"Matthew McConaughey"

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Speaker 1 Listener, what are you doing? Are you driving? Are you walking? Are you jogging?

Speaker 2 Are you banging around in a subway looking at weird people and now you're listening to a weird person?

Speaker 1 Well, guess what? I'm sitting alone. I've got headphones on.

Speaker 1 And, you know, we're just in this weird space together while we're waiting for Sean and Will to get their crap together and grab a microphone.

Speaker 2 Until then, I'm going to play a little music for you, a little robot music.

Speaker 1 All right. Here we go.
Welcome to Smartless.

Speaker 1 Smart.

Speaker 1 Smart

Speaker 1 Letts

Speaker 1 Smart

Speaker 1 Let us

Speaker 1 Will, you're back home.

Speaker 2 Will, you're back home.

Speaker 1 I'm back home.

Speaker 1 I'm

Speaker 1 feeling really good about it.

Speaker 2 You don't sound good. You sound a little bored and tired and not into the sesh today.

Speaker 2 We're having a sesh. We're having a pod sesh.

Speaker 1 Okay, listener, singular by this point.

Speaker 1 Thank you

Speaker 2 for your support, listener, by the way.

Speaker 1 Yeah, we really appreciate it.

Speaker 1 I love you, listener.

Speaker 2 This boat afloat.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Jason

Speaker 1 dropped Sesh

Speaker 1 on the group chat, on the group text.

Speaker 2 No seshi.

Speaker 1 And he said seshi, and then he went sesh, and then he said it's super fun.

Speaker 2 It's short and fun for a session.

Speaker 1 I like that. And we all know it.
We all know sesh, but of course, he's the

Speaker 1 bit is the bit is that nobody's ever used Sesh or Seshi. I like it.

Speaker 2 Well, Sesh has been used, but I think I'm first probably on Earth with Seshi.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 You might be.

Speaker 1 Are we talking about a new sweatshirt?

Speaker 1 We're talking about a smart list with Sesshi on it.

Speaker 1 The stupidest. Get into Session.
Join the Session.

Speaker 2 The stupidest short I have that I forget who gave it to me, but I will not stop it is preach.

Speaker 1 Oh, preach always. I won't stop preach either.

Speaker 1 It is preach.

Speaker 2 It's piteous, douchey, like appreciate, you mean? Yeah, short for appreciate it. So if somebody does something, you go, ah, preach, dog.

Speaker 1 Oh, God.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 you used to get so mad at me for shortening words.

Speaker 2 Oh, it just be. I just,

Speaker 2 I love typing it too.

Speaker 1 Preach.

Speaker 2 Because I will put the little, the little, what do you call it? Hyphen there. Or no, no, the, the, what is it? The

Speaker 2 apostrophe. Oh, God, the brain.
The brain shuts down after 3.30 for me, and we're now at 4.08.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I mean, we are, we're pushing dangerously close to Gummyville. Coming time.
I mean,

Speaker 1 we're right on the outskirts of Gummyville. I don't do that for work, bro.
I know, dude. I know.

Speaker 2 This is the end of my protein shake right there.

Speaker 2 I'm on the backside of a workout. I'm fresh.

Speaker 2 This is me peeking.

Speaker 1 God, this is your peak?

Speaker 2 I'm peaking. Look at the hair.

Speaker 2 Speaking of peak,

Speaker 2 my happiness is about to peak. And what is it, a week and a half?

Speaker 1 Yeah, because Sean's coming home. I'm so excited.
I know. I feel the same way.

Speaker 1 You know what we did today? We packed boxes and we borrowed this old luggage carrier, you know, like a Bellahop uses to put the boxes on and walk them down the sidewalk to FedEx.

Speaker 2 You did? Where did you you get one of the little hole, one of the little

Speaker 1 there's one in the basement here in the building? In the building. Yeah.

Speaker 1 But I mean, the sight of me and Scotty pushing this thing, sweating our ass off down the sidewalk.

Speaker 2 Yeah, it's like a bad opening credits to a sitcom. Did you?

Speaker 1 It totally is.

Speaker 1 It totally is. Wait, where was it, Sean? Where's the FedEx office? It's just a couple things over.
It's a couple of blocks over. Well, Avenue or blocks? Like street? No, like blocks.

Speaker 1 But we wheeled it inside the store. Sure.
So we had the luggage carrier. I used to do that when I lived downtown.
When I lived downtown

Speaker 1 in the West Village, there was a FedEx right on Leroy Street, and I lived, and I could come out the back of my building.

Speaker 1 Anyway, I would come a full, almost, you know, big, long block, and I'd go across the street with the thing into the FedEx. What kind of thing?

Speaker 1 Did you have like a little red wagon or something like that? No, the same thing, luggage cart from the building.

Speaker 1 You could hang stuff above. All the buildings have them in New York.
You have to.

Speaker 1 I didn't know that. I didn't even know we had one.
Oh, man. You're going to be able to do it.
How was you supposed to get it there? Dude, you're going to love Planet Earth. I know you've been up to

Speaker 1 your head's been up in space hoping it's real, right? I asked for a dollar. Where are we at right now? Sean, where are you? Where are we at right now with you with alien?

Speaker 1 Oh, my God.

Speaker 1 Because it feels like it's really come alive.

Speaker 1 It's a hundred people per fucking from the government now.

Speaker 1 Are you going to Congress? Are you going to do any stuff like just going like, it's real, you got it?

Speaker 2 Is Scotty watching C-SPAN in the back room right now?

Speaker 1 And bring a gavel for no reason? Sean Hayes from television and film. Go ahead, Sean.

Speaker 1 It's real, you guys. All right.
That's all I got to say. Guys, and just a gavel.
Gavel. Everybody pay attention.
So wait.

Speaker 1 They're like, why don't you have a gavel?

Speaker 1 Just to out-gavel them. But did you see the press conference like a month or two ago where the guys said basically, no, it was all over the news.
It wasn't. That they're real.
I saw parts of it.

Speaker 2 It didn't lead the news. It was kind of like in the last 30 seconds when they put kind of uplifting shots of

Speaker 2 people conquering diseases and stuff.

Speaker 1 No, this is a big government press conference about. We've heard some crazy stuff.
I heard some crazy stuff in the last week from a dude I know talking about aliens and their existence.

Speaker 1 I don't want to get too deep into name people, but it's like... Pretty crazy.
Oh, apparently they're here among us and all this sort of stuff. Yes, right, yes.

Speaker 2 But assimilating. We didn't know which square you were pointing at.

Speaker 1 That wasn't me, right? Don't say it out loud. Hey, guys, preach.
Preach.

Speaker 1 I'm trying to protect the innocent, dude.

Speaker 1 You know why? Because snitches get stitches. Okay.

Speaker 2 We're filling a sweatshirt. And

Speaker 1 they also get preferable sentencing usually because they made some sort of an agreement with the prosecution and the government.

Speaker 2 Which brings us to our guest, Mark Meadows.

Speaker 1 Let's get to our session. Let's do a session.
Which brings us to our guest for today's session because our guest, he is guilty of entertaining all of us

Speaker 2 over the years.

Speaker 1 He's an entertainment outlaw, and he really is. When you see who it is, you're going to say, Yes, he is an entertainment outlaw because he is kind of sometimes outside of the system a little bit.

Speaker 1 He does his own thing. He kind of doesn't live here.
He kind of lives with his family out in the middle of nowhere, sort of. Not in the middle of nowhere.

Speaker 2 Still living at home, huh?

Speaker 1 But he's still living at home with the family. But he doesn't just do the films and all this.
He's also, the last couple of years, this guy has been busy writing books.

Speaker 1 And not just books, like New York Times' best-selling books. And

Speaker 1 he's got so many films.

Speaker 1 We can't have him on anything. So many, so many great films that we're not going to talk about.

Speaker 1 We're not talking about the films, but we can talk about the work and how he gets to this work. I don't think I know this.

Speaker 1 But we are going to talk about his books, and we are going to talk about his foundation, and then we are going to talk about his new book, Just Because, which I read, which is Four Kids, that comes out September 12th, 2023.

Speaker 1 It's Texas's own. I knew it.
Matthew McConaughey.

Speaker 1 I just knew it.

Speaker 1 He's back. We finally got him back.

