Matthew McConaughey Says He Once Built a 13 Story Treehouse
Mud was part of the “McConaissance,” where actor Matthew McConaughey had a series of breakthrough roles that revitalized his career. McConaughey has been spending his quarantine releasing videos where he discusses his famous movie roles. In his “McConaughey Takes” on Mud, McConaughey discussed the ways in which he relates to the film.
‘Mud’ reminded Matthew McConaughey of his father
In Mud, McConaughey plays a fugitive named Mud who befriends two young boys (Tye Sheridan, Jacob Lofland). He wants to see his girlfriend Junpier (Reese Witherspoon) but the law is on the lookout for him. McConaughey felt it was the kind of movie is late father would like, and only regrets he did not make it sooner.
“Since my father passed away, Mud is a movie I always have dreams of him, if that movie had come out when I was 12 or 13, it’s the movie I could see my dad coming to me and going, ‘Hey buddy, you seen this movie Mud?’” McConaughey said. “‘No, sir, I haven’t.’ ‘Oh, God doggy, it’s a good one. Come on, we’ll head out to the theater. We’ll go watch it tonight.’ It was something he would’ve wanted to watch with me.”
Matthew McConaughey did what the boys in ‘Mud’ did
The boys who meet Mud had their own little hideout where they played away from the adults. McConaughey built one when he was 13 and it was way bigger than the one in Mud.
“I didn’t have a boat and a tree, but I had a 13 story treehouse that I built for one entire summer with lumber that I had stolen from a lumber yard,” McConaughey said. “I would get up every day, as soon as my dad would go to work, I didn’t tell him about it. I’d sneak out with my hammer and nails I’d stolen and I found this big Ponderosa pine in the middle of the woods that was the tallest pine in all the woods.”
It took three months, and at the end of the summer it was the size of at least 13 McConaugheys!
“For, shoot, 90 straight days I worked on this treehouse,” McConaughey said. “It ended up being 13 stories tall. At the very top of it, I could sit and be above the entire pine curtain and I could see, 15 miles away the city of Longview. That was probably when I started learning to dream.”
He’ll show his kids ‘Mud’ one day
McConaughey never got to watch Mud with his father, but now he has sons of his own. The movie is rated R but he is looking forward to introducing it to them one day.
“That’s one that I now as a father really look forward to sitting down as soon as my eldest son is ready for it, sitting down and saying, ‘Hey bud, you gotta check out this movie Mud. It’s a good one,’” McConaughey said. “Mud had this great mix of fantasy, magic reality and at the heart of it. My character Mud was a real aristocrat of the heart. Almost a Romeo and Juliet sort of love. It was a beautiful love story that Jeff Nichols wrote and directed.”
