Matthew McConaughey Read online

  Bernie is the story of small town funeral director Bernie Tiede, played remarkably well by Jack Black (he listened to audio tapes and spoke to Bernie in person to get the accent just right) who kills the grande dame played by veteran actress Shirley MacLaine. McConaughey enacts real life District Attorney Danny Buck Davidson who prosecuted the real Bernie Tiede in 1998. Linklater took around seven months to get a script together with the help of Hollandsworth who offered some plot points and dialogue. Linklater’s producer Ginger Sledge, an ex-Austin teacher who had worked her way up in the movie business, was also on hand with suggestions.

  Texas is almost like another country such is the way of life, culture, politics and general vibe of Texans. Linklater strove to portray a different side of the state of Texas, a more innocent version, to the one that is usually portrayed on screen with gun-toting cowboys, trigger-happy republicans, or rednecks and hillbillies. In the film Linklater breaks down the different areas of the state – and it’s done terrifically and is very funny.

  Making a film based on real life events can be difficult because there are many factors involved, so Linklater was careful to be true to the story and not offend anyone. He was concerned about the families involved and wanted to be as accurate as possible. He had no access to the key players (Mrs Nugent is gone and Bernie’s in prison) so he came up with the idea of having the town’s gossips tell the story. Gossip is very popular in small towns, often being the main source of entertainment.

  Linklater spoke to Bill Graham of The Film Stage about the research that had to be undertaken prior to filming Bernie, his first film since 2008’s Me and Orson Welles: ‘I went to the trial over ten years ago, I was into it back then and felt I knew the guy. Just seeing him testify and seeing where he nails Bernie with the Les Miserables and all that. That’s all word for word, that all really happened. So, Matthew did a bunch of cool stuff around that, but the gist of that it’s tricky when you’re doing something based on real events, real people. I was concerned [for] the Nugent family and the survivors, but you just dive in and be as accurate as you possibly can.’

  McConaughey’s mother Kay played one of the town gossips in the film named Tassie. Kay, who had raised McConaughey in Longview but had since moved to Sun City, a community for seniors near Georgetown, just north of Austin, was retired and spent her time doing Pilates and performing in amateur theatrical productions. For years she had begged her son to get her a small role in one of his movies but he always said he didn’t have the power to do it and never acted on her requests ‘One time when I was visiting him in Los Angeles,’ Kay told Texas Monthly’s Skip Hollandsworth in 2012, ‘I met Brian Grazer, the movie producer, and I said, “Hey, don’t you think it would be a great idea if you did a remake of The Graduate with Matthew playing Dustin Hoffman and me playing Anne Bancroft?” He said, “Mrs McConaughey, do you realise you’d have to do a love scene with your own son?” And I said, “Oh, hell. It’s no big deal. We’ll fake it.” Can you believe he still said no? Well, thank God for Richard Linklater, who’s finally seen my real potential.’

  Rooster, his brother, had a part in The Newton Boys and now his mother had a role in Bernie. Kay was ecstatic when Linklater gave her a part in the film, which she auditioned for. Linklater did not see anyone else in that role. ‘And she goes, “Rick says I’m just right for it,”’ McConaughey said to Austin Daze’s Donna White. ‘So a couple weeks go by and I go, “So did he say you got the part?” And she says, “Well, I mean, Rick said I’m right for it.” And I go, “No, no, no, a director can say anything like that. Did he say you got the part?” And she goes, “No.” (Mimics her heavy sigh, laughs…) So I said, “You might be gettin’ a call-back. You better get after it some more.” So I get her pumped up. I’m serious! I jacked with her.’

  McConaughey worked with his mother for weeks with her lines making sure she got the pronunciation, the pace of the sentences and facial mannerisms correct. ‘We get on well,’ McConaughey said to New Idea magazine on his relationship with his mum. ‘You know there is something I’ve noticed about I say [sic] elders, it’s like when you are a kid and you’re under twenty you’re a revolutionary. Then in your 20s, 30s, 40s even 50s you get responsibility and then I think after sixty, you go back to being the revolutionary and you just don’t give a damn. And I see that in my mother and her boyfriend and it’s pretty funny and pretty inspiring to the zest for life they have.’