Speaker 1 I have been here before. Yeah.
But I didn't stay on the show. Matthew,

Speaker 1 please jump right into your experience the last night. Hang on, hang on.
Hang on. I'm prepared.
I'm prepared for this, Matthew. Oh, yeah.
Okay. So Matthew was on.
Matthew was on. Hang on one second.

Speaker 1 Oh, no, you just...

Speaker 2 Please don't have playback.

Speaker 1 Before we do, Matthew, you came on the show a couple years ago. Oh, yeah.
And he was ready to go. And Jason was having some tech.
difficulties, shall we?

Speaker 1 Oh, okay. And did you wait? I must say, did you notice this time pre-game how cocksure he was about his technical bills?

Speaker 1 Telling the back people, shut up, back off. That guy.
Listen to where you were. And that's why I said I I love that he's having tech problems today.

Speaker 1 Let's take a listen to where he was last time, guys. Let's roll it.
Let's listen.

Speaker 1 Oh, my God. It sounds like he maybe cloned his computer onto another computer and it didn't install the drivers.
Christmas came early this year.

Speaker 1 It's a good time to check that out right before we have a guest.

Speaker 1 Sean, take your headphones off one more moment, please.

Speaker 1 Oh, thank God. Thank you for asking him to die.
I know. I've been waiting for so long.
And Matthew. Matthew, thanks, man.
God damn it. You okay to go till just before,

Speaker 1 what is it, eight-year time?

Speaker 1 I've got something in one hour and nine, ten minutes. Okay.
So let's go right up to that number. That's

Speaker 1 an hour. You got it.
Copy that. Perfect.
Thanks, man. Thank you so much.
Yep. Sean, you're good.

Speaker 1 All right.

Speaker 1 Hello? Hello? Hello? Hello. Can you hear us?

Speaker 1 It's not, I don't see, I don't see it here in the sound thing. So let's cancel.
Let's just reschedule this thing.

Speaker 1 I'm in a total fucking tailspin. Yeah.
Yeah. Okay.

Speaker 1 Sorry, sorry, buddy.

Speaker 1 Who the fuck is that? Who is that?

Speaker 1 Great. That's helpful.

Speaker 1 Is that our guest?

Speaker 1 Is that our guest? Yes.

Speaker 1 Let me tell you what I've heard here over the last 30 minutes. We got a reboot here.
My daughter's iPad got cloned, and then

Speaker 1 it got wiped right with the dog Pete on it. So I got to reboot one more time.
Wait a minute, it's buffering. Wait, let me reinstall.
No, I'm installing. It's going to restart.
We got a failure.

Speaker 1 I need a security check. Oh, shit.
We got a virus. Let me reschedule this whole show one more time.
Shit. You know what? You guys start without me.
Fuck that. Everyone be patient.
Oh, shit.

Speaker 1 I'm going to tell the fucking pale child. Dude,

Speaker 1 we're good.

Speaker 1 Matthew, man.

Speaker 1 We're sorry. That's fantastic.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 All of that. Why you still had a sandwich in your head and you've not been really entertaining, but not as entertaining as watching fucking Bateman.

Speaker 1 Fucking him in the tailspins doing it. Listen.

Speaker 1 I'm in a tailspin.

Speaker 1 I don't know what's going on. My fucking dog.

Speaker 1 Rob, pause it, pause it, pause it, because we can play the whole thing. Okay, so now we're back in.
Bateman was just glitching.

Speaker 1 He was glitching. And what we didn't know is Sean, none of us knew.

Speaker 1 Bateman, when Bateman finally rage quit, as we say in the video gaming world, he finally rage quit and he was gone. And then Matthew rips his camera off and he starts laughing.

Speaker 1 And Sean's going, Matthew, I didn't know it was you. And McConney's got, he's written it all down.

Speaker 1 Yes, he wrote it all down in an eye. Like a court reporter.

Speaker 1 JB, He was reading.

Speaker 2 Okay, so all that stuff was that was all that stuff was you was doing you were doing me with stuff I just said.

Speaker 1 That was you. That was you.
That was you.

Speaker 2 That's just mortifying.

Speaker 1 And you were going on and on. You went so long.
I was like, this is

Speaker 1 getting funnier. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And funnier and funnier.

Speaker 2 The worst part is me hearing somebody laughing, thinking it's Will or Sean and going, who did that? That's not helpful. And then I just slammed my laptop shut, took my ball, and went home.

Speaker 2 Like a thing. You remember this?

Speaker 1 Oh,

Speaker 1 So it doesn't happen often.

Speaker 2 It's not one of my prouder moments.

Speaker 1 Oh, my God.

Speaker 1 I mean, you just come back from golf, so I'm guessing you didn't play well. I did not play well.

Speaker 2 No, it's a safe bet.

Speaker 1 In fact, it had never happened before, and it has not happened since.

Speaker 1 We've had a couple times where a guest has had a technical glitch and we haven't been able to do it. But we've never had it in that situation before.

Speaker 1 And that was, it went from being, we felt so bad because you're waiting for so long.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 so we felt bad. Then there's a point, we can listen to this now too.
There was a point where Sean and I started doing Sing for Real.

Speaker 1 Do you remember that? We start doing just to entertain ourselves and hopefully you, while Jason's in a full meltdown,

Speaker 1 full tell

Speaker 2 angry. And I think, did I, I think, I think maybe you had told me it was a big guess, so don't fuck around kind of thing.
I just knew I was blowing it.

Speaker 1 Blowing it.

Speaker 2 Wasn't I on my daughter's computer or something?

Speaker 1 Wasn't that the problem?

Speaker 2 And I'm dumb? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Well, you were just winging it. You were on your daughter's computer.

Speaker 2 I'm dumb and hot-headed.

Speaker 1 It's a great combo.

Speaker 1 You were tardy, dumb, and hot-headed.

Speaker 2 Yeah, tardy, too.

Speaker 2 Well, listen, Matthew, I mean, the fact that you've come back after an absolute wipeout, I can't thank you enough. I know.
I mean, you're the greatest.

Speaker 1 Yes, thank you for being here. It's so great.
You are an absolute kingpin for coming back, which is just the best.

Speaker 1 And I have been waiting, and I've been talking to Bennett and Rob and Michael Terry and all the guys, preparing for this moment we were so excited to get the the audio queued up we we we all went through to find the the peak moment it was which was Matthew reading out all this and then I found out afterwards that it was you and I was God he was damn it

Speaker 2 so and and the fact that it was you laughing and that I had actually inadvertently yelled at you and slammed the laptop on you I was just like

Speaker 1 it was it was great high quality entertainment it was it was it was it was a but it was a pretty tough seshie I will say it was a pretty tough session it was a messy seshy So, Matthew, but I mentioned in the intro, and this is one of the things, like I said,

Speaker 1 you are an Academy Award-winning actor.

Speaker 1 I know, I was going to say insert plots, but fuck it, we'll just do it.

Speaker 1 Which is so rad and so well-deserved, and you've done so much great stuff over the years.

Speaker 1 But what's really amazing is in the last couple of years, as I mentioned, you have been writing books. So, you wrote Green Lights, huge success.

Speaker 1 And now you've written this kid's book, which I, as I mentioned, the thing that i read uh uh and i thought i i really think it and i read a lot of kids books because uh i have basically you know i have three kids and a stepson so fourth grade and a fourth-grade intelligence and a fourth grade

Speaker 1 i read them just because i don't have kids it took me two weeks to read it but uh i read it and i read it today and i like i say i read a lot of kids books i think it's fantastic man thank you i really i really really enjoyed it and and i mean that and you guys don't know this but so matthew wrote that well you can can tell them in your own words what the sort of the genesis was of this book.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Well, so y'all, you're like, y'all got kids, right? You start thinking about how to parent them all the time, man.
They come on with different questions. You're going, oh, geez.

Speaker 1 You know, that moment when they ask you those questions, you know that, like, oh, this is a doozy, and I better have a badass answer because what I say right now is going to shape the way they see the world from now on.

Speaker 1 And sometimes you're up for it. Sometimes you got to go get another cup of coffee, you know.
Anyway,

Speaker 1 I'm always thinking about that stuff. So I have this dream one night, and I wake up at 2.30, and

Speaker 1 it was a Bob Dylan Diddy, man. It was, just because I threw the dart does not mean that it's stuck.
And just because you got skills don't mean there is no luck.

