Matthew McConaughey Net Worth

Biography of Matthew McConaughey

Matthew McConaughey is an actor who is equally good at both comedy and drama. His attractive appearance has long provided him with roles in romantic comedies (The Wedding Planner, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days), but his talent is truly revealed in thrillers and dramas: A Time to Kill, Lincoln for a Lawyer, “Dallas Buyers Club”, “Interstellar”, as well as the sensational series “True Detective”.

Childhood and family

Matthew David McConaughey was born in the Texas town of Uvalde and became the youngest of three sons, Jim, a former professional football player, and by that time the owner of a gas station, and Kim, a kindergarten teacher.

The gasoline business flourished, and when Matthew was 10 years old, the family moved to the “oil” city of Longview. It was in this place that Matthew became a person with a strong character, honest and hardworking. He studied well at school, while in his free time he was known as a very broken guy: he spent all the money earned at his father’s gas station in bars, and looked for adventures whenever possible.

In 1988, he graduated from Longview High School (at the graduation ball he was awarded the title of “head handsome school”) and enrolled in a student exchange program. The next year he lived in New South Wales, Australia. By nature, an open and friendly guy for some reason did not manage to get along with people in a new place. Loneliness forced him to think a lot about the meaning of life and the future path.

Unlike his older brothers, who became part of the family business, Matthew did not want to trade gasoline all his life. At first he was fascinated by jurisprudence, and, returning to his homeland, he entered the University of Austin. For the next two years, McConaughey skillfully balanced between classes in law and philosophy and student parties.

At the end of his sophomore year, in preparation for his exams, McConaughey read Og Mandino’s The Greatest Salesman on Earth. As the actor later admitted, she changed his life. He realized that he was not doing what he loved at all. McConaughey thought about his feelings and realized that all this time he was secretly jealous of his friend, a student actor. Then he changed his specialization at the university, which the American system of higher education quite allows, and began to study drama and stagecraft, finally feeling like a fish in water.

McConaughey’s acting career

In those years, Austin boasted a developed film industry, and McConaughey easily made his debut in several commercials. Chance helped him break into a big movie. One evening he met producer Don Philips in a bar, who was recruiting actors for the teen drama Dazed and Confused. After a five-hour conversation that ended with the new friends kicked out of the bar, McConaughey landed the role of Wooderson, “too old to hang out with school kids.”

Thanks to the skillfully crafted script and stunning mid-70s stylization, the film has gained cult status. By the way, Quentin Tarantino put the tape in 6th place in the list of his favorite films. Well, McConaughey’s star sparkled dazzlingly after the debut.

In 1996, he got his first major role as a lawyer defending a black man who shot members of the Ku Klux Klan who had raped his daughter. Alas, the action takes place in a southern state where racial prejudice has not yet been eliminated, so McConaughey had a chance to reveal his dramatic talent to the fullest, as well as work with Sandra Bullock, Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey.

At the beginning of the 2000s, mainly romantic comedies settled in his filmography. At that time, critics began to call him the male counterpart of Jennifer Aniston – he played mostly handsome bachelors who, unwittingly, fall in love with no memory: “Wedding Planner” with Jennifer Lopez, “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days” with Kate Hudson , “Little Fingers” with Kate Beckinsale.

In 2005, the adventure film “Sahara” was released. McConaughey became its executive producer and played the lead role – adventurer Dirk Pete, who is looking for treasures in Africa.

Together with Jessica Parker, the actor played on the same set in the film Love and Other Troubles, which was released in 2006. In 2008, three films with the participation of McConaughey were released at once – these are “Surfer”, “Fool’s Gold” and “Soldiers of Failure”.

2011 – McConaughey, who has gained fame as a macho hero, appears before the audience in the unattractive image of a hired killer from the black comedy Killer Joe. His character is hired by a young drug addict who owes money to his dealer to kill his mother and collect insurance money.

In 2013, McConaughey starred in the drama Dallas Buyers Club. The role of the AIDS cowboy Ron brought him the first Oscar and Golden Globe in his entire career. The audience was struck by his tandem with Jared Leto, who played an HIV-positive transvestite. Preparation for the role was not easy for the actor: he had to lose 22 kilograms.

