Greenlights

McConaughey’s daughter Vida is born in early 2010. Shortly after her birth, McConaughey resolutely declines all the romantic comedy offers that are coming his way, regardless of how well they pay. His agent Jim Toth supports his decision to move toward the character-led roles he craves. There is a long transitional period where no new roles come in at all. Since McConaughey has worked his whole life, this lack of demand proves challenging. But the break ultimately turns out to be positive: it allows Hollywood time to cast aside its vision of McConaughey as a “romantic comedy” actor and imagine him in other roles.

One role that especially attracts him is that of Ron Woodroof in a script called Dallas Buyers Club. Woodroof is an HIV survivor who is a “character on the fringes of society […] an outlaw” (Location 2824)—just the type McConaughey is drawn to on the screen and in his life. McConaughey prepares for this character with gusto. He loses 50 pounds in order to mirror Ron’s thin physique; he meets Ron’s family and reads his diaries to get deeper inside his mind. They make the film with only a 4.9 million budget—a meager amount for a major film—and only 25 days to film. Meanwhile, he is offered more roles in drama movies, such as Marc Hanna in Martin Scorsese’s 2013 film The Wolf of Wall Street.

When his three-year-old son asks him why his mother does not have the same last name as him, McConaughey admits that he has been putting off marriage for fear of losing himself. He talks to his pastor and to successfully married men, and finally reaches a point where he sees marriage “not as a final destination, rather as a new expedition, an affirmative and heartfelt choice to become more, together, with the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with” (Location 2941). The date for the wedding is set when Camila is pregnant with their third child; a boy, named Livingston, after two men that McConaughey met and admired.

Professionally, McConaughey lands the role of detective Rustin Cohle in the True Detective Limited Series. He also earns a sweepstakes at awards season for his role in Dallas Buyers Club, scoring Best Actor in The Critics’ Choice, the Golden Globes, the Independent Spirit, Screen Actors’ Guild and finally the Academy Awards. This was “validation that my choices as an actor were translating as a highly competent craft. I was not half-assin it” (Location 3007).

Following the award, McConaughey goes on to make challenging films with famous directors such as Chris Nolan and Guy Ritchie. He also becomes a brand ambassador for the Lincoln Motor Company and Wild Turkey bourbon. While he experiences unparalleled engagement in his roles, he regrets that the films did not reach ultimate box office success, as he feels that “something was not translating. I was inviting the public but there were empty seats in the theater” (Location 3016). He is uncertain whether this is because of him, the movies themselves, bad luck, or simply changing times where audiences don’t go to the movies as often.

When McConaughey finds that “the stories in my profession seemed more vibrant than the story I was livin,” he decides that it is time to make a new plan (Location 3030). He decides to make his own documentary on himself by writing his autobiography, gathering his old journals and revisiting the haunts of his early life alone. His motivation for writing the book was “so [he] could have a written record to hold [him]self accountable to” with regard to his life (Location 3052). He knows that a process of constant recalibration is inevitable in life. He wants to dedicate the next phase of his life to his family, and hopes to instill in his children a resiliency in the face of hard truths: “I want to cover their eyes from fictional fantasies that will handicap their ability to negotiate tomorrow’s reality” (Location 3071).

McConaughey then addresses the two redlight dramas of 2020—the coronavirus pandemic and the murder of George Floyd. He concludes that “both of these red lights forced us inward, literally quarantined us to search our souls for a better way forward” (Location 3083). In 2019, McConaughey, who wants to play his part in helping pave a better way forward, assumed the position of Minister of Culture at the University of Texas and the City of Austin. In this position he hopes to promote the competence and values that his parents taught him.

He addresses his book to the reader and hopes that his story can serve as an example and help them with their own endeavor to catch more greenlights.