Speaker 1 And so I just started, the hook was just because. And I get up at 2.30 and I...
jam down all these couplets until 630 in the morning. I got about 100 couplets.
Wow.

Speaker 1 I then go back to bed because it's nice to sleep on some of those midnight, those 2:30 in the morning inspirations to see if they still hold. Right.

Speaker 1 So I get up at 10 o'clock next morning, looking. I was like, ah, this is pretty groovy.
This could be fun. It's a nice, fun, ditty song.
And as I looked through it, I was like, you know what?

Speaker 1 There's pieces in here. There's about 25 couplets that'd be good for kiddos

Speaker 1 that are like about things that I've been trying to talk to my kids about, questions they've been coming to me with. And so I put those together, sent them to my book agent.

Speaker 1 He goes, this would be a great kids' book. You should share it.
And that's what just because. That's so cool that's so cool how old are your kids 10 13

Speaker 2 15 10 13 14 right so they're coming into a different set of questions now that yeah they might not even admit they need answers to um

Speaker 1 and yeah it's um it's a whole different set but but what's great about it is is

Speaker 1 it is kind of it really highlights the contradictions uh in life right like and i love that and and for a kid this is what I love so much.

Speaker 1 Like, you know, he just said it, but you know, it starts off with, just because

Speaker 1 they threw the dart doesn't mean that it stuck. Just because I got skills doesn't mean there is no luck.

Speaker 1 Just because they let you down doesn't mean you got to get low. Just because they're clumsy doesn't mean they have no flow.
And it's just all this stuff.

Speaker 1 And the illustration, too, your illustrator, whom I

Speaker 1 really great illustrations, like really helps you tell this story in this really cool way.

Speaker 1 And I think as a kid, there's so many great lessons. There's one where like the kid, it talks about, I'm going to find this one because this, this is one of my favorites that I love.

Speaker 1 There was such a sort of great message.

Speaker 1 Just because I lied doesn't mean that I'm a liar. And it's a, you see this older brother.
Yeah. The little girls hit the baseball through a window.

Speaker 1 And the next thing, the older brother is taking the blame for it, protecting the little sister. And it says, just because I lied doesn't mean that I'm a liar.
And it was kind of a cool lesson. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah, Sometimes a good time to take a white lie. You know what I mean? And the other thing that came from is,

Speaker 1 you know, somebody does something. You tell me, Will, you tell me a lie right now.
And I go, man, you're an effing liar.

Speaker 1 And you go, ah, man, no, I was trying to get away with this. Sorry, McConaughey, blah, blah.
And you don't continue to lie to me.

Speaker 1 I was wrong in casting the whole blanket over your character. But it's very different to call someone a liar than to go, man, you lied to me.
Right.

Speaker 1 Because you call someone, especially kiddos, man, you call someone or adults too. You call them a liar or whatever.
You blanket them with anything in a proper net, a liar. Right.

Speaker 1 They get defensive, bro.

Speaker 1 You're fighting words and you're going, hey, man, you're casting it on my character. You say, hey, man, I don't like that specific time you did to me.
You did me wrong. Don't lie to me again.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 All right. That's a different thing.
We can come together on that and repair. You can go, I'm sorry.
I can go, I accept your apology. We move on.

Speaker 1 Now, if someone continues to bullshit and lie to you over and over, then you go, Well, once shame on you, twice, shame on me. I guess you are a liar.
That's a character trait.

Speaker 1 But usually, we blanket somebody with a with a terminal, with a term, a noun. You're a liar.
That person's a liar.

Speaker 1 They got to wear that scarlet letter.

Speaker 2 Where do you sit with all this stuff? Are you are you someone like

Speaker 2 myself? Like, if somebody does something like that to me, I will call them on it. But as soon as they apologize, I will forgive.
I probably won't forget, but not at a grudge level.

Speaker 2 But like, are you like, I'll trust someone until they give me a reason not to. Yep.

Speaker 1 But there are other people. Yeah, go ahead.
Well, I got a couplet in there about just because I forgive you does not mean that I still trust.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah. You know, and that's true.
It's got to be rebuilt. I go in trust first, too.
Yeah. I go in with a very high trust level early.

Speaker 1 Some people go, you're going in with too high of a trust level.

Speaker 1 But look, if

Speaker 1 someone, if someone comes and is able to say, hey, man, sorry, I bogeyed, you know, my bad. And I, and I, and I sincerely believe it.
I, I'm, I love going.

Speaker 1 Forgiveness is not only great for that person,

Speaker 1 it's amnesty for us who's doing the forgiving.

Speaker 1 You know, I got a couple that in here that says, just because, what is it? Just because I let go does not mean that I quit climbing. Right.
Someone asked, kid asked me about that.

Speaker 1 And I was like, well, that's kind of like forgiveness. Letting go is forgiven, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 And does that mean you're not evolving? Does that mean you're not ascending? No, most of the times that means you are ascending. You are maturing.

Speaker 1 The great illustration with that, if I remember correctly, is it's a girl on a skateboard. She lets go and goes down.
And then in the next picture, she's kind of rising up on the ramp. It's cool.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Are there people in your life that you, I mean, the guys will know why I'm asking this. Are there people in your life that you still have a hard time forgiving? You know, because, yeah, I know.

Speaker 1 Guess who the first person is? I don't know. Oh, yourself?

Speaker 1 That's a lot of what this book's about, man. All these things that we talk about doing to others, man, we got to include going, hey, how about yourself? We got to have the proper amount of leniency.

Speaker 1 Well, yeah, I mean, a writer writes what a writer knows, right?

Speaker 2 I mean, so all this stuff came from you. You had these thoughts, you had these feelings, and that brought it out in words.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 So cool.

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Speaker 2 And now back to the show.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I was thinking about what you were saying about casting someone like the with they lie to you and then casting them as a liar. And it kind of for me, it falls in the same category as

Speaker 1 when people say, you know, I'm the kind of person who, I always say, hang on a second. We're all the kind of person who anything on any given day.

Speaker 1 You don't get to just own that lane. On this day, you did that, but on the next day, you might do this.
And so I kind of reject that a little bit.

Speaker 1 And I think that we are all capable of making mistakes and we're all capable of redemption. And we're all capable of a lot of things, don't you? Yeah, I do.

Speaker 1 And look, and look, those pretext contexts, you know, it's a little bit like that. Okay, well, now I'm being honest.
You're like, oh, shit, were you lying the rest of the time? Right.

Speaker 1 You know, yeah, yeah. You pretext these things with, it was just like, don't, I don't need the supposition.
Don't set me up. I get it.
I'm on par with you, man. Come in straight.

Speaker 1 You know, let's, let's, it's, let's, let's be straight, frank, speaking yes and no's. We all know the maybes are in the middle and it's contradiction.
And yeah, you may bogey today.

Speaker 1 You may birdie tomorrow. You may do it, do it, do it well today, and then F it up tomorrow.

Speaker 1 So we come in on that flat line. It's a little bit easier to get along without the pretext of, now let me set this up, what I'm trying to say.
Well, you know what?

Speaker 1 I've always, you know, I remember we were walking back from dinner that that night about five years ago in the south of France, a Woody's thing.

Speaker 1 And you said to me, you go, Arnett, we don't know each other. He goes, Arnett, we got a lot of friends in common who say that you and I should be friends.
And I was like, let's go.

Speaker 1 I was like, let's go. And I love that about you.
And

Speaker 1 you're so, I love your confidence. And I love.

Speaker 1 Every time I hear you speak, you've got, I don't know, there's like this kind of like,

Speaker 1 I want to say wisdom, but I don't want it to sound too hokey. You've got this thing about you where you talk about how you feel in a way that I find is very disarming, and I love it.

Speaker 1 It's a superpower, I think, to talk about the way you and be vulnerable. Yes, on Instagram, I'll watch your stuff, and I'm like, where, I mean, you're like, you know, an Oprah type of like,

Speaker 1 you know, you have this gift. But it's a vulnerability, I think.
And,

Speaker 1 right, I think that that, don't you think so, Sean? I mean, I don't know. Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure.
Vulnerability, but we talk about that a lot too.