In the same year, the actor could be seen in Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street as the first boss of a novice stockbroker who advised his ward to lead a dissolute lifestyle. Interestingly, the scene in which McConaughey teaches Leonardo DiCaprio the mind and then beats his chest was pure improvisation, born from McConaughey’s “warm-up” before the game.

In 2014, True Detective premiered on HBO, which began work in 2012. The first season was devoted to the story of solving the mysterious murder of a prostitute from Louisiana, which dragged on for many years. In the center of the plot are investigators Rust Cole and Martin Hart, played by Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson. The director of the project was inspired by McConaughey’s performance in The Lincoln Lawyer and approved him for the role without hesitation.

In the same year, Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi film Interstellar, starring McConaughey and Anne Hathaway, was released to audiences. The role of farmer Cooper, sent by NASA into space in search of the salvation of mankind, was called by McConaughey’s fans one of the best in his filmography, and the film itself was nominated for an Oscar.

The actor commands respect for his willingness to radically change for the sake of the role. In order to show his character as truthfully as possible, he can be extremely hungry or sweat in the gym to the point of exhaustion.

Matthew McConaughey’s personal life

For a long time, the actor was considered a real womanizer. In 1994, Matthew was briefly in a romantic relationship with actress Patricia Arquette, known from the TV series Medium. However, choosing between McConaughey and Nicolas Cage, the girl chose the second.

McConaughey quickly licked his wounds – on the set of A Time to Kill, he had an affair with a partner, Ashley Judd. Their relationship was bright, but short-lived – the steel character of the girl scared away McConaughey, who preferred softer and more docile companions.

Later, Matthew began a relationship with Sandra Bullock, also a Time to Kill colleague, which stretched out for almost two years. The couple quarreled many times with grandiose scandals and again, no less spectacularly, reconciled, until one day a pregnancy test showed Sandra two strips. McConaughey, apparently not yet ready for a child, folded. Later it turned out that the test turned out to be false, but the actress could no longer live with the person who betrayed her, she went to Robert Schneider. Her former lover literally begged for forgiveness on his knees, but the reunion turned out to be short-lived, Bullock’s resentment was too strong.

After that, the actor was afraid of a serious relationship and had affairs with girls who were far from the world of show business. In 2004, he came to the Oscar ceremony paired with waitress Michelle Smith. However, life with a non-public person quickly bored him: “She knows everything about me, I know nothing about her,” the actor shared in an interview.

While working on the painting “Sugar” Matt drew attention to the then free Penelope Cruz. Initially, Tom Cruise was supposed to star in the project, but due to a breakup with Penelope, he turned down the role. McConaughey took his place in the film and in the heart of the actress. No longer a carefree youngster, the actor approached the development of relations with all seriousness, and it seemed that the matter was going to the wedding. But two years later, they broke up, telling the press that they hardly see each other because of the constant filming.

One day (the year was 2006) McConaughey was walking along the streets of Los Angeles and suddenly wanted to taste Cuban cuisine. Having looked into the first themed restaurant he came across, he ended up at a party in honor of the Brazilian model Camilla Alves, with whom he fell in love at first sight. Their age difference is 13 years.

A year and a half later, the couple had their first child, the boy Levi. A year and a half later, a replenishment appeared in the family – baby Vida. After Camille told her lover that she would become a mother for the third time, he finally proposed to her.

The wedding ceremony took place in the summer of 2012 at the actor’s Texas estate. And soon their third child was born – a boy who was given the name Livingston.

The actor has his own production company, jk livin. The decoding of the name sounds like “Just keep on living.” McConaughey considers this phrase his slogan. He gave the same name to a charitable foundation whose goal is to help troubled teenagers find their way in life.

The actor loves animals; several dogs live in his house, later they were joined by a cat, which he snatched from the paws of street flayers.

Matthew McConaughey now

In 2017, the film adaptation of Stephen King’s novel The Dark Tower was released. McConaughey got the role of the anti-hero – the man in black. His opponent was the Strelok, the character of Idris Elba.

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