The Megyn Kelly Show - Matthew McConaughey on Leaving Hollywood, Raising Kids with a Strong Foundation, and the Power of Faith ｜ Ep. 1156

00:00:00.980 I'd never been on stage, I'd never done acting before, um, any of that.

00:00:06.180 Today, on The Megyn Kelly Show, from small-town Texas to the bright lights of Hollywood,

00:00:11.920 Matthew McConaughey burst onto the scene with a line that became legend.

00:00:16.720 All right, all right, all right.

00:00:19.040 From breakout star to king of the romantic comedies.

00:00:22.520 You ever think about that night in the park?

00:00:24.320 The nice guy roles, and nothing wrong with that.

00:00:26.220 I was so successful at them that any dramas I wanted to do, Hollywood was not offering me.

00:00:30.800 Even if I took a huge pay cut, they're like, no, no, no, McConaughey, stay in your lane.

00:00:34.220 At the height of all that fame, he walked away.

00:00:37.320 I was ready to do more dramas in life.

00:00:39.720 I was ready to stand up for things that I believed in and stand against things I didn't.

00:00:44.000 There was no parachute to pull her.

00:00:45.120 You might have just written yourself a ticket out of Hollywood.

00:00:47.640 Only to return to greater glory.

00:00:49.940 And the Oscar goes to Matthew McConaughey.

00:00:53.540 That's when I started becoming more of a good man.

00:00:56.840 Redefining himself as one of the most compelling voices in film.

00:01:00.720 We all got good wolves and bad wolves in us.

00:01:03.000 It's our choice to which wolf we want to feed.

00:01:05.100 I'm trying to do my best to be the good wolf, knowing that the bad wolf's still hungry.

00:01:10.080 Today, he's here to share the lessons from that incredible ride.

00:01:13.580 This is a rodeo.

00:01:14.800 If you want to get into this, I'm not saying you've got to have thick skin,

00:01:17.440 but you've got to know what's important to you.

00:01:19.240 Knives are going to come at you whether you deserve them or not.

00:01:21.820 Fair has nothing to do with this.

00:01:23.780 Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show, everyone.

00:01:26.160 I'm Megyn Kelly.

00:01:27.000 We have a first-time guest on the show today who you likely know very well, or think you do.

00:01:32.600 Matthew McConaughey is an American actor and an Academy Award-winning one at that.

00:01:37.780 He's also a best-selling author.

00:01:39.660 He's a husband.

00:01:40.420 He's a proud dad.

00:01:41.360 And he's a deep thinker who is out with a new book in which he shares decades of reflections.

00:01:49.140 Poems and Prayers is the name of it, and it's out right now.

00:01:53.500 Matthew McConaughey, welcome to the show.

00:01:55.060 Megyn Kelly, good to be here.

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00:02:51.460 I love the book.

00:02:52.840 I thought it was so thoughtful.

00:02:55.540 It made me stop, reflect, and be more thoughtful about everything from faith to my own life philosophy

00:03:02.100 in terms of getting after it or downshifting into a lower gear.

00:03:07.040 And I didn't realize how much I had in common with you, Hollywood man,

00:03:11.360 because you're really more of a Texas man who's been through a fair amount.

00:03:16.480 Let me kick it off on sort of a somber note.

00:03:19.320 One thing we have in common is we both lost our dads at very young ages.

00:03:22.220 You, by my calculations, were 22.

00:03:25.760 I was 15.

00:03:27.600 They went suddenly, thanks to heart attacks.

00:03:30.300 And in both of our cases, it changed, of course, our lives, but also our life choices and our life philosophies.

00:03:37.920 Can you kick it off there?

00:03:39.320 Like the you before you lost your dad and the you after.

00:03:42.700 Yeah.

00:03:44.400 So, I don't know about you, but I, at that time, I mean, I didn't think my dad could die.

00:03:51.060 You know?

00:03:51.520 I mean, I knew practically he had to one day, but I thought he was the abominable snowman.

00:03:55.160 And when I didn't, I didn't, there wasn't any lead up to it.

00:04:00.860 There was no fair warning.

00:04:02.360 There was no like, oh, it's time's coming.

00:04:04.440 It just happened and happened the way he said it was going to happen.

00:04:07.860 Said, boy, when I go, I'm going to be making love to your mother.

00:04:10.020 And it was a frisky Monday morning at 6 a.m.

00:04:12.960 And that's what happened.

00:04:13.960 And that's how he moved on from a heart attack.

00:04:16.980 It, I remember the call.

00:04:19.900 And I remember my knees dropping out from my mother.

00:04:22.680 She said, your dad moved on this morning.

00:04:25.200 And it was very unbelievable.

00:04:29.280 I didn't think it was possible.

00:04:31.160 And then dealing with that, you know, going back to the wake with the brothers and my mom

00:04:38.880 and hearing stories where you find out that, oh, the message maybe was a little different than the messenger,

00:04:43.740 which I was quickly able to forgive because I understood that to just be a reality.

00:04:49.320 But the loss, just keep living.

00:04:53.380 My phrase came from that because I remember when I went back to work six days later,

00:04:57.320 I was on the set of Days Confused, my very first film.

00:04:59.900 And I was talking with the director, Richard Linklater, at Magic Hour, Sundown.

00:05:03.460 We were walking around this football stadium.

00:05:05.380 I was like, you know, he's physically no longer here.

00:05:07.980 But spiritually, I think I can keep calling him.

00:05:10.780 I can talk to him whenever I want.

00:05:12.240 I can pick up the phone.

00:05:13.660 Got to keep his spirit alive.

00:05:15.880 And that's where Just Keep Living came from.

00:05:18.200 Added on top of that, look, I was scared because he left.

00:05:22.280 My crutch was gone.

00:05:23.600 He was, to me, what was above the law, above government, above religion.

00:05:28.760 Boy, if I was in a pinch and really need someone to have my back, that was going to be my dad.

00:05:31.800 And now that crutch is gone.

00:05:33.240 Now that parachute's gone.

00:05:35.240 And so I quickly was like, okay, boy, talking to myself.

00:05:39.500 Better quit acting like the things your dad taught you to do and be and start becoming the man that he taught you to be.

00:05:47.340 And that's been a process that I got kick-started in right then, very hardcore, but I've tried to maintain throughout my life.

00:05:53.840 Did he want you going into acting?

00:05:55.800 You had just started.

00:05:56.720 You weren't like the big star yet, although Days Confused was a hit.

00:06:00.400 But did he want you to do it?

00:06:01.880 Well, this was before, and I want to say this.

00:06:04.540 There's a very graceful thing in hindsight about his death.

00:06:09.220 He was alive for the first five days of me shooting Days Confused.

00:06:12.980 He didn't come to the set or anything, but he was alive for me to start.

00:06:16.200 His final son to start something that wouldn't be just a fad, that wouldn't just be a hobby.

00:06:21.180 Start something that became a career.

00:06:22.660 I've always seen some grace in that.

00:06:24.040 But the call that I had with him two years prior to that, well, I was headed towards law school at University of Texas, and it was a Tuesday night.

00:06:33.060 I planned it.

00:06:33.760 I said, I'm going to call him at Tuesday night at 7.30 p.m.

00:06:36.600 It won't be Monday because there's too much stress about getting back to work.

00:06:39.780 It'll be Tuesday.

00:06:40.600 End of the day, he'll be on the couch having a beer with mom.

00:06:42.880 It'll be a great time to tell him that I want to go to film school instead of law school.

00:06:46.080 So I made that call, 7.36 p.m., and he answered.

00:06:49.480 He said, what's up, monkey man?

00:06:50.920 I said, hey, pop, got something I want to share with you.

00:06:54.320 He said, what's that?

00:06:54.800 I said, I don't want to go to law school anymore.

00:06:56.500 I want to go to film school.

00:06:58.700 And there's a long pause, and I was like, oh, here it comes.

00:07:01.940 He's about to go, you want a what?

00:07:04.040 And he didn't.

00:07:04.740 He said, are you sure that's what you want to do?

00:07:06.820 I said, yes, sir.

00:07:08.580 Another long pause.

00:07:10.140 And he said, well, don't have acid.

00:07:13.220 So he gave me more than license.

00:07:15.400 He gave me rocket fuel to go do it.

00:07:18.040 Did he have any reason at that point to believe in you?

00:07:20.420 Had you been the big star on the high school stage?

00:07:23.720 No, I'd never been on stage.

00:07:25.140 I'd never done acting before.

00:07:27.060 Any of that.

00:07:28.580 I think what he heard, though, is something I think we all want to hear from our kids,

00:07:32.380 is a time when they're asking us or telling us, I wasn't really asking.

00:07:36.860 I was going to do it, right?

00:07:38.160 And I think he heard that in my voice, the way I said, yes, sir.

00:07:41.520 I didn't stutter.

00:07:42.560 I didn't blink.

00:07:43.740 I didn't whisper.

00:07:44.440 He heard the security in my voice that I'd gone through to make this decision.

00:07:49.480 And hearing that from me was, I think, he was like, okay, my son's asking, but he's not really asking.

00:07:55.440 And I think we all want to hear that from our children at some time after we give them guidelines.

00:08:00.260 But if they're going to break out of those guidelines and go their own way, don't come a-bluffing.

00:08:04.320 If you're going to do it, do it.

00:08:05.900 And he heard that.

00:08:06.880 And that's where he came up with telling me, don't have acid.

00:08:09.340 But where did you get the confidence for that?

00:08:11.260 Because there are millions of kids out there right now who would love to be a Hollywood star.

00:08:15.040 They're from Texas.

00:08:15.860 They have no connections to the industry.

00:08:18.160 It's a pipe dream.

00:08:20.400 Odds are overwhelmingly against you.

00:08:23.160 So how did you think, yeah, why not me?

00:08:25.720 Well, so I started off, I wasn't courageous or confident to say I wanted to be in front of the camera yet.

00:08:32.600 But I was at that time courageous enough to say I want to go into the storytelling business.

00:08:37.220 So I went to film school, studied behind the camera.

00:08:39.880 All right?

00:08:40.080 And I had been writing short stories at that time.

00:08:42.400 And I had a buddy in film school who said, these are really good short stories.

00:08:44.740 You might be able to want to turn these into moving pictures.