Speaker 1 But just like what you said, Will, and to Matthew about your wisdom wisdom, is like, where do you get how, what happened in your life that gave you this kind of self-awareness enough to look inside yourself and share, then be able to communicate and have the tools to communicate to other people your philosophies and life values and all those things, which I just absorb.

Speaker 1 Oh, I don't know. It's a good question, man.
I mean, thank you. Thank you.

Speaker 1 Let me give you one of

Speaker 1 many answers here. And I I wrote this the other day.

Speaker 1 And this may be a bit of, when you're talking, it's a way to talk about vulnerability in a fun way. And I wrote this.

Speaker 1 I said, look, we are all brilliant dramatic actors when we realize we're in a comedy.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 The comedy, like, it allows us, we were talking, allows you to forgive. It allows you to be an ass.
It allows you to go over the top. It says, oh, I went way too far that time.
Come on back.

Speaker 1 Got a second chance. It allows you you to go, it's not so precious.

Speaker 1 It allows you to not go. Well, you know, I want to tell you, sometimes I do this, as you were saying, Will.
It's like, man, we're in it. We're in it.
We get it. Come on, man.

Speaker 1 Okay, folk, you screwed up. Now try it again.

Speaker 1 The comedy of life. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Allows me, I think, for certain truths to hear them or pick something out that someone says.

Speaker 1 I love listening to people. I've traveled.
I love that too. And I pick out things that people say.
To the extent you feel comfortable talking about it, like

Speaker 1 what was childhood like? What was like upbringing? Like,

Speaker 1 do you think all of these, this time in your life where you are sharing all of these great thoughts and ideas now have come to a fruition because of stuff that happened to you as a childhood or where you were raised in a certain way?

Speaker 1 Man, I don't know. I mean, look, I've always

Speaker 1 been an existential dude. I'm always been intrigued with, oh, if I can just get a little closer to figuring out the riddle.
The big riddle. What are we doing here?

Speaker 1 Is there a God? What's happening? What really matters? What doesn't?

Speaker 1 That entertains me.

Speaker 2 You do find a way in which to steer a lot of your performances, a lot of your characters into places of

Speaker 2 really solid grounding kind of foundations.

Speaker 2 There's a deep humanity to all the characters you play, and some, you can tell, is not on the page, but you find that place in you, and you share that through the character and and then to the audience and it it's it's uh it's always it always goes down easy I don't think you ever ask the audience to to buy something that you're selling that is inauthentic you know I appreciate that

Speaker 2 for sure you know you know how that is we don't we we you don't want to be watching a performance having to do the math yeah we all love to be manipulated we just don't like to be confused yeah but you find you find a place to keep it inside your cool your scope your boundaries your person and and i to build on, on, on Sean's question, like, do you, do you think that's always been there?

Speaker 2 Was it something, I'm sure as we get older and wiser, it gets better and better, our ability to be human. But like, were you, one of your parents kind of like that?

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's what I was going to say. Did somebody model that for you?

Speaker 1 Look, I come from a family of hams, that's for damn sure. I mean, I'm probably third and out of five.
My two brothers, mom and dad, third.

Speaker 1 And I would be a bronze medal winner as far as when it comes to

Speaker 1 wanting and willingness and performing. Yeah.
Really?

Speaker 1 Yeah. I mean, dad was maybe fourth now that I'm talking about it.

Speaker 1 Dad was an absolute host of a ham. My mom was always

Speaker 1 talking about existential logic. You know,

Speaker 1 she, I got a story in the Book of Greenlights where she told me to sign my name under this Ann Ashford poem.

Speaker 1 And I said, but I didn't write it. She goes, but you understand it and it means something to you.
I said, yeah. She goes, well, then it's yours.

Speaker 1 I signed my name under it and I won the seventh grade poetry contest.

Speaker 1 Early AI. Early, early AI plagiarism.

Speaker 1 But I mean, so she was always like, no TV. Why, mom? Because I'm not going to let you sit in here and watch somebody do something that you can go out and find out if you can do it for yourself.

Speaker 1 It was like, bam. Okay.
Wow. So you were just pushed on to say it to be the subject.
That I will say. inadvertently or indirectly was

Speaker 1 set me up for doing what I do is you are always forced to be the subject.

Speaker 1 Get in. Go find out.
Go find out.

Speaker 1 No, it's live. You get one take.
Go. Don't ask.
Don't watch. Do it.
Come back with a scar. Let me know.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 I love you. And then the comedy side of that is what tickles my family bruises a lot of people.
We were like, we went comedy quick.

Speaker 2 So there was no risk of embarrassment or shame or

Speaker 2 making a clown of yourself. It was, you got to pull your pants down to get their attention, right?

Speaker 1 You got to. And if you came in on any kind of high horse or a little arrogant or a little thought you were the shit, my family just penetrated you to the ground until you cried uncle.

Speaker 1 And as soon as you cried uncle, they'd all lift you up and throw you in there and be like, yeah.

Speaker 1 And you'd be like, what's your favorite drink? What's your favorite meal? Let's cook it for you. Yeah, same.
That was like a test. You know, I remember I have three older brothers.

Speaker 1 They would treat me.

Speaker 1 I remember one time they pinned me down and forced me to shave because I was just like at 12 or 13 years old. I was just getting a little peach fuzz on my upper lip.
And they're like,

Speaker 1 we're going to teach you how to shave. Like, what?

Speaker 1 And they pinned me down in the family room and got a razor and they just covered me and they shaved my face. Yes.
So bizarre. That's cute.
Rights of passage, initiations, you know. Yeah.
It's crazy.

Speaker 1 But now let me ask you, because,

Speaker 1 you know, I don't know if you ever felt this way to be the second you were on your rise to becoming Matthew McConaughey as we know him and this big massive global superstar.

Speaker 1 Was there ever a moment where, because you're so outgoing and you're so willing to share every thought and feeling now, which is great. Was there ever a moment where you didn't?

Speaker 1 And when you didn't, what was the switch that made you go, you know what, fuck it? I'm not going to be mysterious anymore. I'm not going to do this anymore.

Speaker 1 I'm going to just share everything who I am. Sure.
Look, I mean, I'm still measured about what I share. I just have my mind's quicker to notice as it's coming out of my mouth.
Do I do it?

Speaker 1 I could say something right now that I know would be in bold print. And as it's coming out out of my mouth I can catch myself

Speaker 1 let me dovetail that a hair now that took years of getting there did I notice do I also notice that there is real value

Speaker 1 in demand for celebrities movie stars to

Speaker 1 not be around until that Friday night when your movie comes out. Yes.

Speaker 1 Is there value to having

Speaker 1 two

Speaker 1 tinted black suburbans when you leave and the paparazzi follow because they don't know which one you're in and you sneak in the back and you're not seen? Yes.

Speaker 1 Is there value to wearing the same thing out every single day so every paparazzi shot looks like it was the same day so they lose value? Yes. Is it value to go, where is he?

Speaker 1 I don't know where they are. I can only go spend time with them when they come out in a movie in the theater.
Yes. I just tried that for a little bit, very short amount of time.

Speaker 1 I was like, bullshit, this is too much work. Yeah, I was just going to say, it sounds exhausting.

Speaker 1 I started to notice, especially when I had kids, I was like, man, I started to notice if you're going to live by that code that I just brought up, you start to let your fame wag your life.

Speaker 1 Meaning, there's, I always said, that's what just keep living is about.

Speaker 1 What are we doing? I got rights

Speaker 1 as a... a citizen, a mammal, before I have rights or rights taken away from me as any kind of celebrity.
So, for instance,

Speaker 1 we're in New York. My son's four years old.
Fire truck pulled. The girls do my makeup's husband doing is runs a, he's a fire chief at the fire department.

Speaker 1 She goes, Hey, my son says, I'd love to see a fire truck. She goes, Oh, let me call my husband.
We'll swing by. He swings by.
The Greenwich Hotel, right there, I mean, Central.

Speaker 1 This is when the paparazzi are all around. Pulls up front.
My son's like, I want to go see the fire truck. Well, I know if I go down there, it's going to be a paparazzi big shoot.

Speaker 1 But I'm also like, my son wants to see his first fire truck.

