Matthew McConaughey visited his alma mater and unleashed the awesome power of Matthew McConaughey upon the Texas Longhorns football team during a practice...and he sure appeared to hook 'em!
The 44-year-old Texas-born, Oscar-winning actor gave the guys a true McConaughey-style speech and even led them on a true McConaughey-style chant. A video showing him speaking to them and their head coach, Charlie Strong, at the University of Texas was posted on the Longhorn Network's official YouTube page on Wednesday.
"Ask yourself, men, when you look in the mirror tonight, just say, 'Who do I play this game? Why do I do this? Why do I come out to practice? Why am I out here busting my ass in the middle of the heat every day?'" McConaughey told the team. "Feels good going out on Saturdays when it's the big show, right? Hell yeah, it does. Feels a whole lot better after a W than it does after an L."
His visit took place about a week ago, before the team faced the Kansas Jayhawks. The Longhorns won, marking their second win out of four games played since the start of the season.
"At the end of the day, every single one of you really only gotta be playing for one person," he said, adding, "If everyone's laid their head on their pillow at the end of the night and said, 'I did everything I could today,' it's a lot easier to play for the guy next to you."
"Anyway, I did start preaching, didn't I?" he said at the end, laughing. He then took questions from the players. Asked which one of his movies was his favorite, he replied, "Mud. Mud. I also liked The Wolf of Wall Street, though."
The actor then re-enacted a scene from the latter 2013 film, leading the football team on the chant his character does, complete with chest-beating and humming. Three of the players, safety Kevin Vaccaro and quarterbacks Trey Holtz and Logan Vinklarek, tweeted about it, with the latter calling the star "such a cool dude!"
My favorite actor @McConaughey came to practice today, thanks for talking to the team!
? Kevin Vaccaro (@kevinvaccaro) September 25, 2014Well I can now say I did the Wolf of Wall Street chant with Matthew McConaughey himself
? Trey Holtz (@TreyHoltz) September 25, 2014Lucky enough to say i did the Wolf of Wall Street chest beat with the man @McConaughey himself. Such a cool dude! #hookem
? Logan Vinklarek (@LGDV_18) September 25, 2014The chant is not featured in the Wolf of Wall Street's script or in the 2007 book on which it was based, but rather came from McConaughey's personal experience. He told the football players how it came about, echoing comments made in press interviews.
"I do that before I do a scene, 'cause I'm nervous," he explained. "I do that to loosen, loosen myself up because my head's going...I'm thinking too much and I'm nervous before scenes. So I do it to loosen myself up, No. 1. No. 2, I do it because I know other people in the room are looking at me, like, 'What is he doing?' So then I know I'm on my own island, where I don't want 'em knowing what I'm up to."
"And, anyway, I'd done that before the scene and me and the other actor, Leonardo DiCaprio, did the scene, but I wasn't doing that," he said. "And we were done, we had the scene finished. The director [Martin Scorsese] was happy with it, I was happy with it, everybody was. And we get up to go away and the guy, Leonardo DiCaprio goes, 'Hang on a second, hey, what was that thing you were doing before the take?' And I told him. And he goes, 'Will you do that in the scene?' And I said, 'All right.' So the very next take, [chants], started off."
McConaughey graduated from the University of Texas in 1993 with a bachelor of science degree in radio, television and film. He is also set to be honored with a Distinguished Alumnus Award later this month.
McConaughey was 23 and still a student when he got his big break. He was in a hotel bar and spotted casting director Don Phillips, who would go on to cast him in his breakthrough role—mellowed out, fun-loving slacker David Wooderson in the 1993 film Dazed and Confused, in which he uttered what would become his catchphrase, "All right, all right, all right."
The actor won his first Oscar earlier this year, for his role as an HIV/AIDS patient in Dallas Buyers Club, for which he lost 30 pounds. McConaughey, who no longer looks emaciated, was also nominated for an Emmy this year for his role as troubled, brilliant and somewhat sociopathic investigator Rust Cohle in the HBO series True Detective.
"I found that when I've done my best work as an actor, it was only when I pushed myself to be better than I even thought I could be and I got a pretty high idea of how good I can be," he told the team. "I'm pretty self-confident when how good I can be but I didn't do my best work, and I still don't think I've done my best work, until I pushed myself further than even I think I can be."