00:08:46.580 It wasn't until a year later that I was in the right bar at the right time.

00:08:52.000 I got cast in Days Confused and got in front of the camera.

00:08:54.540 And three lines turned to three weeks' work.

00:08:56.700 All right, all right, all right.

00:08:59.260 And I'm getting paid $320 a day.

00:09:01.320 And people are telling me I'm good at it.

00:09:02.660 Will you please come back tomorrow and do it again?

00:09:04.520 And I was like, hell yeah, I'll come back again.

00:09:07.480 Is this even legal?

00:09:08.280 I'm having so much fun.

00:09:09.380 And you're telling me I'm good at this?

00:09:10.560 I can make a living doing this?

00:09:12.540 That's where I got the confidence.

00:09:13.660 And then continued on.

00:09:16.480 And look, Megan, I didn't go to Hollywood and have the long story of having to wait the

00:09:20.560 tables for so long.

00:09:21.580 I actually went to Hollywood.

00:09:22.440 And the first two auditions I went on actually got the job.

00:09:25.380 It was Angels in the Outfield and Boys on the Side.

00:09:28.000 So I had some dry spells later on in my career.

00:09:31.060 But boy, when I first got out there, I knocked out the first two auditions.

00:09:34.820 You got them.

00:09:35.820 Well, I'm not surprised to hear that you were a writer.

00:09:38.040 Because when I read Poems and Prayers, it was obvious.

00:09:40.920 You know, and the thing that's special about the book is that it's a collection of poems

00:09:45.080 and prayers from back when you were a teenager.

00:09:48.060 I mean, you were like 18.

00:09:49.880 Yeah.

00:09:50.360 And I wonder, like, I have been an avid journal keeper for most of my life.

00:09:54.480 But when I occasionally pull out the ones from that period, it's awful.

00:10:00.320 It's very humbling.

00:10:01.660 I know what you mean.

00:10:03.320 And you had the courage to put it down in paper and publish it.

00:10:05.900 So how does that feel reading back on the earlier ones?

00:10:08.980 So I went back and saw the earlier ones and looked, you know, even in writing Green Lights,

00:10:12.940 part of that was going back and looking at 35 years of my journey.

00:10:15.340 You remember.

00:10:15.740 And I looked at some of that stuff and I was like, oh, good gosh.

00:10:19.200 The shame, the guilt going on.

00:10:20.960 Are you kidding me? 1.00

00:10:21.920 Look at the arrogant little prick you were. 1.00

00:10:23.700 Who do you think you were? 1.00

00:10:25.140 But then after a while, I started to chuckle at those things.

00:10:28.540 And that's why I added this point, that poem in this book, which isn't a bad point, but it's a very self-serious poem of an 18-year-old boy asking some big existential questions when you would think he would just be having a great fun time summer in the end of the sunshine.

00:10:42.520 And I added it because it was a time.

00:10:47.040 I gave a damn at 18. 0.94

00:10:48.460 I still give a damn. 0.81

00:10:49.740 I'm still working on trying to be a better man. 0.81

00:10:52.620 I'm still questioning what's going on in the world.

00:10:55.000 I'm still, you know, pointing out stuff that I think is mendacious and not fair in the world.

00:10:59.300 And I'm asking those questions and I still do.

00:11:01.160 So to see that I was doing that at 18, I'll mind you, you could tell I had a thesaurus near.

00:11:05.900 I used some words in there that I'm like, you don't know what that meant.

00:11:08.760 And I still don't know what that word meant, but I had a thesaurus near me, you know what I mean?

00:11:12.960 But when I read the early writings, I think this is obviously an artist, like this is an artistic person.

00:11:18.020 It's it should be no surprise that this person did not wind up in law school and instead wound up in the arts, really telling stories and bringing characters to life.

00:11:27.140 So it's a fun it's kind of funny to me to think of you going to law school.

00:11:30.540 But you talk in the book, you write in the book about your previous, maybe current commitment to logic and reason and how much that has appealed to you for your first 55 years.

00:11:41.280 But now you're kind of in a different phase.

00:11:43.080 So it does make some sense.

00:11:44.340 It's just not that common to see both the strong logic and reasoning thread coupled with the artistic and creative ability and Jones.

00:11:52.820 So when I was in kindergarten, I was standing on the street corner outside of the school and the head principal came out and I was I was looking up at the sky at this cloud.

00:12:04.260 And I said, Mr. Mayor, is that cloud as big as the world?

00:12:07.460 And he goes, yes, Matthew, it is.

00:12:09.900 So in my whatever kindergarten, how old I was, five year old mind, six year old mom was like, well, if I can see the edges of that cloud and it's as big as the world.

00:12:20.340 And I know that that road trip we took from Texas to Pensacola took whatever, 15 hours.

00:12:25.980 And it was just that long on a map.

00:12:27.300 If I can see the edge of that cloud, that cloud must be so far up in the sky that it's not even worth dreaming about.

00:12:34.300 So I'm going to put my head down.

00:12:36.140 Forget Air Force, I'm Army.

00:12:37.720 That was went through my head.

00:12:38.960 I was like, you've got to deal with what's right in front of you because what's out there is too far away.

00:12:43.600 So for 15 years, I just put my head down and dealt.

00:12:48.280 Didn't dream.

00:12:49.240 You know, at 16 years old, I take my first flight, commercial flight.

00:12:53.800 And in 10 seconds, I'm in the middle of that cloud.

00:12:55.300 And I'm like, either this cloud goes a billion miles an hour or that cloud is not as big as the world is like Mr. Mayor told me it was.

00:13:00.580 Well, so I then come to learn, oh, clouds aren't that big.

00:13:03.560 They're not that far away.

00:13:04.640 And all of a sudden I was like, oh, well, so what's over the horizon is actually worth considering.

00:13:10.220 What's out there that you don't see right in front of you is worth dreaming about.

00:13:13.760 But still, the fact that I've always dealt and looked to logic, you know, us doers, I've always been a doer.

00:13:21.820 And us doers, we climb mountains.

00:13:23.900 Well, we're good climbers.

00:13:25.220 But because we've got our head down, we don't always climb the right mountains.

00:13:28.400 Us dreamers, you know, look up and are always kind of measuring in the landscape, which doesn't make us very good climbers, but we pick the right mountains.

00:13:36.780 So doers can help dreamers, you know, climb more mountains and dreamers can help doers climb the right ones.

00:13:43.220 But I didn't start dreaming until I moved to Longview until I was about 16 years old.

00:13:47.860 So something, you've made some good choices with that combination because I look at you and you seem to me very much like an outlier.

00:13:54.140 You, we talked about, you know, the writing ability, which not everybody in Hollywood has.

00:13:57.940 A lot of people just want to be on camera.

00:13:59.380 A lot of people just want to be a star in my industry too.

00:14:02.300 Poems and Prayers is the name of the book for those listening.

00:14:04.400 So you've got writing ability.

00:14:07.860 You move out to California, you get cast in the first two things that you apply for, you try out for, audition.

00:14:12.880 You become a star pretty quickly.

00:14:14.880 And then unlike virtually everybody who follows that path with success, you leave Hollywood.

00:14:20.380 You go back to your native Texas. 0.91

00:14:21.860 You choose to raise your children there.

00:14:23.640 You get married.

00:14:24.720 You're in a long-term marriage.

00:14:26.600 Like your marriage works, which is rare in your industry.

00:14:30.940 By the way, you're not the first McConaughey I've interviewed.

00:14:33.240 Your lovely wife came on my show when I was at NBC. 0.88

00:14:36.420 There we go.

00:14:37.620 And so all of these things suggest you're of a different mold and model than the average person out there.

00:14:44.140 That you have, to me, a different value set.

00:14:46.480 And I think that's embodied in your book because what I see in here is you love America.

00:14:51.740 You're a man of faith.

00:14:53.580 But like most of us who are people of faith, you struggle with it.

00:14:56.780 What does it mean?

00:14:57.420 How far can it take me?

00:14:58.960 How humble, you know, how can I humble myself in order for it to really mean something to me?

00:15:04.860 You love your children.

00:15:05.980 You prioritize them over your job and realize they're both important, but one is clearly the winner.

00:15:10.500 So I wonder whether that's all the job of the parents and Texas and whether you think all of this would have happened for you if you hadn't pulled up out of Hollywood and gone back home.

00:15:23.760 So the main reason I came back, one of the main reasons I came back home is I did go out there to Hollywood long enough I wanted to get myself established.

00:15:37.660 You know, enough credentials to say, oh, you can't just rock my boat and I'm gone, you know, and also enough credentials where, you know, if they want me, they know where to find me.

00:15:49.460 And if they want me, I will plan my routes out to Hollywood and line up meetings for two weeks and just go knock them all out.

00:15:59.220 You know, along along the way, it was also my mom's here.

00:16:02.880 My brothers are here.

00:16:04.300 As soon as Camilla and I decided to have children, I wanted them to be raised here near my home and around their family.

00:16:11.440 Um, I wanted them to be raised with the, uh, maybe what you could say is a little more common sense values that I feel is around here where a mile feels like a mile and 60 minutes feels like an hour.

00:16:23.300 Um, it's a, it was a natural coming on for me.

00:16:27.440 It was also at that time I was doing romantic comedies and I was the rom-com guy and I love doing them.

00:16:35.820 And I hope to do more later on.

00:16:37.860 Wedding planner with J-Lo, how to lose a guy in 10 days with Kate Hudson.

00:16:42.660 Hi, I'm Benjamin Barry.

00:16:44.360 Andy Anderson.

00:16:45.320 Oh, you are already falling in love with me.

00:16:48.340 Sarah Jessica Parker in one.

00:16:50.700 Failure to launch.

00:16:51.720 Yeah.

00:16:52.540 I had a nice time.

00:16:53.460 I did too.

00:16:56.700 Good night.

00:16:57.740 Good night.

00:16:58.420 I was rolling in the rom-coms.

00:17:00.220 Successful, enjoying the heck out of them.

00:17:01.760 At the same time, I was so successful at them that any dramas I wanted to do, Hollywood was not offering me.

00:17:07.840 Even if I took a huge pay cut, they're like, no, no, no, McConaughey, stay in your lane.

00:17:11.680 Like, okay, well, if I can't do what I want to do, I'm going to quit doing what I'm doing.

