In all his homespun wisdom, Matthew McConaughey doesn’t think the world is a stage — he thinks it’s a story told by the fire.
“Am I doing things that I want to last? Yeah. Am I trying to build bonfires instead of just campfires? Yeah,” the Oscar-winner says, reflecting on his legacy before he’s honored with Variety’s Legend & Groundbreaker Award at Filmland in Arkansas on Friday.
Over the last 30 years, he’s tended the flames at the multiplex (from “Dazed and Confused” and “Mud” to “Interstellar” and “Dallas Buyers Club”), on the small screen (his Emmy-nominated turn in “True Detective”), with his Just Keep Livin’ foundation for high schoolers and as a professor at his alma mater, the University of Texas. But his biggest bonfire? He and his wife Camila Alves McConaughey’s children: Levi, 18, Vida, 16, and Livingston, 13.
“When you have children, that’s the literal form of becoming immortal. They live on, and how much of you can they carry forward,” McConaughey says, breaking into his famous laugh before launching into another metaphor.
“Hopefully all these things I’m doing are useful,” he says. “Hopefully, they’re enjoyable to do as well. I like it when the broccoli tastes like candy. It’s nice when something tastes really good and is good for you. That’s the kind of honey hole I’m shooting for, you know?”