  Principal photography commenced in September and was finished twenty-two days later in October 2010 and took place in various locations in Texas, including Smithville, Georgetown, Lockhart, Carthage and Austin. The budget was just $5 million. The film mixes documentary footage with fictional elements to create a film of authenticity yet uncertainty. The townspeople in the film play themselves and the talking heads are actors.

  Bernie premiered at the 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival, seven months after filming, and was shown at selected international film festivals throughout the end of 2011. It opened in US cinemas for a limited run in April 2012. A special screening to benefit victims of the Bastrop County wildfires was held in Austin a few months after the premiere. The local gossips, extras and other Carthage residents were invited, including Danny Buck, to see the film. Bernie himself was in a special unit in New Boston where he was suffering from diabetes and fifteen years away from a chance at parole. Linklater contacted the prison to ask if a special screening could be arranged for Bernie but he was turned down months later.

  The film received positive reviews from critics. Reviewers noted the strong performances of the three lead actors, notably Jack Black who is mostly known for goofball comedies. Linklater and Black had worked together on the successful goofy comedy School of Rock, released in 2003. Some critics pointed out that McConaughey is at his best when working with Linklater. Bernie was named by some critics as one of the best films of 2012.

  The film won several nominations such as ‘Best Feature’ and ‘Best Ensemble Performance’ at the 2012 Gotham Awards, ‘Best Feature’ at the 2012 Independent Spirit Awards and ‘Best Comedy’ at the Broadcast Film Critics Association. Black was nominated for a Golden Globe and the Broadcast Film Critics Association nominated him for ‘Best Actor’ and MacLaine for ‘Best Actress’. In the Los Angeles Times, a reader’s survey named Bernie as the ‘most under-appreciated’ film of the year from a shortlist of seven films picked by the newspaper.

  Caroline Frost wrote in the Huffington Post: ‘Hilariously hammy and yet underplayed is Matthew McConaughey, once again proving that his professional life away from rom-com land is a rich fount, with a superb comic timing and his accent broad in its native glory, as he describes the corpse “frozen like a popsicle”.’

  The London Evening Standard’s Derek Malcolm wrote: ‘MacLaine too is wonderful as the chopper-faced Marjorie, and Matthew McConaughey, as the one local who is suspicious of Bernie from the start, also does very well. But it is Black’s film, and that of the townsfolk, about whom somebody says: “They’ve got more tattoos than brains.”’

  McConaughey summarised his thoughts on the film to Bill Graham of The Film Stage: ‘There’s something charming about this movie and there’s something innocent about it that’s attractive in that way, in that innocent charming way. So, I never read this and thought, “Oh boy.” If I know it came from him as he actually pitched it to me for fifty minutes in his truck, and when I read it, I felt on page with the tone. I thought it was much more funny than I ever thought it was dark. I liked that it was dark comedy but I was just laughing.’

  Ironically, the real life story of Bernie had a Hollywood ending. Special Judge Diane DeVasto agreed to release Tiede early from prison – he would not serve his full life sentence on the grounds that he was sexually assaulted as a child and had been in an abusive relationship with his victim, the eighty-one-year-old Marjorie Nugent. It was agreed that Tiede would stay in an apartment above a garage in Austin owned by Linklater.

  With The Lincoln Lawyer and Bernie under his
belt, the 2010s had gotten off to a good start for McConaughey. The acclaim with which he had been greeted in the 1990s would be surpassed as he was slowly turning his career around to become one of Hollywood’s most popular and revered actors. The industry was finally getting the message: McConaughey wasn’t interested in romantic comedies anymore. He was looking for material that shocked him.

  ‘I’m not much for seeing things as full stops, fresh starts. I think it’s all part of the same evolution and career, you know?’ McConaughey said to Terra.com. ‘I think, probably, another stage is worth saying. Or maybe another chapter, same book – yeah, I’ll go with that.’

