Matthew McConaughey is 40 years old today. Happy Birthday!
Not only is Matthew McConaughey a gorgeous man and romantic comedy movie heartthrob, he is also a really awesome human being. I know because I spent two days with Matthew McConaughey back in 2005.
I was working as a movie publicist and Matthew came to my city to promote his movie Sahara. He was on a multi-city press tour where he traveled around the country in an airstream trailer that was plastered with images from Sahara. He was THAT devoted. It’s also not a secret that he basically lives in a trailer most of the time anyway and he loves adventure. So this was right up his alley. When he arrived in my city, it was SNOWING. He was scheduled to do his television interviews in front of the trailer. The trailer would be the backdrop. I was a little worried because, hey, he IS a celebrity. I thought he would say forget it and just opt to do the interviews inside the warm trailer instead. Nope. He stood outside in the cold and snow for over an hour to do all the interviews. It was a blast. Everyone was laughing about it and having fun.
He is just a cool guy. He is very laid back and down to earth. At the time he was dating Penelope Cruz. He was thinking about her a lot because she was presenting at the Oscars that evening. He didn’t complain at all about his schedule. But he did want to be finished in time to catch his girlfriend on television. And he said it in such a loving way. I will admit that he did stay in a hotel that first night. It was still snowing and it was really cold. He was fine staying at the closest hotel which was a small Holiday Inn in the college town next to his trailer park. I think he was happy to have a king size bed and decent shower. All he asked me to bring him the next morning was his Starbucks: a grande skim latte with two brown sugars and a bran muffin. Of course he eats healthy, right? His travel assistant wanted donuts. Ha. But MAN was I STRESSED about those brown sugars. I was not a Starbucks addict at that time so I was confused about that order. Do I tell the barista to put in brown sugar? Do they have brown sugars to go? Well, it turns out it was sugar packets that are brown in color. It was just grain sugar. Thank goodness I got the order right.
Although I doubt Matthew would have even complained. He was that cool. He was nice to everyone. He took pictures and mingled with all his fans. He even introduced his film at a military base that second night and he stayed late to shake hands and take photos with everyone who wanted to meet him. It was late so his dinner was takeout from TGI Friday’s. I think he just wanted to be a regular guy. And from what I experienced, he IS a regular guy.
A regular, super famous, super hot, super nice, sexy guy.
PS: Best part about being a movie publicist: hanging out with cool, famous people. Worst part: not being allowed to ask for a personal photo. 🙁
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