00:17:16.420 So moved back down here.

00:17:18.900 Dropped out.

00:17:19.700 You didn't see me in any rom-coms.

00:17:22.020 You didn't see me shirtless on a beach.

00:17:24.020 You didn't know where I was.

00:17:25.940 And I knew it was going to be a bit of a desert I was walking into because I was like, I might've just wrote my one-way ticket out of Hollywood.

00:17:32.180 And Camilla and I prayed on it, pried on it, and said, I'm going to do it.

00:17:35.940 I'm going to stick to the decision.

00:17:37.060 And she goes, you know, this might last a long time.

00:17:39.400 You don't know.

00:17:40.420 There's no parachute to pull here.

00:17:41.540 You might have just written yourself a ticket out of Hollywood.

00:17:43.620 And I was like, yep, but it's non-negotiable.

00:17:45.260 This is what I'm going to do.

00:17:46.680 Well, months went by and nothing.

00:17:49.780 Six months go by, nothing.

00:17:51.100 A year goes by.

00:17:52.000 I talked to my age.

00:17:52.660 He goes, Matthew, I haven't even heard your name.

00:17:56.040 You know, luckily at this time, Camilla's pregnant. 0.99

00:17:58.360 And I, and we've got our first child coming on, which really anchored me to have a little significance, you know, in a time when I was feeling very wobbly without anything, any work to do.

00:18:07.560 So, 18 months go by, and I remember this, the script comes in, this romantic comedy, $8 million offer.

00:18:14.400 I said, no, thank you.

00:18:15.320 $10 million offer.

00:18:16.280 I said, no, thank you.

00:18:17.280 $12 million offer.

00:18:18.380 I said, no, thank you.

00:18:19.440 $14.5 million offer.

00:18:21.400 I said, let me read that again.

00:18:26.200 And let me tell you, it was the same words.

00:18:28.700 It was the same words as the $8 million offer, but it was better.

00:18:32.120 It was more well-written.

00:18:33.100 I could see this working for me, you know.

00:18:34.840 But ultimately, I said, no, and I think that sent a little bit of an invisible message to Hollywood.

00:18:41.560 Oh, McConaughey's not bluffing.

00:18:43.300 He's, he's onto something here.

00:18:44.640 He's actually playing offense and affirmatively where he is.

00:18:48.540 And cut to four months later, all of a sudden, I get the calls for the dramas that I want to do, and I just attack them.

00:18:54.520 So, that was a step out of Hollywood where I needed to rebrand and unbrand, really, before I rebranded.

00:18:59.720 Mm-hmm.

00:19:00.820 And then, when did Dallas Buyers Club come?

00:19:04.340 2013.

00:19:05.620 So, that's about four years, three years, I think, into that run after the two-year hiatus.

00:19:11.340 30 days.

00:19:14.420 I'm sorry. 1.00

00:19:15.120 Fuck this. 1.00

00:19:21.580 This is shit. 1.00

00:19:24.100 Fucking 30 days, motherfuckers. 1.00

00:19:26.380 Let me give you a little newsflash. 1.00

00:19:28.100 There ain't nothing out there can kill fucking Ron Woodruff in 30 days. 0.99

00:19:31.160 Which led to Academy Gold. 0.95

00:19:37.920 Was that before and after for you, or, like, was that actually a game changer or no, because you'd already rejiggered and relaunched?

00:19:45.480 Well, look, it was a game changer in that, hey, there's my peers saying, we deem your performance the most excellent male lead performance of the year.

00:19:58.440 That meant a lot to me.

00:19:59.780 Sure as hell did.

00:20:01.720 It wasn't something that I've ever been out to prove or anything, but to get that from my peers in the craft, a lot of them who I respect, that felt really good.

00:20:10.460 Now, one of the things that's funny about winning an Academy Award is that things you say afterwards, especially immediately afterwards, the things that used to be in small print are now in bold print.

00:20:22.340 Even if you're repeating something you said 10 years ago, all of a sudden, it's in bold print.

00:20:26.100 And they're like, wow, that's original.

00:20:28.120 I go, man, I've been saying that for 15 years.

00:20:30.420 Now it's in bold print.

00:20:32.500 But it did open up, it opened up a lot of opportunities for me that I've tried to, you know, take advantage of as responsive as I could.

00:20:40.360 But then here's my question for you.

00:20:41.700 When Robert Downey Jr. won, I think it was Best Supporting Actor this past year ago, I think, if memory serves.

00:20:48.840 I'm not as into it all, but I loved his opening line, which was, I'd like to thank my unhappy childhood.

00:20:53.940 Which is like, yeah, so good and probably true for a lot of actors, right?

00:20:59.780 Like that's where you get all the stuff that you can draw on, the stuff that you could put into a book like Poems and Prayers.

00:21:05.080 But is it true for you?

00:21:07.580 No, no, it's not.

00:21:09.520 And, you know, I had a time where right after I called my dad and said I was going to film school and he said, don't half-ass it.

00:21:17.200 I get into film school.

00:21:19.100 I'm a frat guy.

00:21:20.320 I wear jeans, impress my shirt, and they're tucked in.

00:21:24.280 And I go see blockbuster films on the weekend.

00:21:27.160 I got into film school on my GPA because I had a 3.82 GPA.

00:21:30.880 I didn't have a piece of art.

00:21:31.960 So I get into film school and everyone's in there wearing black and they're gothic and no one's got a tan.

00:21:37.880 Here I am.

00:21:38.260 I got a tan frat guy, jeans, you know, and I'm questioning, wait a minute.

00:21:42.400 Do I need to be the sort of Hamletian, you know, problems in life to be an artist, you know?

00:21:48.400 And I remember we have Mondays where you'd come back to the class.

00:21:51.700 You talked about what you saw that weekend.

00:21:53.640 And I'd always come back and go, hey, man, I just saw Die Hard, you know?

00:21:57.160 And they'd come back and go, I saw the Eisenstein thing at the Independent, you know? 0.99

00:22:02.220 Anyway, every time I'd bring up the blockbuster, like I saw Die Hard, they'd all go, oh, that's shit. 1.00

00:22:06.340 That's corporate bullshit, man. 1.00

00:22:08.260 It's not art. 1.00

00:22:08.780 And I'm going, oh, man, I'm getting hammered here.

00:22:11.340 Maybe I'm not an artist.

00:22:13.160 And then one day I came in.

00:22:14.880 One day I come in and I say the blockbuster it was.

00:22:17.560 And actually the one I'd said this day was Die Hard. 1.00

00:22:20.300 And they go, oh, man, that's bullshit. 1.00

00:22:21.680 And I said, hang on a second. 1.00

00:22:22.540 Hang on just a second.

00:22:24.080 I go, did y'all see it?

00:22:26.100 And they go, well, no, no. 1.00

00:22:29.840 I mean, we're just saying, you know, it's like, oh, bullshit. 1.00

00:22:33.200 No, you can't just say because it was populous, it came from a big studio and it played in a blockbuster that it's crap. 1.00

00:22:39.700 I enjoyed it. 0.98

00:22:40.440 And that's when I went, I'm going to keep my shirt tucked in.

00:22:43.520 I'm going to keep my shirt in my frat house.

00:22:45.620 I'm rolling.

00:22:46.620 If I want to go spend the weekend watching Sharknado, why should they be allowed to stop me?

00:22:50.860 Come on.

00:22:52.280 It takes all different kinds of tastes to keep the movie industry going.

00:22:55.340 You know what's crazy?

00:22:57.500 Trusting the government or some random insurance agent to give good Medicare support.

00:23:02.120 That's how people could wind up stuck in the wrong plan.

00:23:04.800 Get this.

00:23:05.420 Trump's Department of Justice sued three major Medicare brokers for pretending to be unbiased

00:23:10.720 while allegedly pushing people into the plans that got the brokers the biggest kickbacks.

00:23:16.500 Let's be honest here.

00:23:17.600 The government made a mess of Medicare.

00:23:19.380 No one should have to untangle that mess alone.

00:23:21.700 This is why I want to tell you about Chapter.

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00:23:27.660 biggest commissions.

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00:23:36.720 of years.

00:23:37.460 So whether you are brand new to Medicare or you've been on it for years, consider making

00:23:41.520 the call and finding out more.

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00:23:51.800 Call the number 27 Medicare today.

00:23:54.560 That's 27 Medicare.

00:23:55.980 And finally, feel confident about your Medicare.

00:24:21.800 I'm going to stand on these stages and I'm going to say all the things that we say all the

00:24:26.340 time on this show.

00:24:27.300 We're going to make it safe for me.

00:24:28.260 We're going to make it safe for my team and my guests and you.

00:24:31.180 We're going coast to coast and do something really important, which is to say what's true

00:24:36.620 and what's real to honor him.

00:24:38.880 I really now more than ever would love to see you all face-to-face.

00:24:43.840 God, I would love to see you face-to-face.

00:24:46.920 I need to see you face-to-face.

00:24:49.640 I am doing this tour and I would love for you to join me.

00:24:53.120 Visit megankelly.com for the tickets.

00:24:54.940 I don't know.

00:24:59.880 What do you think of that?

00:25:00.740 Because there's been, I'll say, I just gave my own complaint on it.

00:25:03.960 And you saw the New York Times movie critic resigned two years ago saying, I can't, I can't,

00:25:08.760 I can't with just like the nonstop action hero movies.

00:25:12.400 Like I miss plots.

00:25:14.100 I miss drama.

00:25:15.660 I miss like real crescendos and decrescendos and plots that expose human frailty.

00:25:21.400 Like what happened to those movies?

00:25:22.840 And you and I grew up at exactly the same time.

00:25:25.040 I know you know what he's talking about and what I'm talking about.

00:25:27.160 Yep.

00:25:27.820 Can we get back to that?

00:25:29.060 I've heard Matt Damon do a riff on this, suggesting the way the studio system's set up now.

00:25:32.720 No.

00:25:33.540 What do you think?

00:25:35.180 So here's what I've noticed is happening.

00:25:37.260 As we're going into streaming, like I've got this, I've got a film coming out the Lost bus.

00:25:41.320 Is there anybody that can go and pick these kids up?

00:25:55.160 It is a film built for the big theater, for the big screen.

00:25:59.200 We have a two week run, limited screens in LA, New York and London before we stream straight to Apple+.

