| By Fred Topel
In Theaters April 8
|
Matthew McConaughey has done it all, from drama to comedy, from romance to horror. Sahara gives him a chance to do a little bit of almost everything. As action hero Dirk Pitt, McConaughey gets the girl, saves the day and cracks jokes so there’s something for everyone.
“This one does have a little bit of all that, doesn’t it,” McConaughey contemplated. “Yeah, a bit of a fighter, a bit of a lover, he has fun, has some serious moments, has got a lot of heart. He’s got a lot of comedy. I don't know if I felt like everything was leading up to this but this character sure was pretty dynamic like that and the story and the tone was something that was all those things. People go, ‘Well, you’ve done action before,’ they say Reign of Fire or U-571 but no, this is very different than that. Reign of Fire was slaying dragons. That’s complete fiction. Real simple creed on that. It’s either us or them and you don’t have to think about that much more. U-571, sure there was action but it was set in a military setting based on a World War so there was reference points and sort of rules and parameters to the occupation and just the story we were telling. Then you’ve got something like this that is fiction, but it’s set in the real world modern day. And playing a guy, Dirk Pitt, who’s bound to no one, an island unto himself, just as long as he’s working with Al Giordino and Sandecker. But other than that, he’s an island. No one’s his boss. So it is very different from those other two.”
Dirk Pitt may bring to mind the likes of Indiana Jones, or even older classic movie heroes. McConaughey tried to start from scratch and invent a totally new persona.
“I've had that brought up a few times. I knew about some of those, but I didn't have anyone in mind. Sometimes you do that. Sometimes you look at other things and you go, 'Okay, this is not about me or my experiences.' This is not a character that I looked at anyone else when I looked at this subculture or this particular man in this particular occupation. This was not that. This one was just more and more as I spent time with myself and say, 'Lets go back,' and not with everything that I do, but with this, 'Lets take out these things or this perspective or this way of looking at something.' A lot of it came from what [my company] J.K. Living is about, Just Keep Living. I say if you're going to do something, do it with pleasure even if it's going to suck as you see Dirk's attitude when he's heading into the thing. Even when he's getting shot at it's like he's going to come out of it. Like I said, he's got a hell of a sense of humor. He's great, really good at everything and he would tell you that he's just really lucky.”
On the set of Sahara, McConaughey met Penelope Cruz, who plays his love interest. Sparks flew in real life and the two are now an item. However, he denies quotes like “I am living and breathing her, I want to be with her every minute” actually came from him.
“That’s not me, I can’t take credit for that. It was somebody that wrote that and I think that got brought up in Chicago on live television. And they go, ‘This is what I heard you gave Penelope for Valentine’s Day, what you told her in the note.’ I was like, ‘No, I didn’t.’ I didn’t. There’s somebody else out there that did. I won’t plagiarize you wherever you are but I will remember that because I could need that next Valentine’s Day.”
Speaking seriously about his relationship, McConaughey said, “Things are going great. Life’s good. I mean, she’s a joy to be around. I like who I am spending time with her. I better stop there. That could turn into another one of those notes. No, life’s good. You see her. What’s not to like?”
Trying to speak a bit of Spanish for her, one thing that McConaughey cannot translate is the name of his company. “Every time in Spain or Mexico, they go, 'What?' I said, 'Why are they looking at me like that?' She said, 'Well, they think that you're telling them, "Hey, don't get killed."' I kind of am saying don't get killed, but what I'm really saying is stay alive. Then I try to explain that to them and she says, 'Well, they think that you're saying, "Where the truth meets the wind."' And I go, 'Well, that is what I'm saying.'”
Catch McConaughey and Cruz on screen together in Sahara, starting Friday. |