Speaker 1 That's got to take precedent, right? If I tell him, no, not right now, I'm not, I feel like a heel. I feel like a coward.
I feel like a wuss. What am I doing?

Speaker 1 I got to go down and get in the middle of it. You got to see the fire truck.
Later on, I had to explain why was everyone watching and why was it the big deal? But you got to see the fire truck.

Speaker 1 I've chose to say, let me go on with my life. Let me make choices I'd make with my life first

Speaker 1 before I'm going to curtail those to like, oh, I want to be obscure. Sean had a similar moment.
I was with him a couple of years ago. Here we go.

Speaker 1 And we were on, and we were on. Sean was, he gave me a ride on the G5,

Speaker 1 and he was, and he said, we're going to have. G-nickel.
And they came out with the G-nickel and they came out with the lobster.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 he said, I got lobster. And I said, you're damn right you did.
Good for you. So we started eating the lobster, and then he looked over and he realized that I was videotaping him.

Speaker 1 I did. I ate lobster.

Speaker 1 Isn't that one of the great, that's one of the

Speaker 1 caveats of fame and access or any kind of success is

Speaker 1 you say yes

Speaker 1 to things because a lot of times you're like, I never had the option to say yes or no. You damn right the answer is yes.

Speaker 1 And you got to ask yourself when they go, do you want lobster on the G5 trip? And you're going like, I never have fucking lobster before. You got to ask yourself first, do I like lobster? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Exactly.

Speaker 2 Well, on

Speaker 2 that, Matthew, with,

Speaker 2 you know, you seem so

Speaker 2 genuinely authentic, honest.

Speaker 2 We used the word vulnerable earlier. And it's something that I try to strive for too.
I know Sean and Will do as well. And

Speaker 2 sometimes I feel like what we do for a living is at odds with

Speaker 2 that quest in that like the definition of what we do is, you know, we're professional liars. We're pretending to be somebody other than us.

Speaker 2 What's your level of comfort with that? Can you reconcile those two things?

Speaker 2 How have you been able to do that?

Speaker 1 Dude, I'm going to go with Bob Dylan on that one. This whole thing about, oh, I got to get to the truth of who I am.

Speaker 1 Dylan goes the opposite. He's like, man, we are who we create, whatever we create.
We're all creations.

Speaker 1 I would also go to the extent that as much as, as you said, Bateman,

Speaker 1 we're inhabiting someone else. yeah you tell me how you feel about this but ultimately we're being that part of ourselves right yeah my version of that person yeah and so

Speaker 1 you know

Speaker 1 in that way acting and performing is an absolute vacation and an expansion of who we are really because you're exploring sort of the edges of it yeah

Speaker 1 it's like the old morant equalizer you turn up the 500 hkz part of our stuff you turn down if it's a saturday night character you turn down responsibility and you turn down these other things.

Speaker 1 If it's a Monday morning character and you're an astronaut, you turn up responsibility and you turn up conscientiousness and you lower the halfhazard sides. And you just, then you go, go.

Speaker 1 Yeah. And then it's just trust and living in there and going.
Trust me, I've had plenty of roles that I got in that I'm like.

Speaker 1 When this movie's over, am I going to come out of this?

Speaker 1 Because if I continue this, I'm going to jail, you know what I mean? Or whatever it is, you know, or I'm going to be a fuddy dud, you know?

Speaker 1 And, you know, with all, with all these incredible insights that you have, like who, I'm just watching you talk and listening to every word and hanging out to every word.

Speaker 1 Who do you, who gets your juices going just having, shooting the shit, having a great conversation with?

Speaker 2 I built those conversations with the kids as they get older. At least I'm finding, I got a 16-year-old and 11-year-old daughters.

Speaker 2 The conversations get even better. Like,

Speaker 2 I'm having some of my closest conversations with who I am with my girls now.

Speaker 1 That's great.

Speaker 1 I'm starting to have that too. You notice that transition, we go from just being a father to being a father and a friend.

Speaker 1 And then as soon as you slip into that, a bit of the friend, you can kind of be like,

Speaker 1 let me know.

Speaker 1 And they're not worried about the consequence. Or if I give the wrong answer, I'm in trouble.
You're kind of like, yeah, let me know. And oh, let me tell you how that was with me.

Speaker 1 You know, we've had the first kiss discussions. Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 And, and you know well tourists and how do you do that i'm like dude let me tell you about my first one man nature trail name was amy went out i was really excited and that that old that old i forget what movie it was where the lip gets caught on the braces no i did and they bled all over and you will and we we bumped noses i didn't know whether to go left or right and i double juked and i i i flinched and it was it was it was not good man and so then i get my son laughing and he's like all right i'm like yeah trust me that they don't have to try and be perfect you know on this thing.

Speaker 1 Just take your time, blah, blah, blah. I just had the same conversation.
I've had it with my sons, and I did my pick my son up. He was on this trip.
And

Speaker 1 so his mom and I, she was like, I was like, yeah, I'll go pick him up. I went and picked him up at the airport.
We had like a four-hour drive home.

Speaker 1 And it was great because I don't know if you guys noticed. What I love driving with my kids is...

Speaker 1 that they're you're both looking forward and they tend to share more when we drive on a laundry oh really why is that because they don't have to they don't feel you looking at them 100 Because you're looking at the road.

Speaker 2 That's why I don't like, that's why I prefer phone calls instead of FaceTime. I feel like phone calls are a little bit more honest than FaceTime.

Speaker 1 I get that. I get that.

Speaker 1 You could argue that's why some people have actually,

Speaker 1 I've formed some relationships

Speaker 1 over COVID doing Zoom meets that I like more from the distance than I did in person. Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 That makes sense.

Speaker 1 But I do find that those connections, JB, like you were saying, those connections with the kids in that,

Speaker 1 I don't know, reminds me.

Speaker 1 I think I told you guys, I had one of the greatest conversations with my son, one of my sons, I won't say who because I won't embarrass him, but he said to me a couple years ago,

Speaker 1 we were sitting there,

Speaker 1 I could tell he was kind of down. It was a Sunday afternoon.
We went around, we were sitting there, and he was on the ground, and he has head in his hand. And I go, what's going on, buddy?

Speaker 1 And he goes, I just don't know where I, he looks up and he goes, I just don't know where I fit in.

Speaker 1 And the fact that he was able to be honest with me in that moment, and we ended up having this incredible conversation.

Speaker 1 And it was one of the great, I don't know where it ranked for him in his short life, but in my longer life, it's one of the greatest conversations I've ever had. That's good.
I love that.

Speaker 1 You know, I've got a good friend in Austin. His name is Barton Aggs.
He's raised a few girls successfully out of his house.

Speaker 1 And he and I were talking just a few months ago as my kids are hitting teens. And he's like, dude, there's just one thing you want to do, whatever you can to maintain through these teen years.

Speaker 1 I go, what? He goes, access.

Speaker 1 To let them be honest like that and to be able to go, I don't know where I fit in. Yeah.

Speaker 1 You know, well, and it's true to pick it out on those spots where it's not, we're going to sit down and talk. Look me in the eye.

Speaker 1 No, where it's a little more informal to like, we're driving, we're doing something or taking a walk. You do find out more.
But to maintain some access to keep some honesty.

Speaker 1 you know, in these years, I'm hoping to do.

Speaker 2 Yeah, and I feel like

Speaker 2 that's the friendship part of the relationship. But then I feel I worry sometimes, well, am I am I sacrificing what could be more useful to them, which is parenting

Speaker 2 at the expense of sacrificing the friendship. So I battle with that sometimes, trying to keep the access door open by being super friends.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 But sometimes that's not helpful to them, you know, because they've got friends, but they've only got one dad, one mom.

Speaker 1 That's a, that's a, isn't that a, that's a tough line to walk, man. Right.
I mean, I think, I think the kids have such a great bullshit meter. They're born with it.
And

Speaker 1 we wear it out as we get older, whatever, people, other people, society, whatever wears it out. And I think that what kids, I find in my experience,

Speaker 1 I'm not preaching anything, but my experience is that if you are honest with your kids in that way and you are authentic, we were talking about Matthew about you being authentic.

Speaker 1 If you can be authentic in those moments, they get it and they can feel you being authentic. If you're not trying to get something from them, but you're just trying to relate to them.
Yeah. Right.

