After winning an Oscar playing a real-life person in Dallas Buyers Club, Matthew Mcconaughey once again made a dramatic physical transformation to play an actual prospector in Gold. Although this time the role required him to gain instead of lose a lot of weight.
Matthew McConaughey stars in ‘Gold’
McConaughey believes that you have to take into consideration both the facts and the rumours when you play a real-life person on-screen. In Gold, his character is Kenny Wells, based on the Canadian businessman David Walsh. “The facts don’t really tell the story,” McConaughey says. “Sometimes there’s more truth in an impression of a character than there is in the actual close-up and understanding of a character. So I looked at my own life, at the David Walshes that I knew growing up.”
And he found his inspiration close to home. “My father was a pipe and cufflinks salesman in Northeast Texas,” he says. “We were taught early on, ‘You better be a good salesman, you better be able to hustle!’ And my dad was always around a lot of guys who looked like Kenny. They were great consumers of life. Whatever they could eat, drink, smoke, kiss and slobber on, they did it.”
To fully inhabit the role, McConaughey knew he would have to change the shape of his body. “I had been putting on some weight,” he says of his preparation. “We had a fat suit, and over the weeks of trying to make it work, I really started to put on the weight. So we were like, let’s ditch the fat suit and go with what God gave us.”
Watch the trailer for ‘Gold’ here:
He decided to simply say “yes” to eating for the next six months. “My favourite food is cheeseburgers,” he laughs, “so I was eating cheeseburgers all the time. I was making cheeseburgers. I was trying out all these fast food restaurants that I’ve never had. Not that much sweets; cheeseburgers and beer will do the trick!”
With all of the pizza nights and unusual breakfasts, McConaughey’s three children began to call him “Captain Fun”. And they’ve found it difficult to return to healthier ways. “It’s hard to keep up that pace,” McConaughey says. “For six months going hard was a lot of fun. But if I was still doing that, I might have some structural damage!”
And he laughs when he thinks of one thing he’ll have to show for it: a nude scene in the movie that didn’t involve a body double. “Oh that’s my butt alright, alright,” he says. “That’s my large walrus ass!”