00:26:05.680 That's where it's going.

00:26:07.920 And I feel like the streamers want to go, let's forget even the two week theatrical release.

00:26:12.300 Let's just go straight to streaming.

00:26:14.020 Now, the problem with that is that you've seen it.

00:26:16.980 Everyone sees it.

00:26:17.640 You go on one of these streamers and you see this catalog of films.

00:26:21.460 I don't know about you, but I'm like, when did they make that?

00:26:23.920 It's one of my favorite actors.

00:26:25.040 When did they make it?

00:26:25.860 I didn't even see it.

00:26:26.680 I didn't even hear about it.

00:26:27.840 So everything's kind of dropped down to a low common denominator in a library.

00:26:31.780 So there's no exclusivity that you get of a precious, oh, it's come out in the theater.

00:26:36.780 Oh, if we want to see that actor or actress or director of film, we have to go out on Friday night when it opens and see it.

00:26:44.680 It doesn't have that as much.

00:26:46.500 And I hope we can maintain that.

00:26:48.120 What's also happening is in this abbreviated attention span capacity that we talk about that people have, what studios are first cutting is the first acts of films.

00:27:01.680 Now, the first act is where you set up the world for the viewer that tells you, you may know where this story goes, but you've never been there with me.

00:27:09.380 So it's going to be specific.

00:27:10.800 I'm going to set you up with an original show.

00:27:12.500 But the conflict that starts in act two, which is usually on page 38, now is on page 11.

00:27:19.320 It's like, start it, meet you, hi, know what you do, bam, conflict, let's get on with it.

00:27:23.780 No one wants to wait around or the studios don't believe they want to wait around for an interesting first act.

00:27:29.040 It's what was so pleasurable about doing True Detective. 0.99

00:27:32.260 Up your ass, Cole. 1.00

00:27:34.060 Why don't you do your own fucking legwork, you rat fuck? 1.00

00:27:42.500 Say it again with me. 1.00

00:27:44.440 Hey.

00:27:48.580 It was an eight-part series.

00:27:50.620 For three and a half hours, I get a first act, which is an actor's dream because that's where I get to go, here's how you could go on this journey with me that you've never been in or this relationship that I have with Marty Hart.

00:28:01.600 And I hope we don't keep abbreviating getting to know characters and relationships that are specific and original because if we do, everything's just going to feel like somewhat the same movie.

00:28:13.120 I can relate to this, believe it or not, just going from cable news to podcasting.

00:28:17.800 It's much the same in that only like the reverse, right?

00:28:21.020 Because the cable news, you've got to get up and down on it quickly and move on.

00:28:23.820 There's no chance to establish the character's background or fall in love with them or what have you.

00:28:28.720 You've just got to get, you know, what's the news?

00:28:30.440 In and out.

00:28:30.860 Whereas in podcasting, you can build the story.

00:28:33.800 You can help the audience get to know this character before you zero in on really why they're here.

00:28:39.600 Yep.

00:28:40.260 Yeah.

00:28:40.680 I mean, you'd know this.

00:28:42.100 You just said it.

00:28:42.740 I mean, and I didn't learn this for 10 years from doing press for a film or a book.

00:28:48.400 You know, you're going on.

00:28:49.660 I remember the first time I went on, like, Leno, you know, you get four minutes up there.

00:28:54.220 And I want to go, well, you know, the thing, you're already, uh-uh, zap. 0.94

00:28:58.780 This is not the format for the long term.

00:29:01.640 So you learn, you pick your spots about what's my message, what's my window, how do I hit it?

00:29:06.460 But for people that are interested in stories, I want to, I don't ever want to lose the longer format.

00:29:13.080 And will there be a rebellion back to people going, I don't want a short snippet.

00:29:18.980 No, I want the longer format.

00:29:20.940 I want to take the time.

00:29:22.180 They can hear it on audio now.

00:29:23.540 They can drive it and listen to it or watch it.

00:29:25.540 Yes, they're consuming information differently, which I think will lead to a desire for more meaningful conversations.

00:29:32.560 I just think it's, that's why these other models are, they have limited shelf lives.

00:29:36.600 And no offense to these superhero action movies because there's definitely an audience for those.

00:29:41.440 But longer form storytelling is still an art form that many of us thirst for and would absolutely consume with, you know, a lot of dollars.

00:29:49.040 Now in The Lost Bus, you have an interesting situation because you have your son, your son, Levi, is starring in it, 17 years old.

00:29:58.900 And I've actually, so I'm kind of drafting behind you on the childhood front because my kids are almost your kids' ages.

00:30:05.680 They're 15, 14, and 12.

00:30:08.040 And now that they're getting to be like real humans, you know, like we're, they're on the cusp of adulthood.

00:30:14.760 I've asked myself this question about nepotism, the nepo baby. 1.00

00:30:19.100 And, you know, when you're the mother of a kid who's, you know, through no fault of their own is born to you and you might be a public figure, it's hard to call it that.

00:30:27.920 You know, as opposed to like, well, if my kid wanted my help getting into my industry, I'd probably give him an open door and then let him take it.

00:30:35.660 And you were recently in this position.

00:30:37.560 Can you tell us what happened?

00:30:38.300 Yeah, and that nepotism question is a really good one because I don't want my kids to ever feel entitled.

00:30:46.560 At the same time, do I believe with people in my own life, outside of my family, that if you want to know where the arrow is going, look at where it was shot from.

00:30:54.840 And so there's real practicality to that.

00:30:58.060 My son, as I pitch films that I'm in to my family all the time, my son comes to me and he, I knew that there was a role as a young boy to play my son.

00:31:06.880 He says, how old is that kid?

00:31:08.580 I said, he actually, he's about 13, 14, which was Levi's age at the time.

00:31:11.800 And he goes, can I read for it?

00:31:13.000 And I was like, hmm, kind of just straight faced him and walked off.

00:31:17.580 I wanted to see how much he wanted it.

00:31:18.960 If it was just a whim or what he comes up four more times over the next week.

00:31:22.340 Can I read for it?

00:31:23.080 Can I read for it?

00:31:23.740 Can I read for it?

00:31:24.320 And I said, okay, you want to read for it?

00:31:26.660 Let me tell you what this acting thing's about.

00:31:28.300 This is not just a little, hey, hey, what if, hey, I'm going to teach you something about this.

00:31:32.800 You got to revere this craft and you got to work at it.

00:31:35.060 So let's work on this character right now.

00:31:36.900 We'll get a read.

00:31:37.560 We did.

00:31:38.060 I put it on camera.

00:31:38.900 I saw on camera.

00:31:39.740 I was like, oh, he's got presence.

00:31:41.060 He can hold a frame.

00:31:42.100 He's being honest in front of the camera.

00:31:43.720 That's good instincts.

00:31:44.680 Okay.

00:31:45.920 I sent it to the casting director and I said, Francine, I think it's maybe good enough for callback.

00:31:51.220 What do you think?

00:31:51.840 And she wrote back and said, I think it's good enough to send to the director.

00:31:54.320 And I said, oh, okay.

00:31:56.500 Will you do me a favor?

00:31:57.720 Will you pull his last name off?

00:31:59.720 Because I just don't want it preceding, you know, anyone's opinion to help or to help or anything.

00:32:06.260 She goes, yes.

00:32:06.960 Right.

00:32:07.140 You don't want to send the message.

00:32:07.940 I'm phoning in a favor here.

00:32:09.880 Hey, you know, kind of, hey, it's playing my son.

00:32:12.400 If you do me a favor, I would not make that call.

00:32:14.440 And I'm not going to make that call.

00:32:15.460 Again, open the door.

00:32:17.160 But once you get in the door, son, daughter, you go handle.

00:32:20.460 But I did open the door.

00:32:21.480 I had access to get his read to the cast director.

00:32:24.020 Well, the director sees it and says, that's the kid.

00:32:25.880 She goes, well, that happens to be Matthew's son.

00:32:27.920 He goes, even better.

00:32:29.540 So he got the role, which makes, I'm very proud of.

00:32:33.260 And he did it on his own merit and his own talent.

00:32:35.040 Okay, but now let me ask you about part two, part two.

00:32:37.540 So then he, so he stars in it.

00:32:40.120 It's about to launch.

00:32:41.380 And now I think at this point in the process, I haven't yet gotten there.

00:32:45.620 None of my kids have said they want to go to media.

00:32:47.460 I'm just saying like, I would help them.

00:32:49.260 I think I'd be living in terror of bad reviews, of nasty internet trolls.

00:32:56.000 It's one thing when they come for us, who cares?

00:32:57.460 We're used to it.

00:32:58.060 But come for my kid?

00:32:59.720 I mean, that's the kind of thing I might toss and turn over at night.

00:33:03.160 I have not tossed and turned.

00:33:04.540 Maybe that's because I said, get ready for it.

00:33:06.520 It's going to happen anyway.

00:33:08.080 I said, your last name is going to get you praise in places maybe you didn't deserve it.

00:33:14.020 It's also going to get you slammed in places you don't deserve it.

00:33:17.540 So this is a rodeo.

00:33:19.320 If you want to get into this, I'm not saying you got to have thick skin,

00:33:21.980 but you got to know what's important to you.

00:33:23.780 And you got to be ready to hit.

00:33:25.100 Knives are going to come at you, whether you deserve them or not.

00:33:27.440 Fair has nothing to do with this.

00:33:29.940 So if you love doing the craft enough and you're good at it, you stick your, put your

00:33:33.780 head down and do that.

00:33:34.980 And the rest of that, you've got to have thick skin about because that's going to happen.

00:33:39.100 Fair has nothing to do with this.

00:33:41.580 That's a great life lesson.

00:33:43.500 Listen, I, I, in, in the book you write in poems and prayers, you write, I wrote it down.

00:33:48.340 Your number one job is helping your kids become who they are, not who you want them to be.

00:33:54.160 Shoot it into my veins.

00:33:55.420 It's exactly right.

00:33:56.580 So many people don't get it, Matthew.

00:33:57.920 They think the kids are a do over.

00:34:01.460 And you've come to the same realization that Doug and I have, which is that DNA thing has

00:34:07.080 a lot to do with how they show up.

00:34:10.100 And we just kind of fool ourselves that we're the big maestros about where it's going.

