Matthew McConaughey has led a successful and prominent acting career. Despite his success, he notes in a video he wishes he had “failed more” and encourages people to “take more risks.”
Posted to his Twitter, Matthew McConaughey begins the video thinking of advice for actors and filmmakers. However, his advice extends to ” anybody who wants to be in the storytelling business, which is basically what we’re all doing in any form.”
His advice? “Take risk,” McConaughey bluntly begins. “It’s not a risk unless you lose the fight. I mean, take, take the risk. Go fail more.” The actor seems to view it as a learning experience, one he wished he had encountered more often when he was younger.
“If I could go back, I would even wanna push myself to say ‘go fail even more.’ Um, and don’t be embarrassed about failing. Yeah, be prepared and do the best you can, but be prepared to fail. And keep failing, and by process of elimination, you’ll be getting better at what you’re doing.”
He concludes by saying these failures will help you tell better stories. Not only that, but modern technological advances make telling stories easier. Since everyone has a phone, it’s as easy as taking it out and hitting “record.”
“You’ll be better able, better equipped to tell stories. Um, it’s easier now than ever, it’s ever been to tell a story. Everyone’s got a mobile device. Pull it out. Press record. You got a story right under your feet wherever you stand. Shoot it. Tell it. Live it.”
Matthew McConaughey’s Mom Had One Issue with Her Son’s Memoir
Matthew McConaughey released a memoir titled Greenlights in 2020, to great success. Though she is a fan, McConaughey’s mom, Kay, has one problem with it. Her problem isn’t something McConaughey included, but something he omitted.
McConaughey’s memoir includes fights he witnessed between his parents growing up, with some of them ending violently. Kay didn’t have an issue with these but did express disappointment the couple’s affectionate moments weren’t more prominent. Speaking with Mayim Bialik, McConaughey explained how she felt.
“Look, I didn’t include and my mom it’s what she didn’t like – what she didn’t take well about the book was, she was like, ‘All the stories are true about me and your dad and, yeah, my middle finger was broke four times from him doing that and I deserved every one of ’em. It’s how I needed to communicate. But you could have included more stories about how loving we were and how many times we were hugging it out.”
McConaughey concurred, telling her “you’re right. And I didn’t. That was 98 percent of the time we were hugging it out.”
Nevertheless, McConaughey said he didn’t include them because it was a time when their love was tested the most. That seems to coincide with his advice on Twitter, using his struggles to drive him forward and tell better stories.