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  FAMILY AND PHILANTHROPY

  ‘I was an older bachelor than many of my friends. I enjoyed the life I was leading but knew it could not go on like that.’

  Matthew McConaughey, Daily Express, 2014

  ‘I had a wonderful year last year. It was very colourful,’ Matthew told The Daily Beast’s Ramin Setoodeh about working on films throughout 2011 and into the first half of 2012. ‘I’ve never really had a year where for [so many] roles back to back I was so genuinely excited. I was working with directors who had a singular vision. But the hard part about independent film is getting to day one of shooting. They’re just hard to get made.’

  McConaughey married Brazilian model and TV performer Camila Alves on 9 June 2012 in Austin, Texas where they resided and decided to base themselves properly as from March of that year. However, back in 2010 he told Rebecca Murray of About.com: Hollywood Movies: ‘Am I getting married in the future? Not today. Honestly, not today. I don’t have any plans for it. I was asked this earlier. It’s not an institution I’m against at all. I’m actually for it, believe in it, and have seen it actually be very, very healthy for many relationships. Some people go through it some great ways. It’s just not something I plan on doing right now and that I feel like I need to do right now, but I’m not against it at all.’

  As a bachelor McConaughey had a house in the Hollywood Hills but it was his home – he’d poured his heart and soul into it. He detailed pretty much everything, both exteriors and interiors. But now he had found a woman he wanted to live with and with whom he wanted to have a home and family with so they bought a new property together. They also had a place together in Malibu, just outside of LA, which they built together. It has a fantastic view of the Pacific Ocean and the weather is wonderful. His production company offices continued to be based in Venice.

  ‘Decorating and landscaping is my hobby,’ McConaughey admitted to The Tech’s Alison C. Lewis on his homes and relationship with Texas. ‘I can still talk to strangers there. It’s a state that holds up and digs into its own identity. It holds onto traditions that work. It [also] progresses. [Living on the ranch] gets your body clock on the right time…you can do anything you want or nothing at all.’

  Their Austin home is a Mediterranean-type mansion on nine acres of land. The 10,800-square-feet ‘Old Oak Estate’ has three stories and includes seven bedrooms and eight bathrooms. It’s a beautiful home and Camila was more than willing to move permanently to Austin where McConaughey knows the people, the dialect and the culture. He likes the family values and common sense of fellow Texans, as well as the patriotism and humble way of life.

  The couple were engaged on 25 December 2011. McConaughey had Camila’s ring wrapped in several boxes as a gift and when she finally got down to the ring he dropped down on one knee in front of his family and proposed to her. It was a Christmas Day gift she didn’t expect.

  ‘The first word out of her mouth was not “Yes.” I’m not gonna say what it was,’ he recalled on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. ‘But I did say, “Look, I’m down on a knee. I’ll stay here awhile. I will outlast you.” And I did! She conceded.’

  His fiancée’s engagement ring was designed by Cathy Waterman. Their youngest child Livingston Alves McConaughey was born in 2012 joining his elder siblings Levi and Vida. They were a loving family and wanted to make it all official.

  Camila expressed her views to US Weekly: ‘A lot of people, sometimes they’re so stuck on “I gotta get married, I gotta get married,” that they forget that the really important thing is to have a healthy home, a healthy family, a healthy family for your kids and to have everything going in a good, peaceful way.’

  Camila is the love of Matthew’s life. She made him want things in life that no other woman had done. She encouraged him to see the future in a different way. He was happy and positive about every aspect in his life. Relationships by their very nature make people change want they want in life and it makes them view things differently because you’re not only thinking about yourself in any given situation but your partner too. McConaughey had found the woman he was willing to do anything for. He was deeply in love and it felt wonderful.

  The children were involved in their parents’ ceremony – Levi, aged three, brought the rings on a necklace and Vida, two, was the flower girl. She didn’t drop one petal along the twenty-five-yard aisle. It took around two minutes for her to diligently walk that distance, though she stopped to chat to people en route and her dad then crouched down at which point she went running to him.