00:34:15.260 But that was the biggest surprise to me about having children.

00:34:18.420 I thought it was 90, 10 environment culture to DNA.

00:34:22.080 And all of a sudden I was like, oh, it's closer to the opposite.

00:34:24.720 Right, yes, totally.

00:34:27.800 But that's, I mean, I would imagine, especially in Hollywood, that's not a lesson everybody

00:34:33.260 understands, you know, because it's a very hard charging, granted me to dump on Hollywood

00:34:37.920 nonstop, though, I'll be honest, my audience can't stand Hollywood.

00:34:41.240 But it's a very hard charging group of people that have made it in a very competitive industry,

00:34:48.460 like they've made it at the top.

00:34:49.340 So they've got to be somewhat cutthroat.

00:34:50.560 But then you have a kid and everybody out there is probably facing a similar challenge,

00:34:56.940 which is how do I maintain my kid's competitive drive, notwithstanding the fact that they've

00:35:03.240 been born into a life of luxury and privilege, et cetera, right?

00:35:07.060 And like, I don't know.

00:35:08.960 I think too many parents would default to, I'll make him a killer, as opposed to, I will sit

00:35:15.020 back and figure out, like, let him figure out whether he wants to be a killer.

00:35:20.620 Well, you know how it is.

00:35:22.840 I mean, it's, it's, there's a lot of parents, and you probably know them as well, that for

00:35:28.780 my money, I think become or want to be friends with their children when they need to be parents

00:35:34.900 to them.

00:35:35.400 And that friend to their children is sometimes a bit of that do over.

00:35:39.220 Or, hey, maybe you can pick up where I left off and become a better version of me, which

00:35:43.340 is, that's not what a child's asking for early on.

00:35:48.660 You know, do-overs.

00:35:51.800 I think that kids want us to be a parent to them early.

00:35:58.200 Are you a more traditional dad?

00:36:00.620 I mean, I know you're married to a Brazilian woman, and I have a lot of Brazilian friends.

00:36:04.200 I know they tend to like a more traditional man, and you're from Texas, so I kind of feel

00:36:09.600 like you'd be more of a trad dad, but are you?

00:36:12.420 Well, look, I'm more, I go, I call it, and this is not a political term, but I call it

00:36:16.980 conservative, very liberal late.

00:36:18.740 I want my kids to know how to block and tackle, know your manners and graces and arithmetic

00:36:23.300 and respect before we're going to go fly our freak flag and say, whatever.

00:36:28.420 So I think art emulates life.

00:36:31.320 I want them to learn who they are and who they are not in life before they're going

00:36:37.920 off into imaginations.

00:36:39.500 Now, you can create whoever it is you want to be, but let's have a foundation that we

00:36:44.680 understand about how we act and how we treat ourselves and each other before we go off

00:36:49.520 into, you know, la-la land of dreams and creation.

00:36:53.380 Again, how I grew up, learned to deal before I learned to dream.

00:36:56.240 That's how, that's sort of my look at it.

00:36:58.560 I believe in consequences.

00:37:00.340 I believe in discipline.

00:37:01.620 I also believe that sometimes as I'm learning right now, I did not know, Megan, that I always

00:37:06.860 thought you went from father to later on a friend.

00:37:09.500 And I did not know that there's a bridge in the middle there called big brother as a

00:37:13.460 father.

00:37:13.940 And I'm able to be a big brother, especially now that my kids are teens.

00:37:17.420 And I can kind of put my hand on their back and maybe not judge them as quickly and go,

00:37:21.220 I know what you're talking about.

00:37:22.420 Let me tell you this story about when I was in high school.

00:37:24.760 And the other great thing about teenage kids is I don't have to edit my good stories as

00:37:28.720 much to them anymore.

00:37:32.240 Now, which period of your life are the best stories from?

00:37:36.900 Oh, I mean, I've got some starting back from when I was eight.

00:37:43.420 I think the best stories were probably, oh man, every decade had a great story.

00:37:47.700 I would say I could pick them out all over the place.

00:37:50.760 There's things I look back at that I did when I was younger that makes me happy to

00:37:55.200 be here and alive.

00:37:57.880 But there's been some great stories, which I cataloged along the way and mostly in

00:38:02.740 Greenlights and somewhat in poems and prayers.

00:38:05.180 I think there's been some pretty good stories along the way.

00:38:08.000 Well, you don't seem risk averse.

00:38:10.320 You've outlined it, leaving Hollywood and saying, I'm just going to do it differently.

00:38:13.900 That was a huge risk.

00:38:14.740 But your life philosophy does not, as reflected in poems and prayers, does not seem to favor

00:38:18.980 safe spaces.

00:38:19.900 It seems to favor, take the big risks and don't die in your bed saying, I never got

00:38:26.360 hurt.

00:38:27.680 Right.

00:38:28.520 Well, that's a constant thing to measure, isn't it?

00:38:33.540 Because especially after getting successful, having a family, things that I've built that 0.51

00:38:38.360 I want to maintain that I'm not going to be foolish with. 0.70

00:38:42.140 All right.

00:38:42.420 At the same time, I don't want to get complacent and safe and go, okay, this is it.

00:38:47.980 Everyone just huddle up, put your, you know, keep everything else out.

00:38:50.720 I still want to take risk.

00:38:53.140 And that's also, you know, something that I know women, I'm sure they do too, but men 1.00

00:38:58.060 go through in middle age, you're at the bottom of the horseshoe.

00:39:00.680 Like, are we taking the risk anymore?

00:39:02.140 How do we still take a chance with the, take the right kind of risk?

00:39:05.860 And I still want to take the right kind of risk, but I don't want to be foolish with

00:39:08.860 what I've built because some of the stuff I've built is non-negotiably going to be on

00:39:12.100 my table and in my life until I leave this one.

00:39:15.680 You know, I have that passage in poems and prayers.

00:39:18.680 I'm curious, you know, if, if, if, if, if it's God happier, if we take eight major risk

00:39:24.880 in life and pull off seven of them, or is he happy when we take a hundred risk and pull

00:39:28.580 off eight, you know, it's like the little bit of that, you don't want you coming back

00:39:33.280 with money.

00:39:34.160 You know what I mean?

00:39:34.900 Right.

00:39:35.080 I think he's saying if you didn't take enough risk, if you did, maybe, maybe that's the

00:39:40.980 sin.

00:39:41.720 You know what I mean?

00:39:42.640 Yes.

00:39:43.140 And if you didn't, it's, it's, it's, you know, the sin comes from an archery term to

00:39:48.720 miss the mark.

00:39:51.460 That's what the word sin comes from, to miss the mark.

00:39:54.200 We miss the mark all the time.

00:39:56.180 And I don't want to quit taking the chances to miss the mark.

00:39:59.320 I want to make, I want to hit the mark, but don't want to go out going, well, I never shot.

00:40:02.760 But it's even harder when you've reached your level of success, because now you do have

00:40:07.240 a lot to lose.

00:40:08.460 So, you know, to keep challenging yourself, to keep making yourself go out there and take

00:40:12.440 the big risks, it gets even scarier, right?

00:40:15.060 It's one thing when you're up and coming, it's like, what the hell?

00:40:17.400 Or even when you're on the middle of the ladder, but when you're at the top of the ladder with

00:40:20.740 all the things, a lot of people would say, I'm going to stay.

00:40:24.200 I'm going to hold.

00:40:25.240 Yeah.

00:40:25.460 I'll hold.

00:40:26.360 I'll hold.

00:40:26.700 You don't feel that way.

00:40:28.760 Um, I hope not.

00:40:30.520 Look, I've been told by many people that are close to me that my biggest asset is that

00:40:35.780 I take risk.

00:40:36.840 I also think that that's what I need to take more of, that I don't take enough.

00:40:41.640 So as it is-

00:40:42.780 What could that look like now?

00:40:43.500 What could that look like for Matthew McConaughey at 55?

00:40:45.980 Um, putting my cards on the table of who I am in this big movie that I'm living, that

00:40:54.120 was, action was called The Day I Was Born and cut's called The Day I'm Leaving This Life.

00:40:57.620 The documentary that I'm living, that we're all living, putting it on and going, and it's

00:41:01.720 what I'm doing a bit up now and I still have a ways to go.

00:41:04.200 I'm creating characters that I believe in and want to play in my own life and saying, what

00:41:10.180 are you doing live?

00:41:11.820 What's happening?

00:41:12.800 The camera's rolling.

00:41:14.400 It's been rolling since The Day I Was Born.

00:41:15.920 What do you, why do you have to go off to do someone else that something else, someone

00:41:19.040 that something else wrote and is directing and is cinematographer and then editing?

00:41:23.980 Get rid of those filters.

00:41:25.540 What's, what am I doing live?

00:41:27.040 Who am I live in life?

00:41:29.600 That's what I'm pressing myself on for the, mainly for the last six years more so, um,

00:41:35.860 than any time.

00:41:36.440 And I hope I'll continue to press on myself to do that.

00:41:39.480 That, okay.

00:41:40.320 That leads me to one of my favorite pieces in the book, uh, which is on page 77, it's

00:41:46.620 good man.

00:41:48.280 And you write as follows.

00:41:49.900 There's a difference between a good man and a nice guy.

00:41:52.700 A good man stands for certain ideals.

00:41:55.140 And when those beliefs are contested, a good man is not a nice guy.

00:41:59.760 No.

00:42:00.200 I love that.

00:42:02.520 Can you talk about how you came to that realization?

00:42:07.160 Yeah.

00:42:07.900 So, you know, I, I, part of it, I think the best example would be around that time I was

00:42:15.480 doing nothing but the rom-coms.

00:42:17.200 You know, those were, those are nice guy roles.

00:42:20.240 They worked.

00:42:21.200 I enjoyed them.

00:42:21.980 I was getting paid well.

00:42:23.320 They were easy to do.

00:42:24.460 They felt like a Saturday.

00:42:26.400 They're nice guy roles and nothing wrong with that.

00:42:28.400 But I was ready to do more dramas in life.

00:42:32.860 I was ready to stand up for things that I believed in and stand against things I didn't

00:42:36.880 in life.

00:42:37.300 And I wanted to also find roles that I could do that in.

00:42:40.920 That's when I started becoming more of a good man.

00:42:44.280 And that does, that means you're going to run into conflicts.

