Matthew McConaughey has admitted that he took a long gap from telling his mother things about his life for a very sad cause.
The Dallas Buyers Club actor confessed in a recent interview with PEOPLE that he had to take an eight-year ‘hiatus’ from his mother, Mary Kathleen ‘Kay’ McConaughey.
Despite attributing his success to his 93-year-old mother, who will appear with her son for the first time in a new film, the veteran actor admitted that juggling a relationship and celebrity was not always easy.
The 55-year-old Interstellar star claimed he feels ‘closer’ to his mother today but had to take a break from telling her too much since she wouldn’t respect his privacy.
“I’d say we’re closer now,” he told the publication. “We had about an eight-year period where I had to have short conversations with her on our Sunday phone calls because she was sharing a lot of that information.” On Sunday, I’d tell her about anything between son and mother, and by Tuesday, I’d have read about it in the news or seen it in the local paper. “She couldn’t help herself.”
Kay stated, “We were on hiatus.”
Years later, McConaughey admitted that he had grown accustomed to his own celebrity and was no longer concerned with media coverage.
He went on: “About eight years later, I felt comfortable enough with my own position and popularity to say, ‘You know what? My mother can say whatever the heck she wants.
“It’s much more fun now.”
The revelation comes as the couple, along with McConaughey’s 17-year-old son Levi, prepare to feature in the upcoming Apple TV+ film The Lost Bus, marking a new family milestone.
The survival thriller tells the narrative of the 2018 Camp Fire, which is considered the deadliest and most devastating wildfire in California history.
The film, directed by Paul Greengrass, portrays the Hollywood celebrity as a bus driver who comes to the rescue of 22 youngsters, while Kay returns to the big screen 14 years after her appearance in the 2011 black comedy Bernie.
It also marks Levi’s acting debut, as he portrays his father’s kid, while McConaughey’s real-life mother plays his character’s mother.
McConaughey, who has two other children with former Brazilian model Camila, Vida (15) and Livingston (12), also claimed that his son earned the job solely on his own merit after removing the family name from his audition tape.
“I had to badger him,” Levi said while urging his father to join the initiative.
Meanwhile, McConaughey stated that he was not too keen on his children entering the profession.
“For the first 15 years in Hollywood, I thought, ‘I’d never want my kid to grow up in this business.'” And when I was 40, around the time we had Levi, I reflected on how many amazing people I’d met in my life, how much I’d traveled, and what an awesome, healthy, cool experience that had been for me.”
Finally, he determined that it would be ‘an honor’ for his children to follow in his footsteps.
Levi reflected on his involvement in the film, stating that the couple had only one difficult scene to portray.
“There was a tough scene to do with my dad because we’re fighting, and we have a good relationship where that’s luckily not how it is in real life,” the 15-year-old explained. “But I’m enjoying it more and loving it.”