Speaker 1 A relationship is just two people relating. And if you can relate to them,

Speaker 1 they'll be honest with you. They'll share.
They'll give you that access as long as

Speaker 1 you stay in that zone. Just keep it authentic.
That's it. I think that's the key.
I think.

Speaker 1 It sure helps. I mean,

Speaker 1 look, it's,

Speaker 1 you know, I don't know about y'all. I was.

Speaker 1 I was raised.

Speaker 1 Camille and I have much longer conversations with our kids than my parents had with me.

Speaker 1 I mean, my parents, you could talk about it, and I was the question, I was the why,

Speaker 1 but how, but why, but why? Mom would entertain that a little bit, but very quickly within a few minutes, it became because I said so. Right.

Speaker 1 And I'm your parent. And that was it.
Conversation over. Yeah.

Speaker 1 It's that thing.

Speaker 1 Because some conversations that you start at 8 p.m. and you're going to try to explain.
You look up and it's 11.

Speaker 1 And then it's midnight. And you're going, you're wearing me out here, man.
It's like, because I said so, man, because I'm 53 and I'm your dad and you're 10. Go to bed.

Speaker 1 You know what I mean? Exactly.

Speaker 2 Who's the disciplinarian between you and Camilla?

Speaker 1 Who's the parent, who's the friend?

Speaker 2 Or do you guys switch off real good?

Speaker 1 We try to watch the old good cop, bad cop stuff. I mean, look,

Speaker 1 I got one daughter. And I'm guilty of probably being a little more on the lenient side with the daughter.

Speaker 1 The only relationship that the honeymoon never ends, you know? Right.

Speaker 1 So, but I mean, it's

Speaker 1 Camille's more day-to-day, moment-to-moment. I'm a little more like,

Speaker 1 guys,

Speaker 1 gang,

Speaker 1 we've you've been stretching that one a little bit. I'm starting, the little things are adding up.
I'm going to step in here and I'll go in and be general.

Speaker 1 And all of a sudden, I'm the general, and they're like, oh, shit. And it's like, no, this is how it's going down right now.
And I've had the talk with them. This one's a great one.

Speaker 1 This has helped with my boys is going, you know, if I let you

Speaker 1 get away with that with your mother, what is that teaching you to allow your son to do to the woman you're going to fall in love with? Right.

Speaker 1 You know, and then to go cut even deeper and more direct is, boys, that's my wife. Right.
What kind of husband am I teaching you to be if I let you get away with that? Right. Do they hear that?

Speaker 1 That one actually cut into places where they understood it in in ways that i thought was going to be too above their head right but i called it personal i said this is this is the woman that i fell in love with that i've married and we got together and made y'all man and if i'm letting you get away with that let you disrespect her yeah what kind of husband what kind of what kind of husband am i teaching you to be yeah and they were like whoa it became sort of a bit of a you know with the boys it became a little bit of a oh that's my responsibility

Speaker 2 yeah as your son yeah but but it's kind of fun that like now they're old enough now to really intellectualize that kind of thing and finish that sentence, you know, that you started for them.

Speaker 2 You know, that's yeah.

Speaker 1 We'll be right back.

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Speaker 2 All right, back to the show.

Speaker 1 So, wait, Matthew,

Speaker 1 I asked you this like five minutes ago, but

Speaker 1 you were thinking about it. And I don't want to put you in the spot, so you don't have to answer if you don't want.
But

Speaker 1 you have so much to share and to teach

Speaker 1 through your just incredible brain. Who is your guru? Do you have somebody in your life that you're like, God, you know what? I got to listen to this guy.

Speaker 1 Or you have the greatest conversations where you actually walk away learning something. because like I said I learn from you all the time just watching your Instagram like I don't have

Speaker 1 a certain person I have in the last um

Speaker 1 five years started to seek out elder mentors yeah in a way that I didn't before yeah that's what I mean and

Speaker 1 look I ironically I was writing about it last night I man I'm losing my mentors they're dying

Speaker 1 over this last four years

Speaker 1 I don't don't know how it's been for y'all, but I've had some elder friends that were

Speaker 1 that were right there. They slowed down, but they were right there holding it.
But boy, that last, all of a sudden the drop is steep and they're gone.

Speaker 2 Has that triggered for you something? And I'm not prying for an answer

Speaker 2 on the specifics, but at least for me, you know, for all four of us,

Speaker 2 we're closer to death than we are to birth.

Speaker 2 And at some point, especially if you're semi-intelligent, like I think the four of us are, you do start to think about, well, what are some of the things I want to when that moment of clarity comes where you're like, okay, here I am in the last week.

Speaker 2 You know, I'm in hospice or whatever the hell it is, you know, when everyone gets the end of their life. What are the some of the things I'm going to wish I can say, yes, I did that.
Yes, I did that.

Speaker 2 Are you starting to think about some of those things? Or am I being

Speaker 2 the kind of adult I wanted to be? Am I?

Speaker 1 I started doing that

Speaker 1 about six years ago it was part of the reason i think i wrote the book green lights i started to get the courage enough to project to my deathbed to my eulogy and go what's it going to be man yeah yeah what do you where's your head and heart and spirit going to be what's your legacy going to be how are you going to look back what are people going to say how are you going to be introduced after you're gone right and that's good we think that's morose no but if it's inevitable how can it be morose right because it's going to happen everybody right so to look at it And if anything, it's given me more of a charge to go,

Speaker 1 okay. Right.
Well, let's make this shit count. Yeah, but most people with your success would would be, yeah, I did it.

Speaker 1 Think they're going to live forever.

Speaker 2 They just kick the can down the road.

Speaker 2 I won't say who this is, but somebody super duper successful.

Speaker 2 I was talking to the other day and I was asking him about his health regimen. And he was like, yeah, you know what? Here's the deal.

Speaker 2 I don't know what your religious belief is, but I believe that we all kind of come around, you know, we do, we do multiple laps.

Speaker 2 You know, we're always working on things, you know, reincarnation, whatever the hell it is.

Speaker 1 But he says, I like this lap. And I started laughing because this guy's like enormously successful.

Speaker 2 He says, I just don't want this to end.

Speaker 1 Like, I'm having a really good time and I want to eat. Yeah.

Speaker 1 By the way, spending time with all those, like, when any, anytime you get around any kind of those like sort of billionaire types or whatever, the one thing I noticed that they all talk about is their mortality and their fucking health.

Speaker 1 It's it. It's all they talk because it's the one thing they can't buy.
Right. They're like,

Speaker 1 I look at it. I've got these mountains of cash, but I can't buy immortality.
They're fucking like, no, no, dude, you're going to die just like everybody fucking else.

Speaker 1 The other thing is I also notice we, I, you know, these guys know my, my good buddy died a few months ago, a childhood pal, and it's kind of really,

Speaker 1 it's made me ask a lot of questions in the last few months. And the one thing I realized is like, we all know the deal.

Speaker 1 The deal is we're all going to die.

Speaker 2 We just kick the can down the road.

Speaker 1 We kick it down the road and we trick ourselves. And what happens, they go, hey, so-and-so died.
What?

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Fucking, what do you think was going to happen?

Speaker 1 Unbelievable.

Speaker 1 He died. He didn't live to a thousand? Yeah.
You know, Joan Rivers said, like, just a few months before she died, she's like, I'm 86 when I die. Nobody's going to go so soon.
Right.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 2 I want to hit 100 so bad.

Speaker 1 Oh, God.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Do you really? I've just got a numbers game, just pure ego.

Speaker 2 That's the number. I really want to get to 100.
I do feel like this generation will do that more commonly than the last.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you know. I feel like we got 100%.

Speaker 1 With your diet of nuts and cardboard, your innerns look like they're 100. Don't worry.
I use you to pack my clothes here in New York.

Speaker 1 But, but with your success, don't you feel? I'm just going back to what you said about like, you know, what's my legacy? What am I going to leave behind?

Speaker 1 What do I, you know, but my God, the body of work is, is, is mind-blowing. It's really like more than awesome.
Any actor. It's impressive.
You know, it's the top of the heap.

Speaker 1 So it's, is what else is there to accomplish in your mind that would make you feel like, now I have enough to leave behind. Now I have a legacy.

