'Everyone Desires to Be Friends with Matthew McConaughey'

      “We all desire to be friends with Matthew McConaughey,” commented the actor’s friend, director Jeff Nichols, during his address on Friday. This statement definitely resonated in Little Rock, where McConaughey showcased his new film The Rivals of Amziah King along with a generous dose of charm.

      The pair spoke at the Arkansas Cinema Society’s Filmland festival, which was co-founded by Nichols, an Arkansas native. He has been friends with McConaughey since the actor appeared in his 2012 film Mud, a significant work that marked the beginning of the 2010s McConaissance. During this period, McConaughey transitioned from his well-known rom-coms to a series of critically acclaimed performances, earning him an Oscar (for Dallas Buyers Club) and an Emmy (for True Detective) in the same year, 2014.

      Since then, McConaughey has become recognized not just as an actor but also as a sort of life coach, promoting a philosophy that includes a memorable quote from his debut film, 1993’s Dazed and Confused: “You just got to keep living, man. L-I-V-I-N.”

      That quote, delivered by his character Wooderson, is among his most famous lines from the Richard Linklater classic. Another well-known ad lib, “Alright, alright, alright,” was featured on Filmland hats in Little Rock and is widely found on T-shirts and bumper stickers around the globe, particularly in McConaughey’s home state of Texas.

      The actor mentioned he had never visited Little Rock before, but discovered he had local connections: a distant relative served as the city’s mayor in the 1940s, as current Little Rock mayor Frank Scott Jr. noted before announcing “Matthew McConaughey Day” on Friday.

      Or simply McConaughday for short.

      Residents of Arkansas were thrilled about McConaughey's connection to and presence in their state. At one point, someone on the Filmland red carpet offered him a pint of locally themed ice cream and requested he eat it on camera.

      “Do you have a spoon?” he politely inquired. They did not. So he took the ice cream backstage.

      Matthew McConaughey and Jeff Nichols were present at the Arkansas Cinema Society’s Filmland. Photo Credit: Content Titan.

      It’s understandable why so many want to spend time with Matthew McConaughey, as his career is framed by two iconic hangout films.

      The first is, of course, Dazed and Confused, a role he landed while socializing in a Hyatt hotel bar during his time as a film student at the University of Texas at Austin, charming one of the film’s producers. His latest project, The Rivals of Amziah King, marks his return after a five-year hiatus. In this film, directed by Andrew Pattinson, McConaughey plays the title character, a beekeeper and honey seller who also plays mandolin in a bluegrass band.

      The film indulges in Amziah’s music and casual observations for a long while before seamlessly transitioning into themes of heists and revenge.

      In two in-depth discussions about his craft, both before and after the Amziah King screening, McConaughey highlighted the value of L-I-V-I-N in the moment — particularly when performing.

      He pointed out that many of his most memorable scenes, such as the “alright, alright, alright” ad lib that served as his first line in a film and his closing argument in A Time to Kill, were captured in first takes. He expressed a fondness for these initial takes when everything feels fresh.

      “Everything after take one is acting,” he explained to Nichols. “You can enhance a performance in Take 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. But if you can, be at ease and genuinely engage in Take 1 — where you’re absorbing it all for the first time. As actors, during Take 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, we attempt not to anticipate what’s next, even though we’re aware of it in the back of our minds.”

      One reason Angelina LookingGlass was cast as the female lead in Amziah King was her natural on-screen presence, according to McConaughey. She was so new to acting that she was not yet set in her ways and was adaptable when he altered his delivery, responding as if she were hearing each line for the first time.

      “I’d do takes with her, changing it every time, and she wouldn’t react differently — because for her, it was the first time every time anyway,” McConaughey shared with Nichols. “Can you dare to treat it as the first time every single time?”

      McConaughey was in full storytelling mode, sharing anecdotes about his films and his beloved 95-year-old mother, who he mentioned