00:42:46.760 That means you're going to have to go against the masses at certain times.

00:42:50.860 That means you're going to have to lead when you'd rather just sit back and watch sometimes.

00:42:54.480 Um, that means you're going to have to run towards crisis instead of away from it.

00:42:58.120 Sometimes that means you're not going to be proper.

00:43:00.160 That means you're going to receive the, the, the blades in the back and, and, and it's okay.

00:43:04.700 If you, it's easier to, I know for me, when my faith is stronger because I can slough those

00:43:10.400 things off because I'm going, no, no, no, I'm playing an immortal game here.

00:43:13.440 Stay.

00:43:13.620 Hey, that's the game I'm playing.

00:43:14.840 Don't worry about the mortal game.

00:43:16.620 Worry about the immortal game.

00:43:18.380 Um, so to have the courage to do that and what you stand for and don't stand for.

00:43:22.560 And I always like to say this to people that are, as we're finding ourselves, especially

00:43:26.460 young people, it's harder to say, oh, who am I and what do I want to do?

00:43:31.820 It's easier to go, well, let's define who I'm not and what I don't want to do and eliminate

00:43:36.600 those people, places, and things and habits that we have in our life that are not paying us

00:43:40.780 back, get rid of those. 0.99

00:43:42.760 And by sheer mathematics, you'll have more things in front of us that do feed us.

00:43:46.640 And hey, we all got good wolves and bad wolves in us.

00:43:49.720 It's our choice to which wolf we want to feed.

00:43:51.920 I'm trying to do my best to feed the good wolf, knowing that the bad wolf's still hungry.

00:43:56.700 Okay.

00:43:57.040 Speaking of the wolves, the wolf of Wall Street, how fun was that role?

00:44:02.540 I've got to ask you.

00:44:03.500 This is an amazing role.

00:44:05.160 Mr. Hunter, what can I bring for you on this glorious afternoon?

00:44:08.000 Well, Hector, here's the game plan.

00:44:09.900 You're going to bring us two absolute martinis.

00:44:12.900 You know how I like them, straight up.

00:44:14.680 And then precisely seven and one half minutes after that, you're going to bring us two more. 0.98

00:44:18.860 Then two more after that every five minutes until one of us passes the fuck out. 0.96

00:44:25.360 Excellent strategy, sir. 0.92

00:44:27.180 I'm good with water for now, though.

00:44:29.120 Thank you.

00:44:30.400 It's his first day on Wall Street.

00:44:32.100 Give him time.

00:44:33.280 First time to work with Scorsese.

00:44:35.440 First time to work with Leonardo.

00:44:36.740 I'm getting called in for a day's work.

00:44:39.080 I'm a little nervous.

00:44:40.680 I get there.

00:44:41.840 But this character.

00:44:42.960 Oh, yeah.

00:44:43.640 I always I still get nervous no matter what I'm doing.

00:44:45.700 I get nervous every single day at work.

00:44:47.120 Just the right amount.

00:44:47.920 I want I want to want I don't want to lose a butterfly yet.

00:44:51.240 And I go in.

00:44:53.120 And one of the things I do, not only on that show, but on all shows is before I'll do a scene.

00:44:58.220 You know, I'll start banging my chest and find some sort of tune and I'll hum it out and everything.

00:45:04.840 And it's to relax myself.

00:45:06.700 I'll do it for interviews sometimes.

00:45:08.280 Relax.

00:45:08.560 Get out of my head.

00:45:09.500 Find the rhythm and then come into the scene.

00:45:12.980 Well, I was doing that before the scene with Leonardo and Wolf of Wall Street.

00:45:17.720 But then as soon as we go action, I'd stop and we do the scene.

00:45:21.520 We do the scene four times.

00:45:23.460 Got it.

00:45:24.440 Funny.

00:45:25.200 Perfect.

00:45:26.300 Let's move on.

00:45:27.880 Marty says, let's move on.

00:45:29.280 It was Leonardo's idea.

00:45:30.600 Leonardo raises his hand.

00:45:31.400 He goes, hang on a second.

00:45:32.100 He goes, what's that thing you're doing before every take?

00:45:34.200 And I told him what I just told you to relax and get my voice down and everything.

00:45:37.220 He goes, what if you did that in in the scene?

00:45:39.380 I was like, great.

00:45:41.260 And the next take is the one you see in the movie.

00:45:44.040 Oh, no way.

00:45:44.740 Hey.

00:45:46.240 Hey.

00:45:46.520 Hey.

00:45:46.800 Hey.

00:45:47.300 Hey.

00:45:47.800 Hey.

00:45:47.860 Hey.

00:45:48.800 Hey.

00:45:49.800 Hey.

00:45:49.860 Hey.

00:45:50.300 Hey.

00:45:50.800 Hey.

00:45:51.060 Hey.

00:45:57.800 Hey.

00:45:58.400 Oh, that's amazing.

00:46:00.560 That's amazing.

00:46:03.560 Wellception.

00:46:03.960 That's a great thing about you.

00:46:05.020 You truly do have range.

00:46:06.100 I mean, like it's not, it's not every guy who can do both the how to lose a guy in 10 days,

00:46:10.460 that scene in Wolf of Wall Street, Dallas Buyers Club and True Detective, right?

00:46:15.620 And speaking of True Detective, I got to ask, who is your best friend in Hollywood?

00:46:20.280 And why is it Woody Harrelson?

00:46:24.080 Woody has been a great friend of mine for a long time.

00:46:27.380 I mean, anytime I get, I get younger.

00:46:30.880 Anybody who's spent time with Woody, he's one of the last wild men, a perpetual eight-year-old,

00:46:34.860 has no context of time.

00:46:36.420 And I mean, he can frustrate the heck out of you.

00:46:39.280 But he may show up three days late.

00:46:41.420 He may show up barefoot three days late to your wedding, but you can't get mad at him

00:46:44.960 because if you showed up a week late for his wedding, he don't care.

00:46:48.140 So, so Woody always like to say, hey, even if you're going to the Oscars, it's probably

00:46:53.460 best to bring your bathing suit.

00:46:54.560 I can't imagine like the cast of characters that has been in and out of your life.

00:47:01.440 I wondered though, like thinking about, yes, who do you hang out with as friends?

00:47:05.240 Anybody in Hollywood?

00:47:05.940 Like, are you friends with the Hollywood people or no, you're friends with the Texas people?

00:47:09.600 Well, I'm friends.

00:47:10.180 I've got some, I've made some very good friends in Hollywood.

00:47:12.740 I mean, but also some friends that I'm still friends with people that I was friends with

00:47:18.800 in college.

00:47:19.660 I've made, I'm still friends with my buddy Cole Hauser was just in town.

00:47:23.420 He and I met on Days Confused.

00:47:25.900 He's having a great time now, career-wise with his role as Rip and in Yellowstone.

00:47:31.620 I know, he's amazing.

00:47:32.280 We're developing a project together.

00:47:34.900 I still talk to Rory Cochran, who I met on Days Confused.

00:47:37.800 And these are all friends of mine who are actors that I met in 1992.

00:47:41.580 Cole Hauser was also in Good Will Hunting, which is like crazy that that was him.

00:47:47.920 Yeah, young Cole Kinney with his short red fro.

00:47:51.900 So I made friends along the way and met some wonderful people in Hollywood as well.

00:47:57.640 Okay, but here's where I wanted to take it.

00:48:00.380 Is there anyone in Hollywood who you really admire, like whose values you admire?

00:48:04.940 I'm sure you admire the work of many people, but like, is there somebody who's living in

00:48:09.000 a way that you think, yeah, that's hashtag goals right there?

00:48:12.820 Well, I always looked up to the way Paul Newman led his life.

00:48:17.260 As a talented actor on screen, married to Joanne all that time, the only marriage throughout.

00:48:25.240 The way he was able to be completely in the spotlight, but also live his own life.

00:48:30.920 I always admired that.

00:48:33.600 And like you, also then gave a bunch of time and money to charity.

00:48:38.060 Like didn't just rest on his levels.

00:48:39.360 Gave over $100 million to charity, thanks to Paul Newman and Rand.

00:48:44.120 And made that, that was a part of his life that was on his proverbial desk every Monday

00:48:50.120 morning in his life.

00:48:51.200 He made that a part of his life.

00:48:52.220 And that was his choice.

00:48:53.400 You know, people always go, yeah, but you've succeeded.

00:48:55.200 You have the responsibility.

00:48:56.120 I don't, I don't, I think that's an easy place to go.

00:48:58.760 Don't go to responsibility.

00:49:00.040 If you've got the chance, you have the choice and the ability, but choices give us a lot

00:49:05.900 more ownership than saying, oh, it's his responsibility.

00:49:08.000 I ought to do it.

00:49:09.040 But he did.

00:49:09.900 He did.

00:49:10.420 So I've, I've, I've looked up to his life.

00:49:13.060 You know, I learned something though, from some people and I won't say their names.

00:49:17.520 They were elder men in the business.

00:49:21.100 And this is when we first had, Camilla and I first had children.

00:49:23.980 And I said to them, they had children.

00:49:26.380 And I said to them, Hey, you know, you go on the road, you go to on set for three months,

00:49:32.480 five months, whatever.

00:49:33.260 Do you, do you, do you take your family and your kids with you?

00:49:35.280 And they said this version of this, look, it's either their friends or their dad.

00:49:40.700 And all of them that I talked to said they chose to let their kids stay back and they

00:49:46.180 have their lives in their schools and have, be with their friends and not come to work

00:49:50.840 with that.

00:49:52.040 And all of them said, if I could do it again, I'd have made them come with and choose to

00:49:59.960 be with dad.

00:50:01.220 And so when Camilla and I had kids before she pulled the goalie, she said, if we're going

00:50:05.940 to do this, one condition, you go, we go.

00:50:10.900 And so it's been a real privilege for me as a father and a husband and the head of the

00:50:18.220 family that anytime I go to work, the family comes with.

00:50:23.880 And that's been a major sacrifice for Camilla, but one that she would openly say, it reaps

00:50:31.220 more rewards than it does deficits.

00:50:33.500 And it is getting harder now.

00:50:35.960 And you're seeing this with your kids getting older.

00:50:37.680 It's getting harder because they're older.

00:50:40.380 They have social sort of circles and rhythms and teams.

