In contrast to his easy-going vibe, Matthew McConaughey's life story is full of tragic
moments. From his upbringing in Texas to dealing with death, the Oscar-winning actor
has been through dark times. Here are some of the more tragic details about Matthew McConaughey.
Matthew McConaughey's physical dedication to roles has impacted his body. Both he and Jared Leto
dropped a lot of weight in preparation for their Oscar-winning performances in Dallas Buyers Club,
and these changes received a great deal of coverage.
Of his weight loss, McConaughey told the BBC,
"[I] chewed a lot of ice [...] I did it in as healthy a way as I found possible. [...] I met
with a nutritionist. I gave myself four months to lose the weight [...] and got
down to my desired weight, which turned out to be 47lb lighter."
The physical toll on McConaughey is not just from filming but personal activities too.
The actor explained in his memoir, Greenlights,
"I've had seventy-eight stitches sewn into my forehead [...] I've
had four concussions from falling out of four trees."
And as for how McConaughey got that scar on his face, the actor told Parade,
"Nephew ran over me with a jet ski."
Fortunately, a doctor fixed the wound on the famous actor's face. But not
the kind of physician you may have expected, as McConaughey revealed,
"I got sewed up by a veterinarian."
"Alright, Alright, Alright."
As a teenager, Matthew McConaughey
moved to Australia as an exchange student. According to Us Weekly,
"[H]e had six different jobs, including a bank teller, a boat mechanic,
a photo processor, a barrister’s assistant, a construction worker
and an assistant golf pro. He was 18 years old and down to 140 pounds."
McConaughey also experienced the dangerous wildlife down under firsthand,
as he revealed on Today,
"The brown snake. When I was here I almost stepped on one. I should have
been bitten. [...] It went right through my legs and gave me bit of a scare."
Matthew McConaughey was thrown into the spotlight in his first film role when
he played Wooderson in the 1993 classic, Dazed and Confused. Next, he appeared in the baseball
movie Angels in the Outfield, and quickly picked up additional roles from then on. Per Parade,
"When he cashed his check from A Time to Kill, he realized he was resigning himself to a life of
never meeting 'a stranger' again. He found it odd at first when people would say personal things,
like giving condolences for his dog having cancer, making him wonder, 'How’d you know I had a dog?'"
McConaughey opened up about his beloved dog,
a Labrador and Chow mix named Ms. Hud, on a 2006 episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show.
The actor acquired the dog in the '90s from a pound in Arizona, and revealed,
"We went on a road trip from California to Florida and back. She got diagnosed
with cancer in Louisiana on the way east. We got her leg amputated on the way back."
The relationship between Matthew McConaughey and his mother, Kay, has been through highs and lows.
During an appearance on Red Table Talk, McConaughey and his mother revealed,
"He did call every Sunday."
"Mother wasn't answering the phone. A fan of my fame was answering the phone."
McConaughey also revealed that he fell out with his mother when she started spilling
secrets to the media. He explained,
"I would share things with her [...] some of those things I would share,
might show up in the six o'clock news three days later."
McConaughey revealed that on one occasion, he turned on the TV only to see his mother
leading a camera around his childhood home and telling private details about his upbringing.
The actor said he had to limit future conversations with her and he confessed,
"I was not able to talk to her as my mom for about eight years."
But once the actor felt stable in his acting career,
he told his mother that she was free to tell any story.
In complete contrast to the lazy characters McConaughey has often played on screen,
the real life actor is highly driven. So much so that he's a perfectionist. In an
interview for The Guardian, the actor opened up about how he feels about his own career.
"I’ve never done [a film] that’s lived up to what I imagined it could be. [...] I’ve been
a part of a bunch of films that I highly respect and really have a love for and think are great.
And I’ve done performances that I’m very happy with and I’m like,
'Good job, McConaughey!' [...] And I don’t think I’ll do one that does."
In his revealing acceptance speech at the Oscars, the actor explained that when he was 15 years old,
he considered his hero as being himself in ten years. Then at 25,
McConaughey's hero was himself ten years in the future. He explained,
"So you see every day, every week, every month and every year of my life,
my hero’s always 10 years away. I’m never gonna be my hero. I’m not gonna attain that. I know
I’m not, and that’s just fine with me because that keeps me with somebody to keep on chasing."
