Our first guest tonight is an Academy Award-winning actor
and "New York Times" best-selling author
you know from films such as "Interstellar"
and "Dallas Buyers Club."
He returns as Buster Moon in "Sing 2,"
which premieres in theaters December 22nd.
Let's take a look.
-[ Bell dings ] -[ Gasps ]
-Maybe it's like room service?
-[ Banging ] -Open up or you're dead, Moon!
-Okay, it's not room service.
-You and your dumb friends better not be hiding in there!
-What are we gonna do?
-Guys, we just got to be brave now.
-Are you saying we should fight these thugs?
-No, no. They'll beat us to a pulp.
-[ Bang ] -[ All gasp ]
-We're gonna put this show on, whether Crystal likes it or not!
But first...we're gonna jump out that window.
-What?!
-I'm beginning to like this guy.
-Please welcome back to the show Matthew McConaughey, everybody!
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
-Alright. -Welcome back!
-How you doing, Seth? -There's a -- You know,
over the years, I've come to expect
a certain level of excellence from you in film.
-Okay.
-But, you know, now you are --
This is the first time that I've been sitting across from you
where you are a "New York Times" best-selling author.
Congratulations. -Thank you.
-[ Cheers and applause ] -Thank you.
-Let me tell ya. I said it a little bit backstage.
There was this lull where I think people were looking
for exactly the book you wrote.
You couldn't have known that,
probably, when you were sitting down to write it,
'cause I think you probably wrote a story authentic to you.
You wrote about your life.
-And then COVID came along, and we said,
"Ooh, our release date is October. COVID is coming."
There was talk about moving the date.
The elections were there.
My feeling and the team's feeling was, "Look.
Let's lean into it, with elections,
with all the mud-slinging, with COVID.
People are gonna want some good news."
You know what I mean?
People were gonna want to hear some things
that are about the approach to life, not the product.
The process and the approach to life
and how to get some satisfaction not only for me,
that I think we can all get.
-And I think that everybody, having watched you
over the years, they thought, "Man, if I could get in
on Matthew McConaughey's approach to life,
I think I'd be in a lot better place."
-I hope so. Look, it's not all mine.
I've stolen a lot of stuff. You know what I mean?
-It does sound so much better coming from you.
[ Laughter ]
-Ah. Yeah. Yeah, the old voice.
The old voice makes the medicine taste better sometimes.
-I heard from a lot of people they read it and loved it.
And then I heard from equally, if not more, people,
if there's anything you want
to listen to the audio of, it is "Greenlights."
It's Matthew's book, that you read.
And how was it actually -- You know,
obviously, writing it is one thing,
but then when you got to read it --
-Then I got to sort of perform it.
And there's a lot of different voices
'cause of my travels around the world.
I'm doing the voices of...
[Australian accent] Australians along the way.
There's a great story in there called
"Sydney in the Rear-view Mirror."
It's a great black comedy.
[Normal voice] But I actually -- You know,
I thought that we'd scheduled four days to record it.
And I recorded it in eight hours one day. Whoop.
-Wow. -And I just --
Because I've told the stories so many times,
I knew where the characters came up
and what the intentions were and sort of how
the act 1, act 2, act 3 of each story was set up.
And it was a ball doing it, and we knocked it out,
and people are saying they enjoy it.
-And then, when you were recording it,
was there ever anything where you thought,
"Oh, I wish I'd written it a different way"
or was it just, "No, this is great"?
-No, by that time, I mean, I had spent over a year editing,
so every punctuation, every font,
everything in the book was exactly as I wanted it.
So there was no going back.
And I didn't want to go back. -Perfect.
-So it was good.
-That seems like another piece of wisdom.
-"There's no going back.
And I couldn't go back. And I didn't want to go back."
-Another thing that's changed since the last time I saw you --
you are now a football-club owner, but European soccer.
You own a soccer team now. Here you go.
Austin. Is it Austin FC?
-Austin FC. The Austin Football Club.
-Now, I realize -- -Verde! Listos!
-I realize that I put this up
like I was about to show a soccer team,
and, instead, it's just you with a bongo drum of sorts.
-This is a djembe.
This is our opening game at Q2 Stadium.
-Alright.
-And this suit is exactly our colors of our team.
I got this suit made three years ago,
and this is less than a year ago,
so I held onto this suit for this night,
to come out with my djembe.
Bring your drum. Drum is our instrument.
Actually, we'll allow any instrument in the stadium.
But it was -- We have a chant, "Verde,"
which is Spanish for "green."
And the response to that is, "Listos,"
which is Spanish for "ready."
So, the whole crowd, I got them going.
Going, "Verde." "Listos." "Verde." "Listos."
And the only challenge with this night was, two years later,
hoping that that suit would fit me,
'cause I hadn't tried it on in two years.
-And how'd it go? -It worked out.
-There you go.
And let me say, I think anyone who's a fan of a team
would just want some enthusiasm from their owner,
and I think they got what they wanted
when that's your owner right there.
[ Cheers and applause ]
So, we showed a clip from "Sing."
This is "Sing 2." Five years between the films.
You've got three kids. They're a little bit older.
Have they grown into being a "Sing" audience?
Have they grown out of being a "Sing" audience?
Are they just thrilled to hear their dad's voice?
-They're still in the "Sing" audience.
Look, the first one was basically one of the first films
I've ever done that they could be an audience member to.