Speaker 1 Now I have something for people to introduce me as, as you say. Well, I mean,

Speaker 1 my negotiables are different forms of art, but my non-negotiables are those three kids I was talking about. Yeah, yeah.
I hope

Speaker 1 that when they are out of the house and as they become adults and after I'm gone, that they'll be able to list me, that the three of them will be able to list me as best friend on one hand, one of their five top best friends.

Speaker 1 Oh, that's great.

Speaker 1 That's a dream of mine. That's awesome.

Speaker 1 And that gets into that friendship thing we were talking about. But I can't go full bore on that yet.
I still do have to be a parent.

Speaker 1 I still do have to give myself credit and go, I'm a father for a reason. I'm 53.
We have, if we don't know better, what's evolution for?

Speaker 1 At the same time, trying to be that friend and hope I'm on their head.

Speaker 2 Yeah. It also, for me, at least, it kind of demands that I live my life in a way

Speaker 2 that they can maintain respect for me, which translates to friendship. usually.
I mean, you know, or put another way, I'm not really close friends with anybody that I don't deeply respect. Right.

Speaker 2 So it's a good safeguard against, you know, letting your life run off the rails if you're really trying to hold the respect and

Speaker 2 friendship of people you care about.

Speaker 1 And then I'm trying to double down on whatever respect I've earned and gained. I'm trying to double down on that.
I mean, you know, there's, look, let's be honest, there's the baseline of

Speaker 1 who pays the rent, who puts the food on the table, who's giving you a chance to get an education,

Speaker 1 Who's up in the middle of the night taking care of you when you're sick? Yeah, because I am tired of it. Right.
You're tired of it. I'm tired of it.
And they have to know that that's not just like...

Speaker 1 I'm over it. This isn't just a one-way street.

Speaker 1 And then we talk to them a lot about how did we get what success that we've had. We talk about...
winning the right way. We talk about, has there been luck along the way? You damn right.

Speaker 1 Has there been trying to do it well, trying to

Speaker 1 be as competent at a craft as I could be? Their mother as well? Yes, there has.

Speaker 2 But what's that saying about luck? Luck is

Speaker 2 the result of preparation and discipline or something like that. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I don't know.
I talked to my son yesterday about this idea. I was saying, he was talking about cool kids in school and stuff.
And I said, man, just do

Speaker 1 what makes you feel happy. I said, if you can be, and he started painting a lot in the last year and a half.
And I said, do that.

Speaker 1 If you can live a life where you get to be creative and you can do that on a daily basis, that's what you do.

Speaker 1 You'll be so lucky. You'll be so happy in your life, no matter what the sort of the outcome is.

Speaker 1 And I go, and if you want to know what success is, and I always say this to them, if you want to know what success is, and I pull up my phone and I show them the video of Sean eating lobster on a G5.

Speaker 1 I go, this is success.

Speaker 1 Can I peel it for you? Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Wait a second. Wait a second.

Speaker 1 We've taxed you so much, but I want to ask you one thing because I keep, I want to get into your, this, the green light initiative or the foundation that you and your wife started and what you guys are doing.

Speaker 1 It's so fucking cool. Tell the guys a little bit about what it is.
Check this out, man. This is pretty cool, and it's low-hanging fruit.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 But you know what I say about low-hanging fruit? Still fruit. Pick it.
It's still fruit.

Speaker 1 You know? So first bill, bipartisan Safer Communities Act was passed just over a year ago, right, to safety in schools. First one passed in 30 years.

Speaker 1 So billions of dollars of federal money are there there to safe in schools, mental health counselors, and even physically safe in schools like metal detectors,

Speaker 1 panic buttons, et cetera. Our congressman in Texas, who are down there in Uvalde, where

Speaker 1 the shooting was, where I went, Camille and I went down, comes to me four months after

Speaker 1 and says, Matthew, I got 119 school districts. Eight.

Speaker 1 I think it's eight have applied for a grant and zero have been awarded. I'm like, what?

Speaker 1 We find out another out of 13,800 school districts in America for this very

Speaker 1 popular grant from the Department of Justice to safety in schools, 405 applications,

Speaker 1 235

Speaker 1 awarded grants. The math doesn't add up.
You're like, what's going on? And we started studying this and find out,

Speaker 1 I was amazed at how many school districts don't even know that the grants are there to apply for.

Speaker 1 Number two, the ones that do know are superintendents who are in the ones that need it in like high, high-poverty-rate schools. The superintendent is the bus driver and the PE teacher.

Speaker 1 He doesn't have a, he or she doesn't have the damn time or the expertise to write out one of these 50-page grants.

Speaker 1 And I understand it, I can't even fill out a customs form without scratching shit out. And they're complicated, they're really complicated.
So they're like, I'm not even going to write the grant.

Speaker 1 There's also people that are like, that's federal money. And that money's blue right now.
And I'm red, so I don't want that money. I'm like, guys, that money ain't

Speaker 1 blue or red. It's fucking green.

Speaker 1 Spend it. It's there.
And the government wants you to spend it, wants you to get awarded. So the billions of dollars are there.
Then we find out that it's use it or lose it.

Speaker 1 In the year 2026, if these billions of dollars are not allocated, it'll be reallocated somewhere else.

Speaker 1 And we'll look back at this bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which has already done some good, but we'll look back and go, so much of that bill was symbolic and bravo to us first one passed in 28 years and what do we do with it right so we started this green lights grant initiative to help follow through as private citizens working with the public government to say hey let's cut through that red tape 165 of the highly highest poverty rate schools in america are our main target we will have a full grant writing service for those schools to file a grant that will most likely get awarded by the government to safeen their schools.

Speaker 2 That's great. So you write the grant for them.

Speaker 1 We have a grant writers who can write it for them. The second tier is we have we have a website now that walks you through.

Speaker 1 So the second tier of poverty schools can go on and we have someone who will help you write the grant.

Speaker 1 And then the third place is just for the schools that are more fluent, but it just helps you get through the red tape process in a very simple way.

Speaker 1 So it's sort of a, I call it a civics class of supply and demand. I mean, it's no, civics is not sexy.

Speaker 1 You know, as I'm saying, this is not, there's nothing glamorous about this initiative, but it's useful and it's constructive. Yeah.
And it just needs to be there. It just needs to be there.
And

Speaker 1 we had no idea how much the government's like, yes, we want to spend the money. We just have to feel the need.
We have to feel F-E-E-L the need.

Speaker 1 And we're helping schools go better over here going, we need, but how do I show you we need you? Well, we're going to help you fill out this grant that shows them

Speaker 1 that you need it. And then they can.
What's it called again? Green Lights Grant Initiative.

Speaker 2 And can people go to a site and help out? Or how are you guys funded?

Speaker 1 You can go. We're still going around looking for funding now.

Speaker 1 You know, one of the challenges has been people, a lot of people have come up and wanted to fund,

Speaker 1 but they specifically wanted it to go towards their city or their state, which is a very interesting thing.

Speaker 1 I mean, talk about, you know, this is a non-political issue because it's a bipartisan bill that was passed. You still have people that go, well, I just want to put it.
in my backyard.

Speaker 1 It's a national campaign. If you go on the site, there are places where

Speaker 1 we let you know how you can help. There are places where we take donations to help.

Speaker 1 It'll tell you how much that donation, what it would pay for.

Speaker 1 18 to 25G pays for a full grant writer to write. We have this grant writing firm that can do it by scale and lower their prices to do it by scale.

Speaker 2 Seems like it would make sense for the government to just peel off a tiny sliver of that huge allocation to fund a service to lubricate it, you know, like you guys are doing.

Speaker 1 Yes. I mean, they admit that there's too much red tape.
The Rs and the Ds admit this should not be this complicated.

Speaker 1 As we know, the government needs some help in running their business. And this is an example of a private sector going, hey, we're not going to do it for you, but let's help you out.

Speaker 2 Well, they should donate to your site then. You know, the federal government should make a little donation there to help it run.

Speaker 1 We have a solid bipartisan advisory board from Murphy to Cornyn to many others.

Speaker 1 And they'd say if we could get to 165 of the highest risk schools and get them grants written and get them awarded, that that would be a real, the Department of Education said that would be a massive game changer.

