A chat with Matt

A movie star sighting from the Starbucks across the street is rare; talking to one face to face is even rarer. While either of these would have been ideal yesterday morning, The Daily settled for a round table discussion via telephone with the Texas-born Matthew McConaughey, the main man of How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days. With his trademark southern twang, McConaughey sounded as relaxed and confident as many of the characters he plays on screen as he talked about his new film.

The movie is a romantic comedy, starring McConaughey as ad man Benjamin Barry, and Kate Hudson as women's magazine columnist Andie Anderson. In the movie, McConaughey's character makes a bet that he can make a woman fall in love with him in ten days. He's set up with Hudson's character, who is under her own deadline, writing a story about how women drive men away.

McConaughey commented on the movie's premise.

"[It's] different than the other chick-flicks out there," he said. "It's the old joke where the audience knows what she's doing and what I'm doing, but we don't. The audience is the straight man."

(Of course, one might say that anytime the phrase "old joke" is used, it usually means it's not different, but we'll give McConaughey the benefit of the doubt.)

McConaughey told about his experience working with Kate Hudson, and called her "a natural and very gifted actress." And despite the fact that he was several years her senior, he found no problem being attracted to her on screen. Being quite diplomatic, McConaughey was hesitant to say he preferred her to Jennifer Lopez, whom he worked with in another very 'original' chick-flick, The Wedding Planner.

The interview then strayed from discussions of the film to McConaughey's relaxed attitudes about Hollywood and his life. While wearing his, "Just Keep Living" t-shirt, both his personal motto and the name of his production company, McConaughey said that he liked to take a break from the chaos of Hollywood and kick back at his ranch in Texas. There he is able to get his internal clock "clocked on the right time" because "you can do anything you want or nothing at all," as opposed to the forced, fast pace of Hollywood.

When it comes to acting and choosing roles, McConaughey said that his one rule is "to mix it up." He sees acting as a mix of all the "-ologies," where an actor has to use a little of one at least once in most roles. He said he loves that he can be a lawyer for three months and then switch to something completely different.

When asked about his future plans, McConaughey mentioned his character in Dazed and Confused, and said mysteriously, "I feel a bit of a hippie coming on."

Along with his mellow nature, McConaughey has an air of refreshing honesty. While he said he feels that he has "no responsibility" to be politically active because of his high social profile, he recognized that he has the opportunity to speak from a pedestal. But when asked about the current situation in Iraq and how he feels about the imminence of war, he replied frankly, "I would definitely have to do a lot more homework" to answer the question properly, and insinuated that others frequently answer it without the proper knowledge.

McConaughey also brought up the point that too often political rhetoric is the cause of international conflicts. In regards to documentation concerning weapons inspections he said, "this is so debatable _ you can spin it too many ways, which is why there are so many problems now...Iraq is saying one thing; we're saying another. I think we can get out of this without going to war... I don't think Bush wants war either."

In terms of movie reviews though, fair play is a quality rarely found according to McConaughey.

"There are good-bad reviews and bad-bad reviews," he explains.

He said that his new movie has received many of these types. "Critical and constructive reviews" are what McConaughey would call "a really good bad review." It is the review that assaults films with intelligent language, but without substance that he disregards.

But the topic McConaughey was most enthusiastic about was his new movie. While it may same like the type of film men shy away from, he encouraged his gender to get out to theaters saying, "This one, guys, I think you can handle."

Alissa Green Contributed to this article