"My motto in life is just keep living."
Matthew McConaughey grew up in Texas in a tough love household.
In an interview on The Tim Ferriss Show, the actor recalled,
"[M]y mom and dad had a very physical and oftentimes violent,
loud relationship, hence, [they] divorced twice, married three times."
McConaughey further explained in an interview on Facebook's Red Table Talk,
"My mom and dad, their relationship was like a hurricane in the Pacific."
McConaughey also recounted his personal encounters with his parents.
In his memoir Greenlights, the actor wrote,
"When I first threatened to run away from home, my parents packed my bags for me."
And for discipline, McConaughey's parents never grounded him because his mom claimed,
"That would be taking your time away from you. And time is your most
valuable asset. So bend your butt over I'm gonna whup your butt."
When Matthew McConaughey was just a teenager, he was sexually abused.
In his memoir, Greenlights, McConaughey claimed,
"I was blackmailed into having sex for the first time when I was 15. I was certain I was
going to hell for the premarital sex. Today, I am merely certain that I hope that's not the case."
The actor revealed another shocking incident that
happened just a few years after he was blackmailed. McConaughey wrote,
"[I was] molested by a man when I was eighteen while knocked unconscious in
the back of a van. [...] I’ve never felt like a
victim. I have a lot of proof that the world is conspiring to make me happy."
When talk show host Tamron Hall noted that the actor didn't detail
the upsetting events in any detail in his memoir, McConaughey replied,
"Ultimately, there's nothing that I feel is constructive about the details."
He further explained on Tamron Hall,
"I feel like those details, unless I had a really good constructive way
that I saw it that could be relatable to other people,
I felt like those details could have just been grabbed and reported for voyeurism."
With Matthew McConaughey's increasing fame in the second half of the '90s,
he regularly found him the focus of tabloid reports,
especially when he went to parties, clubs, or was romantically linked to other celebrities.
It wasn't long before McConaughey's party-hard ways landed him in hot water. In October 1999,
police were called to McConaughey's home in Austin, Texas. According to The Washington Post,
"Actor Matthew McConaughey was arrested early Monday
during a disturbance at his home in which police said he was dancing naked and playing
the bongo drums. [...] Police said they were called to McConaughey's home in an
upscale neighborhood in west Austin after receiving a complaint of loud music. Police
saw him through a window naked and playing drums and another man dancing and clapping."
McConaughey detailed the event in his memoir, Greenlights, and wrote,
"While I was banging away in my bliss,
two Austin policemen also thought it was time to barge into my house unannounced,
wrestle me to the ground with nightsticks, handcuff me and pin me to the floor."
The publication also noted,
"Joe Turner, McConaughey's lawyer,
said the police illegally searched the actor's home and used excessive force."
The Oscar winner was released on a $1000 bond, after what sounds like a fairly
pleasant night. According to The Washington Post, McConaughey said of his night in jail,
"I don't want to rent a place there, but it was a nice stay for a night."
In an interview with People, the actor remembered his childhood interactions with his father.
"It was in having to say, 'Yes Sir,' to my father and his friends. And having
to shake their hands and look them in the eye [...] I knew it was about respect for elders,
but one common denominator in my mind was, 'Oh, it's because they're fathers.' That excited me."
This stuck with McConaughey, who is now a dad to three children. As McConaughey navigated his life,
he remembered the comfort in having his father around. The actor said on The Tim Ferriss Show,
"Oh, if I really get in a bind, I still got Dad. I still got pop. He's my safety net."
In his memoir, McConaughey vividly remembered the
moment his mother told him his dad had died. He wrote,
"My knees buckled. I couldn't believe it. He was my dad."
However, the tragic event ultimately helped him become a better person,
as McConuaghey explained on The Tim Ferriss Show,
"I would have not put myself to task and held myself and called myself to arms to
man up and be more honest with myself and look at the world more honestly,
and have more courage if he had not passed on, because I would have had him as a crutch."
And in his 2014 Oscars acceptance speech,
McConaughey spoke fondly of his father when he said,
"To you dad, you taught me what it means to be a man."
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