00:50:44.300 They're apart.

00:50:45.460 And I don't know what I'm going to do the next time.

00:50:48.100 You know, this last one, I just did what I could to get it to shoot in my hometown of

00:50:51.540 Austin because I didn't want to take them away.

00:50:53.360 You got to cast more of the kids.

00:50:54.840 More of the kids need to go into the next movie.

00:50:56.440 That's it.

00:50:57.560 That's more of the kids and shoot more down the road.

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00:53:07.980 We absolutely have to keep talking.

00:53:15.140 It's more important now than ever.

00:53:17.100 This fall, Megyn Kelly is taking her show live to cities nationwide.

00:53:21.900 To go silent is not the answer.

00:53:24.240 I'm going.

00:53:24.960 I'm going to stand on these stages, and I'm going to say all the things that we say all

00:53:29.600 the time on this show.

00:53:30.680 We're going to make it safe for me.

00:53:31.640 We're going to make it safe for my team and my guests and you.

00:53:34.360 And do something really important, which is say what's true and what's real.

00:53:38.880 And I would love for you to join me.

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00:54:10.760 Offer details apply.

00:54:15.920 I understand your quandary completely.

00:54:18.600 And it's like the other thing is as they get more into the teenage years, the friends

00:54:22.400 do become more important.

00:54:23.420 And I was told by a very smart guy, do not, do not, Dr. Leonard Sachs, do not bring kids'

00:54:29.640 friends on family vacations.

00:54:32.520 The family vacations, the family outings are for you, for you five, not for you five plus 1.00

00:54:37.440 their three friends.

00:54:38.620 If you bring the friend, your kid's going to be talking to the friend at dinner and at

00:54:42.260 breakfast and at lunch.

00:54:43.320 And like, that's your time.

00:54:44.560 It's like to bond.

00:54:45.320 But now as they get older and the friends, but I'm going to, I'm going to hold to it.

00:54:49.260 And you should hold to it too.

00:54:50.720 Like that's the time for bonding.

00:54:53.500 Working on it.

00:54:54.240 We had this, we had this last night.

00:54:55.940 Look, it was first day of NFL football Sunday and Austin FC, our local soccer team, another

00:55:01.780 part owner and was playing.

00:55:03.780 It was getting close to time.

00:55:04.960 Go to bed.

00:55:05.480 Never wanted to eat dinner.

00:55:06.400 And it was like, oh, let's keep the game on.

00:55:08.240 And we said, no, let's turn that off.

00:55:10.960 And soon as we turned it off, you can tell that it wasn't like anyone was missing out that

00:55:15.460 much, but all of a sudden we had an hour and a half where it was just us, the five of us.

00:55:21.880 And we caught up on everyone on the last week and everyone started swapping stories about

00:55:25.620 this week and boys and girls and school.

00:55:28.680 And it wouldn't happen unless we turned that tube off.

00:55:31.380 Yep.

00:55:32.120 We had, we, we had a blackout on Saturday here where we live.

00:55:35.380 It was like a weird storm that came through.

00:55:37.060 It was like a monsoon that just came and parked over our neighborhood.

00:55:39.700 And, um, it was great because, well, what happened was all the power went out and I

00:55:45.480 said, oh my God, wait a minute.

00:55:46.880 We got a generator.

00:55:47.760 We're good.

00:55:48.500 And the generator kicked in.

00:55:49.740 I was like, this is amazing.

00:55:50.760 What a luxury.

00:55:51.440 And then the generator died.

00:55:52.880 Like, that's his one job.

00:55:55.560 It's your one.

00:55:56.240 Yeah.

00:55:56.600 But I mean, like, it's like being an actor, like you're the understudy on a Broadway show

00:55:59.780 and the star's out.

00:56:01.360 There's your big chance.

00:56:02.380 And you're like, I can't do it.

00:56:03.760 That's what happened to my generator.

00:56:05.000 Anyway, we sat, we wound up playing a trivial pursuit with the kids.

00:56:09.440 It was so fun.

00:56:11.480 You know, it's like, you don't, you don't do that, that, that often anymore.

00:56:14.040 It was like such a good time.

00:56:16.280 You know what I hear?

00:56:17.260 Demi, if you heard this, I don't know what you do with your kids in social media.

00:56:20.740 Um, and we don't, we've allowed Levi when he turned 15 to dabble on the grams and such

00:56:26.020 and the other kids not yet, but all their friends have it.

00:56:31.860 The TikToks and Instagrams and everything, but I've talked to them and their friends and

00:56:37.200 I've said, so if you could choose, if socials were just not available to anyone or it is

00:56:47.720 as it is now, what would you choose?

00:56:49.820 Every kid, even the ones that have the TikTok was like, oh, if I have to be on it, but if

00:56:55.120 it wasn't available, oh, I'd take that.

00:56:57.460 Yep.

00:56:58.520 Very interesting.

00:56:59.940 They'd all say, I mean, I have to, I feel like I have to be on it to stay socially current,

00:57:03.820 but if it was an option for it not to be available, oh, please.

00:57:08.100 Well, look how we grew up.

00:57:09.700 Look, I mean, like, look how we were in the seventies and the eighties.

00:57:12.840 We didn't have any of that.

00:57:13.860 Like you ran around, your parents didn't know where you were.

00:57:16.320 You spent your day with your friends.

00:57:17.560 You had to come home when the streetlight went on.

00:57:19.500 That was it.

00:57:20.000 You didn't have to worry about, and bullying was like the old fashioned style.

00:57:24.300 If it didn't happen while you're in school, it wasn't going to happen.

00:57:27.040 They couldn't get you at all hours of the day, you know, like on the little device that's

00:57:30.320 in your pocket.

00:57:31.160 It's very complicated for these kids, but I do think they get more sophisticated earlier

00:57:35.760 and they're going to need these skills at some point to navigate the future that's coming.

00:57:40.900 You know, like AI and everything's online.

00:57:42.860 It's like, we're a bunch of dinosaurs, our generation.

00:57:45.320 I know I'm trying to navigate not being a dinosaur, but still holding on to the traditional

00:57:51.280 things that will never go out of style.

00:57:54.160 You're still thinking about like values, right?

00:57:56.260 You're writing about values and existential thoughts.

00:57:58.880 I don't think those are going to go out of style.

00:58:00.420 You know, I hope they don't.

00:58:02.340 And I think we need to fight for them because I think they stand the test of time of any weather.

00:58:06.860 And then when I hear these AI sort of atheists say that, oh, AI doesn't need to be what's

00:58:12.020 best for humanity.

00:58:12.800 It's just the next link in evolution and we'll create machines and a digital God that'll

00:58:17.540 make us extinct.

00:58:18.280 And that'll be great.

00:58:19.020 I'm like, I'm not ready to go there yet either.

00:58:21.240 No, sir.

00:58:21.720 No, please.

00:58:22.240 Well, I mean, it's got to be scary as an actor.

00:58:24.560 You know, Justine Bateman has come on the show talking about how dangerous it is to the

00:58:29.060 whole acting industry that these roles, I mean, and even your voice could be repeated

00:58:36.380 exactly by AI.

00:58:38.820 You know, I could be like, and Matthew McConaughey is the new voice of the Megyn Kelly show.

00:58:42.620 Here's Megyn. 1.00

00:58:43.200 And you'd have nothing to do with it.

00:58:44.700 And it would be lawful.

00:58:47.180 Yep.

00:58:47.880 You know, I've been one of the earlier ones to trademark and patent my voice and likeness

00:58:53.940 on a federal level.

00:58:56.260 And we'll see where that holds up if and when it needs to.

00:59:00.240 But it is something that is scary because we're not that far from someone being in India

00:59:09.720 tonight and saying, well, I want Megyn Kelly and Matthew McConaughey here.

00:59:13.760 And I want Megyn from 2014. 0.70

00:59:16.120 And I want Matthew from Days Confused.

00:59:18.140 And I want her to be here at the party.

00:59:19.720 And we're going to hologram them in right here.

00:59:21.080 And they're, we're hosting it.

00:59:22.800 We're not that far away from that.

00:59:25.700 There's some wonderful things that you can do with it.

00:59:27.920 With speaking, I'm doing it with the newsletter, speaking, trading it in different languages

00:59:32.960 where I, my voice is sharing.

00:59:34.940 It's my voice reading in Spanish and Portuguese and French.

00:59:37.400 Oh, that's cool.

00:59:38.780 You know?

00:59:39.660 That's very cool.

00:59:40.180 So there's wonderful things to be done with it.

00:59:42.520 But it is, we'll see.

00:59:45.020 Yeah, we're going to see if we can go ahead.

00:59:47.200 You and I will see directly.

00:59:48.540 I think we might have, we'll probably transition over to the other world with our dads.

00:59:52.840 You think we're on the other side of it?

00:59:54.160 I do.

00:59:54.660 I think so.

00:59:55.140 I think it's going to be our kids' problems.

00:59:56.160 So like, we have to worry about it a little, but I think they're smart enough to handle it.

00:59:59.500 I want to get to this one.

01:00:00.800 What do you think?

01:00:01.220 Yeah, you go.

01:00:01.600 What do you think if you, your children, forgetting what they're in, what they like right now,

01:00:10.160 but if they were going to college, what degree do you think, in a university, do you think

01:00:15.900 would prepare them for what's going to be most necessary in the job market later?

01:00:20.260 No, nothing.

01:00:21.120 There isn't one.

01:00:22.160 There's nothing.

01:00:23.160 I mean, really, frankly, they don't need to go to college.

01:00:24.980 I want them to go to college to have fun.

01:00:26.300 It's an additional four years where you can mature a little and have a good time and home

01:00:30.220 your social skills, which is important.

01:00:32.340 But in my view, it's not about learning or preparing for life, unless you're going to

01:00:35.840 med school where you actually do have to learn a few things.

01:00:38.540 I just don't think that's what it's for.

01:00:40.760 So I'd just say, get a classic, you know, liberal arts education, like all the sciences

01:00:46.100 that are exploited like that.

01:00:47.300 I feel like those are serious danger.

01:00:49.060 Thanks to AI, um, like math and science are being quickly taken over by the computers.

01:00:55.060 So, yeah, so I almost feel like the dreamers are becoming more and more important.

01:01:00.900 So don't do anything to kill your spirit.