Speaker 1 And then the idea is that down the road, you don't need to have a full grant writer write these things out, that the process will be much more streamlined, that,

Speaker 1 you know, maybe AI down the road can help fill out these grants.

Speaker 1 And you don't have to pay a certain person. We've also gone out, if anyone out there is is listening, is a grant writer and wants to do some pro bono work, please, any retired team.

Speaker 1 Give me your home phone number. Home phone number is coming up on screen right now.

Speaker 1 No, but

Speaker 1 that's a great way to do it. Yeah,

Speaker 1 it's really cool. If there are any grant writers out there, and please do reach out to, they can go to GreenlightsGrantInitiative.org.

Speaker 1 You spend all this time, you do all this stuff, and you do all this amazing stuff and giving back in this, not just giving back, I mean, really taking an initiative and helping.

Speaker 1 Sean, by the way, where was that lobster from on the G5? So that was a main lobster. It was up north and just to the right.
Good for you. Good for you.
Yeah, if you're not sure.

Speaker 1 Anyway, Matthew, you do so much good work out there in the world.

Speaker 1 He doesn't do oysters because oysters only have pearls. No, he does diamonds.

Speaker 1 He does them real good. You know what? Here's a little peek.
Here's a little peek into my personality.

Speaker 1 When you said someone writes the grants or they help write them, I felt like a weight off my shoulder, like, oh, that's another thing I don't have to do.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 that's just my personality. I was like, oh, God, am I going to have to write a grant or something? So, but listen, so this is going to, you don't have to talk about this.
We can cut it.

Speaker 1 It's an old topic. Forget it.
Any fun theater stories?

Speaker 2 Did you ever forget a line on stage, Matthew?

Speaker 1 No.

Speaker 1 But wait. No, it's an old topic.
And forgive me. Again, we can cut it.
But the only reason I'm bringing it up is because it has been a fantasy of mine.

Speaker 1 Is there, I know you. Slay Bongo's Naked?

Speaker 1 No, I have that meme. It's on DVD.

Speaker 1 But the Texas thing, will you ever revisit even the idea of Texas or better yet running for the president of this country or anything in politics at all? In politics. It would be amazing.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Look, it's not something I want to visit now because of what I said earlier. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I'm raising three children right now, and

Speaker 1 it's a great adventure doing that. I want to see that through.
My only thing I ever knew I wanted to be was his dad since I was eight years old. I want to see that through.

Speaker 1 And I have to measure as I've given great measurement to it, where can I be most useful? And I want to enjoy myself. Hard work doesn't scare me.

Speaker 1 But man, I'm an artist. I'm a storyteller.

Speaker 1 I'm a folk singer. You know what I mean? Now,

Speaker 1 is those parts of me what could be useful in a political position of leadership to be a CEO of a state or a country? Maybe. But some things to, you know,

Speaker 1 raising my three kids right now

Speaker 1 is a hard but fair fight.

Speaker 1 Going into politics right now is a hard and unfair fight. I'm trying to win.

Speaker 1 Let me go win my priority non-negotiable fair fights

Speaker 1 first, and then let me out back and have it. And forgive me for asking.
I just, it's just, I just think you'd be incredible. I don't mind.
I don't mind at all. It's a great answer.

Speaker 1 It is a great answer.

Speaker 2 And I think we kind of made a little bit of news. So in 10 years, you got a 10-year-old, eight years, really,

Speaker 2 you'll be on the ticket somewhere. So, there we have it.

Speaker 1 Can I just say something before? Because I've said this to him personally, okay?

Speaker 1 But I want to bring it up to y'all because y'all are probably closer with him and you'll know what I'm talking about.

Speaker 1 But the man in the bottom right corner, who is so technically adept today, and is improved.

Speaker 1 I'm so, I've always loved him, loved him in comedy, but I was so happy to see him get into drama. yeah

Speaker 1 because

Speaker 1 does anyone have a better

Speaker 1 delayed blink

Speaker 1 than jason bateman

Speaker 1 he's got the best bateman's got the best delayed blink in the business that's great that's great i i i brought i introduced a a half blink to a character about a year ago.

Speaker 2 I did it for somebody the other night at some party.

Speaker 2 I totally forgotten about it. It's like this really affected kind of, well, winks are super douchey anyway, but I took it up a notch for a half wink.

Speaker 1 The lids don't actually close, it's just sort of like a little encouraging, like squint.

Speaker 1 Oh, it's fucking terrible.

Speaker 2 I also keep forgetting to put to incorporate close-eyed talking with a character. That's also super douchey.
You know, when someone goes, Yeah, Madonna did that. She closes their eyes when they talk.

Speaker 2 No, you know what? You just don't understand what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 Yeah, close your eyes.

Speaker 2 That's a good one.

Speaker 1 But thank you. Thank you, Madam.
A lot of people close them slow, but then

Speaker 1 they get nervous nervous on the rebound and open them quick. You close them slow, and I think you open them slower.
And it's right between

Speaker 1 I got to hang on every word, and he's absolutely fucking with Bidney.

Speaker 1 I think a lot of it's Xanax, too, isn't it? It's a lot of Xanax.

Speaker 2 And then I'm also in the editing room, so I'm hitting freeze frames all the time just to elongate the eye close.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's cool.

Speaker 1 Oh, man, God. Well,

Speaker 2 we are over. We're eight minutes over.

Speaker 1 You're very generous.

Speaker 1 Listen, man. Yeah, thank you for coming back, our first returning guest.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 You're giving me another shot with my hothead.

Speaker 1 We finally made it through pre-production last time. Glad to make it through production with you this time.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 What an absolute treat, man. It's so great to have you.
Love you so much. Yeah, you're such a great teacher.
Appreciate it, guys. Appreciate it.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 And all the success in your book, it comes out just because. Just because.
September 12th. Am I right about that? I think that's right.
That's right.

Speaker 1 I'll be out there touring and talking about it. I'm not September 12th.
September 12th. September 12th.
Just because Matthew McConaughey, man.

Speaker 2 You're the man. You are the man.

Speaker 1 Man, appreciate it. Okay, patience.
I'll see you next time.

Speaker 1 Thank you, buddy. Thank you so much.
Bless up. Bye, buddy.

Speaker 1 Oh, love him. Real good.
I tell you what, I like that Matt McConaughey. Yeah, I could talk to him.

Speaker 2 It's not Matt.

Speaker 1 It's Matthew.

Speaker 1 It's Matthew. I know.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 I made that mistake once. I feel like I'm not.

Speaker 1 It's not married. I know it's not.
I know it. You talked to him for a long time.

Speaker 2 Well, yeah. What a guy.

Speaker 2 Truly.

Speaker 2 He is an absolute original.

Speaker 2 He does not waver.

Speaker 2 He does and says what he wants.

Speaker 2 His roles have been.

Speaker 2 all over the place from the from the sort of the the the the easiest go-down sort of popcorn kind of films to the most challenging uh artistic films small budget things and then also just like i love that he lives super down home there in texas but then he also lives a very flamboyant and and elite lifestyle as well he's just it figures out a way to manage it all yeah yeah anyway he's uh but what he's been able to do in in starting out is kind of a matinee idol and um and and sort of hanging in there not forcing people to appreciate or respect his his acting chops you know like he didn't cram some you know shakespeare thing down our throat right after some rom-com like he's he's taken taking his time and

Speaker 1 what I liked also is he talks about some shakes. He just shows up.
He's like, for the most part, he just shows up on Friday night. That's where you can see him on a Friday night when the movie opens.

Speaker 1 And he's not out there going talking about his process

Speaker 1 in this way that's self-aggrandizing. He just does it.
Yeah, he just does it. But you know what? I loved.
I loved when he said,

Speaker 1 he's so great in everything he does that even when he was saying he was signing off, he

Speaker 1 even, it was even cool the way he waved waved

Speaker 1 goodbye. Bye.

Speaker 1 Bye. That's it.
Just goodbye.

Speaker 2 It's a creative one. It's

Speaker 2 literally saying bye.

Speaker 1 Sean always wants to get out

Speaker 1 another shot.

Speaker 1 Sean always acts like there's like a cab running out with the meter running outside. Like he's just got maybe there is.
Maybe there. There probably isn't.
Broadway is right outside. All right.

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