-Yeah. -I mean, for years --
That's one of the reasons I did it, 'cause it was like,
"What's your kids's favorite movie you've done?"
I was like, "They haven't seen any of them.
I haven't sat them down in front of 'True Detective' yet."
It's gonna open up a lot of questions.
-You're like, "This is gonna answer
a lot of questions about life."
-So, we give them "Sing 2," "Sing 1."
They dig it. I'm cooler around the --
I got some street cred at the dinner table after "Sing 1."
"Sing 2," they were around the process of making it.
They were around the process of recording.
They toured the studios in Paris
and got to know Garth, the director.
And they weren't as surprised to see my voice
come out of a koala's head. -Yeah.
-But they still were a little surprised.
I remember sitting there, even with "Sing 2" --
I'm sitting where you are.
My kids are right here to the right.
Buster Moon comes on the screen, and my voice comes out.
They look at Buster. They look at me.
And, all of a sudden, they go, "Ha ha!"
And I go, "Yeah." Yeah.
-What about -- This is -- You know,
obviously, it's very exciting that you're in this film,
don't get me wrong, but Bono. -Bono!
-Making his animated-film debut. -Graced us with his presence.
-Yeah. That's really exciting. -Really badass.
-Who does Bono play in the film? -He plays Clay Calloway.
He's the rock 'n' roller who left the gig,
who had a personal tragedy that took him away
from music, never wanted to perform again.
So, in that way, it's a story of resurrection and rebirth.
We have to go get him to bring him from his refuge
to get him on the stage in our show,
if our show is gonna go on at all.
And if it doesn't go on,
I'll probably get killed by that wolf you saw.
-No spoilers, no spoilers.
-So we got to pull him out and get him on the stage.
-You got any holiday plans? -Yes.
-Alright. What do you got going on?
-Going to Texas. -Okay.
-But this time, we have my wife,
Camila's, family coming in.
-Great. -So, it's been four years,
I think, since we've all been together.
So Christmas holidays will be extra family.
Air mattresses will be blown up.
-Okay. -Three -- Some twin beds.
And it will be some late nights,
because the Brazilians do their Christmas on Christmas Eve.
-Okay. -So you eat late.
Then you open presents at midnight, which --
Then, the next day, you're opening presents all day,
'cause my mom likes to see every single present
opened up one by one.
And my brother's coming,
who loves to just put meat on the smoker.
Not because he loves the way it tastes.
Just because it takes longer to cook.
And he figures if you're eating by midnight,
no matter what it tastes like,
everyone likes it 'cause they're so damn hungry.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
-Oh, that's a very smart move for a chef, yeah.
-Yeah.
-My thought of people who run the smoker is always
they just want to use it as an excuse
for not having to do anything else.
-That's it. "Hey, I'm tending the brisket."
"What are you doing?"
"I just checked it. Checked it an hour ago.
I better not walk away, though."
-"Could dry right out." -Yeah.
-I want to congratulate you on something.
"Hollywood Reporter" named you Philanthropist of the Year.
Congratulations on that. That must mean a lot.
-Yeah. Thank you. Thank you.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Your organization, foundation, just keep livin, is it --
You've been doing this for a while now.
-We've been doing that 12 years.
-12 years. -Which Camila and I founded it.
And we help at-risk student --
high-school students in Title I schools in America.
We're in over 40 schools now. They meet twice a week.
It's a safe place for them to go after school.
They make a physical-fitness goal, whether that's,
"I want to make the soccer team, so I need to get in shape"
or whether that's, "I need to lose 3 pounds
so I can fit in my prom dress," we'll help them meet that goal.
Nutritional goals. They do community service.
They all do community service in their communities.
And the halo over the whole foundation,
which is really cool, is gratitude.
We all sit around after every class,
and everyone sits in a circle and has to share,
out loud, something they are thankful for in their life.
And that's kind of the coolest part about it.
-That's really great. -Yeah, yeah.
-I know there had been some talk --
You know, obviously, you're making a difference with that.
There was some talk about you maybe embarking
on a political career, maybe running for governor of Texas.
You've since said you're not gonna do that.
-Yep. -Was that something that --
Was your family on the side of, "hey, maybe that's not for you,"
or were they disappointed you decided not to do it?
-My daughter was a little disappointed.
She thought it would be really cool.
But she's 11. I mean, she --
-Yeah, not quite campaign-manager level.
-Wasn't ready to hire her for that position yet.
The family -- Look, all my decisions now going forward,
I share them with my wife, Camila.
She knows me as well as anybody.
She asks me the hard questions.
She makes sure that I'm convicted the right ways
within the decisions I'm gonna make.
They were -- would have been on with it.
They were ready if that was what Popeye,
or what Matthew, was really wanting to do.
So we discussed it for quite a long time,
and she knew I was seriously considering.
The whole family knew I was seriously considering it.
It got to the point where I said,
"You know what? No."
After living in a mind of "maybe I will" for over a year,
I said, "No, it's not the right time for me right now.
It's not my embassy.
I'm gonna see what I can do
more in an informal space as a leader."
-Well, I'm not worried about you
making a difference no matter where you are.
And I really appreciate you spending time with us today.
Thank you so much. -Seth, I appreciate it.
-That's Matthew McConaughey.
"Sing 2" opens in theaters December 22nd.