Movie Reviews
Hangin’ 10 with Matthew McConaughey
Armond Richards |
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 It is evident that everybody does their best to maintain two lives whether they are famous or not. Everyone has a life they live in public and a life they live in privacy. A public persona can and does include anything that one practices in a social environment. A private persona is usually within the sanctity of one’s home or within the embrace of one’s family. Being a celebrity includes a different set of rules. The price of fame is the forfeit of one’s private life and offers it up as a sacrifice to the gods of public scrutiny. There is a question on everybody’s mind when a friend tells him or her that they have met someone of a famous nature. The question is simple: What are they really like?
I have had the good fortune of meeting quite a few celebrities in this business. From Denzel Washington to Colin Farrell, each person I have had the pleasure of interviewing proves to be very different from who they are on the big screen. There is no shame in that. After all, they are actors and it is their job, nay, their purpose to put on a facade for our entertainment. Given the consistency of this formula, I was given no reason to believe anyone would prove to be the exception to that rule. That was before Matthew McConaughey. Never had I met someone who was as much himself up on the screen as he was in flesh and blood. Even when playing an axe-toting dragon slayer or evil-excising sheriff, the man is himself. Now, audiences are able to see him as the long-boarding, soul surfer Steve Addington in his latest film, Surfer, Dude.
This role might be as perfect as casting could be for any film. McConaughey’s laid-back, mellow attitude embodies the Zen, surf-for-the-sake-of-surfing mentality that motivates Steve to react to the changing world of sponsors and digital media that threatens to put a price on purity. Surfer, Dude is the first film produced by McConaughey’s new production company, J.K. Livin Productions.
“I loved the producer role,” said McConaughey. “So much so that I know I don’t want to do it for every film I do.”
 Many first-time producers don’t really understand the difficulty of such a position. If anything, the producer is most likely the antithesis to all creative forces on a project. They are the ones who need to say which shots they have time for and which ones they don’t. They say when to film and when to call it quits. They are the banks of the fluid river of creationism known as filmmaking, keeping everything on track and going in the right direction. When an actor decides to do double duty as a producer, it almost becomes an existential contradiction. Perhaps the perks to leading this expressive double life outweigh the pitfalls; after all, as a producer/actor, you are the one who picks the projects you want to work on. Luckily, this was the case for McConaughey’s big debut as producer/actor.
“I wanted our first film to be personal,” he said. “To be about something and to be made with friends and people sharing the same attitude towards life. I’ve made really big movies and really small ones and it’s challenging no matter what the scope or budget. We had a small budget and a very short [production] schedule, so I wanted to put together a good group of craftsmen and human beings. It was vital we had the right people for this shoot and we did.”
Sticking to a rigid shooting schedule of 28 days, Surfer, Dude was filmed in northern Malibu and utilized more than 300 goats. What’s the deal with the goats, you ask? Let me respond by saying that I can’t divulge all of the fun and interesting quirks of this film. What fun would that be?
 Surfer, Dude is the first full-length feature film directed by S. R. Bindler. Bindler was standing in a field in west Texas when his cell phone rang. He was told that the project he had been working on for years as a writer-director had fallen by the wayside due to financial troubles, but good news lurked around the corner and its name was Surfer, Dude. After listening to the pitch over the phone, Bindler accepted the job. Apparently, it was McConaughey’s enthusiasm that influenced him to do the project.
“Matthew is the most spirited, enthusiastic person I know,” Bindler said. “When he likes something, he gives himself over to it 100-percent. And that’s not hyperbole, I mean it literally; he doesn’t equivocate one bit. Every iota of his being and energy goes into what he’s locked into; his enthusiasm is intense--red hot.”
It takes an extraordinary type of person to even make it to the status of a superstar, but it takes going above and beyond the call of duty to accept that stardom without compromising yourself. Matthew McConaughey is one of those stars who’s still very much the person he was before he got into the film industry: just a nice guy from Texas who loves what he does and wants to share that passion with the world. When I arrived at the restaurant on the Santa Monica Pier for the interview, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. There was a man sitting next to me who had a toothpick in his mouth, and he was wearing a faded green T-shirt and beige cargo pants. It wasn’t until I heard a specific southern drawl escape the man’s mouth that I realized I was seated next to Mr. McConaughey himself. And that is what defines the man: he is just himself whether he is in a frame or out enjoying a meal with some friends.
Surfer, Dude is now playing in Los Angeles and Orange County.
For more information, visit suferdudethemovie.com.
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