  ‘We have a family now, got two kids.’ McConaughey told MSN Entertainment. ‘One of the things that we’ve learned is that we’ve reminded [ourselves and] our kids to be thankful for all the things that we have, because a lot of these kids don’t have the opportunity. One: a solid mother-father relationship in the house; Two: our kids don’t have to worry about eating or college tuition.’

  It was a union between themselves and God. It was a Catholic ceremony and was officiated by Benedictine Monk, Father Christian Leisy and the Reverend David Haney of Riverbend Church. Camila carried a beautiful bouquet of white cattleya orchids and artichoke flowers down the aisle. Their wedding bands were designed by Kathy Rose.

  ‘We’ve been living a married life for over six years now. We have homes together, we have family together, we have kids, we’ve built a life together,’ Camila told ET Canada ‘So we’ve been living a married life this whole time.’ She added: ‘Levi actually understands what it means now that Mama’s going to have the same last name as they have.’

  Various reports were printed in the press about the typically extravagant and expensive Hollywood-style wedding. US Weekly reported that acclaimed singer-songwriter John Mellencamp ‘sang a song for the bride and groom based on a bible verse’. Reports stated that McConaughey wore a three-piece black Dolce & Gabbana tuxedo at the evening ceremony and his bride wore white Stuart Weitzman heels and a wedding gown handmade by her favourite Brazilian designer. McConaughey wanted the wedding to be close to home so he had a makeshift campground set up for wedding guests to start the weekend on their Texas property. There were forty-seven air-conditioned tents, gourmet presents and plots of entrainment on offer. The tents reportedly had beds, cosy white fur rugs and outdoor seating with doormats at the front. Guests were made to feel warm and homely. Reese Witherspoon, Jim Toth, Meg Ryan, Richard Linklater and Woody Harrelson were said to be in attendance. They were close friends of McConaughey’s whom he’d worked with or had supported him throughout his career.

  A guest told US Weekly: ‘There were about 100 of his close friends and family there. [The ceremony] was very emotional. There was a moment when … [Matthew] leaned down and whispered something in [Camila’s] ear and you could see a tear coming down her face. Everyone let out a collective sigh.’

  The evening ceremony included a live band playing American and Brazilian songs. The food catered for American and Brazilian guests with fine Brazilian meats and Southern delicacies and beer. The wedding cake at the reception was red-velvet decorated with flags of Texas and Brazil. It was a happy mixture of people and cultures all in celebration of two people who were in love.

  ‘I had some wonderful women in my life,’ McConaughey said to the Daily Express’ Garth Pearce. ‘But I was in no rush. When I married I intended to stay married. I
did not want to make a mistake.’

  When they met in 2006 he was very single and enjoying single life and working, and after a string of affairs with Sandra Bullock, Ashley Judd, Renée Zellweger, Patricia Arquette, US TV presenter Salli Richardson and Penelope Cruz, he wasn’t looking to settle down. ‘I don’t dislike any of my exes,’ he said to Elle’s Holly Milea. ‘If I took time to form a relationship, it’s gonna hurt when we move on, but are you puttin’ Wite-Out over all that beautiful time together? That was real time in your life. It’s connected to where you are today.’

  Alves stole his heart and he fell for her like a lovesick teen. He wanted to go out with her every single night from when he first met her and he knew that was a good sign. He fell in love. He even learned Portuguese. ‘Asking a woman to marry me – to want to do that, to find that woman and allow myself to love her that way and say, “I want to spend the rest of my life with you,” that’s a rite of passage,’ the actor told the Scotsman in 2012.

  McConaughey had to grow up for his children. He wanted to be a good father to his kids and so he put the partying lifestyle behind him and matured. His focus would be his home life and his career. ‘The number one thing on my bucket list since I was eight years old [was to be] a father,’ he admitted to Stylist’s Susan Riley. ‘It’s the reason as a kid I called men “sir” and ladies “ma’am”. To have children is the most awesome position a man can be in – then and only then can you have any chance of going from a prince to a king. So I’m doing that. Steven Spielberg always said: “we do movies, but having children – that’s your epic.” It is.’