01:01:03.100 Don't, don't overwhelm yourself with like too much dogma from anybody in particular and

01:01:08.860 keep your hope alive.

01:01:10.320 That's what you're going to need on the back end of those four years.

01:01:12.340 But I think you can learn whatever you want to learn in college on the internet.

01:01:15.700 You can learn it from this conversation, from podcasts, whatever.

01:01:18.860 So I don't know.

01:01:19.520 I just don't think it's about that.

01:01:20.680 I think it's about like maintaining your integrity, learn how to be a good person.

01:01:25.340 Don't be just an SAT score.

01:01:27.400 Learn the skills that'll make you an actual leader who can make good decisions in tough

01:01:30.720 situations, no matter what they are, as opposed to like this formula or that.

01:01:34.580 That's, that's how I look at it.

01:01:36.780 You might be right.

01:01:37.820 I like, I like your point of view on it.

01:01:40.060 And also who, who the hell knows where it's going to go.

01:01:42.660 So, so why waste too much time thinking about it?

01:01:44.760 All right.

01:01:44.980 Now, listen, I got to read this one.

01:01:46.020 This is you on page 44 of Palms and Prayers, the latest book by Matthew McConaughey, which

01:01:52.360 everybody should read.

01:01:53.300 It's actually make a great present in particular.

01:01:55.580 I think this would be a very nice gift for somebody around Christmas time.

01:01:58.900 You can buy it now.

01:01:59.760 You can buy a couple copies.

01:02:01.280 Here it is.

01:02:01.900 I love this so much.

01:02:28.680 Covet nothing, but your superior self is exactly, I mean, you could read nothing other than

01:02:33.220 that line on page 44, and you would be a better person if you could just remind yourself of

01:02:38.100 that every morning.

01:02:39.960 I always say this, the, this is actually from Dr. Phil, but it's a great saying. 0.85

01:02:44.880 The only difference between you and someone you envy is you settled for less.

01:02:49.200 So when you covet, when you feel envy, when you look at somebody's life and you say, oh,

01:02:53.800 I want it, or I begrudge them for having it.

01:02:56.280 It's exactly the wrong focus.

01:02:57.720 It's a tell to you to focus back on what is it about me I'm unhappy with and how can I

01:03:03.820 change it?

01:03:04.380 That's exactly what you're saying there.

01:03:06.860 Do you, like, I don't, how do you teach that?

01:03:12.080 Can you teach that?

01:03:12.860 Well, so, so much of our consumerism and all those social feeds that our kids are inundated

01:03:25.900 with are all about comparison and not living up to and coveting something that someone else

01:03:32.620 has because they're telling you it's the right way or more popular or what.

01:03:38.120 I don't know.

01:03:39.140 So I think to teach that there's, it's all mark.

01:03:43.480 Everyone's marketing, all this stuff. 1.00

01:03:45.220 Marketing's bullshit. 0.99

01:03:46.300 Just can you read through and ask yourself, what do I really want? 0.99

01:03:52.680 What do I, who am I not to have a foundation?

01:03:55.800 Again, I don't know if you can teach anyone out of it now, but can you have someone deal?

01:04:02.920 Have you, can you help children deal with the foundation of who they are so they're not

01:04:08.020 getting schooled so they can use that tool and these tools to do the schooling?

01:04:11.760 Play.

01:04:12.340 That's why you take the family with you.

01:04:14.500 Right.

01:04:14.980 Play, play your game in that business.

01:04:18.100 Don't, don't, don't, don't, don't let that, that game become your business because then

01:04:22.720 you're just going to get dizzy and it changes so quickly and you look back and all your friends

01:04:26.280 you thought you had and everything you thought you could rely on is poof.

01:04:28.900 It was, it was fairy dust.

01:04:29.800 So if you can sit there and go, okay, cause I don't want to say, don't ever go on social

01:04:34.720 media or don't go on AI.

01:04:36.320 No, go, you need to check this out.

01:04:37.980 We got to educate ourselves here, but let's read through the BS here and see that the algorithm

01:04:42.420 selling something to make some of this, okay.

01:04:44.760 At your, at your expense, know that it's a game.

01:04:48.460 Just know that to tell my, we try to tell our children that.

01:04:52.100 And so just to be aware that no, that's not real.

01:04:55.080 That's, that's commerce.

01:04:56.080 There's, there's an algorithm selling that and putting in front of you what it, what

01:05:00.420 it thinks you want because of your traffic and your history of where you've already been

01:05:04.140 just to understand that that's happening.

01:05:06.320 That's part of the game.

01:05:07.160 You want to play it?

01:05:07.800 Just be aware that that's the rules.

01:05:09.560 Mm-hmm.

01:05:10.780 So you have a good handle on these problems and societal ills.

01:05:15.460 I can hear it.

01:05:16.140 And the, you of July of 2024 considered doing something about it in the form of possibly

01:05:22.080 running for Texas governor.

01:05:23.960 Didn't happen.

01:05:25.860 Your team did not want me to get into politics, but I just wanted to finish with who exactly

01:05:29.640 did you vote for in the 2024 presidential election and what?

01:05:32.240 No, just kidding.

01:05:33.020 Just kidding.

01:05:35.360 But is politics potentially still part of your future, your story?

01:05:41.040 I don't know.

01:05:43.600 Could be.

01:05:44.560 It's something, look, I've, I've, to the last six years been studying different categories

01:05:48.440 of where I could be most useful, where I could, what, what leadership roles am I equipped

01:05:54.440 for?

01:05:55.220 Look, it's, it's inherently not my language.

01:05:58.440 I'm more of a poet philosopher and I'm, I'm dealing with values here, which I believe

01:06:03.240 and belief, which I believe are true progress above the political sphere of left and right

01:06:09.780 battling.

01:06:11.060 That's the space that I'm in now.

01:06:13.380 I am aware that the issues matter, that politics and legislation all matters.

01:06:19.520 So I have not canceled it out, but I've given it and still will continue to give it some

01:06:26.520 real consideration to measure myself.

01:06:28.860 That's a, that's the right place where I can be the most useful, but I'm not going to

01:06:33.820 bend my back to force myself in it.

01:06:36.820 I'm, I'm, I'm, I will get in deep enough where if I'm in it, I'll look up and I won't

01:06:41.080 be able to help it.

01:06:41.840 It'll be, it'll, it'll just, I'll just be there.

01:06:43.380 I will be pulled in.

01:06:45.940 But, you know, it's a very conscientious headspace to ask yourself.

01:06:50.260 And I think it's something important if we all to ask her, what if I was the leader of

01:06:54.540 a state, of a nation, of a world?

01:06:56.480 It's a great question to ask her. 0.99

01:06:57.940 So could you, you call yourself on some of your bullshit, go, what decision would I make? 0.98

01:07:01.360 What are my own beliefs and where do they transfer to what I would believe for the masses? 0.99

01:07:07.180 Now, we all know in politics, they're not all doing what they believe, but they're doing.

01:07:13.740 And I would not want to go, uh, be in anything where I would need to betray myself.

01:07:19.620 And there's a lot of betrayal that comes with inherently in politics.

01:07:22.520 And, um, I, I, I, I, I work hard enough to try and get a good night's sleep, trying to

01:07:28.580 win the fair games, um, and fair fights, which are already hard to win.

01:07:32.740 And so for right now, I got my three kids want to get them out of the house as healthy

01:07:36.740 as possible.

01:07:37.420 And hopefully as much individuals as they are possible.

01:07:40.080 And then when that opens up after me being, uh, uh, on, on site father that I am and try

01:07:46.680 to be, I will be open to considering what my next avenues are.

01:07:50.440 I love it.

01:07:51.960 I I've said about president Trump, you know, he's under a lot of pressure when it comes

01:07:57.140 to his foreign policy decisions in particular from different factions.

01:08:00.260 And I've said repeatedly on the air on something like that, whether you, whether you're going

01:08:04.620 to add to a war and the weaponry of it, whether you're going to start a war, whether you're

01:08:09.360 going to push to, you know, end one, start one, he has to come to his own decision like

01:08:13.540 that.

01:08:14.080 Right.

01:08:14.880 That is playing with people's lives.

01:08:16.480 And he knows that whoever the president is, they deserve a wide berth in coming to their

01:08:22.000 own decision about what to do, because it's easy for you or me or anybody else sitting

01:08:27.280 in their armchair to say, this is how it should be.

01:08:29.580 We're not actually going to be responsible for ending lives.

01:08:32.460 Like the president, those calls massively in those calls, correct me if I'm wrong.

01:08:37.200 Those are the president's soul calls, 4 a.m. by yourself in solitude calls, are they not?

01:08:44.440 Yeah.

01:08:44.620 Yeah.

01:08:45.240 That's scary.

01:08:46.340 Like that's the highest order.

01:08:48.100 You better have your spiritual ducks in a row.

01:08:51.400 And what may help you is this book, Poems and Prayers by Matthew McConaughey, which will

01:08:57.300 rejigger your headspace around your life, what matters in it, and what your daily approach

01:09:04.040 to it should be, as you say, playing this long game, starring in your own movie that

01:09:10.420 starred for a couple of us about 55 years ago.

01:09:13.980 Not quite.

01:09:14.540 I'm not quite there.

01:09:15.520 Almost.

01:09:16.060 I'm right behind you.

01:09:17.300 It's been a pleasure.

01:09:18.200 I wish you all the best with this, with The Lost Bus, the movie with your son, and with

01:09:23.280 all of it.

01:09:24.180 Thank you, Megyn Kelly.

01:09:25.180 I sure enjoyed it.

01:09:26.780 Love, love, love talking to Matthew.

01:09:29.000 Let me know what you think.

01:09:29.840 Email me, megan, M-E-G-Y-N, at megankelly.com.

01:09:35.040 We're back tomorrow with the EJs.

01:09:37.140 Yes, Eliana is back.

01:09:39.100 We're very excited to see her, and we'll see all of you then, too.

01:09:44.580 Thanks for listening to The Megyn Kelly Show. 0.94

01:09:46.820 No BS, no agenda, and no fear.

The Megyn Kelly Show - September 24, 2025

Matthew McConaughey on Leaving Hollywood, Raising Kids with a Strong Foundation, and the Power of Faith ｜ Ep. 1156

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