAY.com why this is the role that brought him back to the big screen and how it mirrors his own upbringing. Finally, before heading off to the airport, McConaughey reveals which of his movies he counts among his favorites and why.<\/p>\n
And, in case you\u2019re wondering, yes, his eyes really are that blue.<\/p>\n
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.<\/p>\n
On a script level, it was the most original, in particular, play, space and time and character I\u2019ve read in a long time. I\u2019d seen the director Andrew Patterson\u2019s first film \u201cThe Vast of Night,\u201d an independent film they made for less than $1 million dollars. I was like, \u201cOh, this guy wrote this. He\u2019s got control of the story. He\u2019s got control of the camera and it\u2019s good acting. Story well told.\u201d<\/p>\n
The character, Amziah, I was like, \u201cOh, OK, this is a guy who is a giver of belonging. He\u2019s a guy who pulls people who are on the outskirts to the center of the circle, shines a light on them.\u201d<\/p>\n
That reminded me a little bit about how I grew up. When me or one of my brothers would be feeling insecure, not confident about something, my mom, especially, would just bring us in, hoist us literally up in the air and celebrate us to an extent to where we got out of our head and believed we were worth whatever we\u2019re worth. And then, we celebrated.<\/p>\n
At the same time, if one of me and my brothers came in and sort of thought we were the cock of the walk and had everything figured out, nobody could touch our stuff … my family is very good about finding your Achilles heel and popping you until you admitted you were kind of full of BS, and you cried uncle.<\/p>\n
And then as soon as you cried uncle, they\u2019d do the same thing: Lift you up, celebrate you and say, \u201cThere you are. Welcome back.\u201d<\/p>\n
This story is a great father-daughter love story \u2014 foster daughter with a foster father \u2014 and a story about all the underdogs out there. This is a guy, Amziah, who brings the outcast in and says, \u201cYou have family here. I\u2019m going to bet on you. I\u2019m going to bet on the best of you. All you\u2019ve got to do is be yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n