Losing a parent drastically changes the trajectory of your life. You're missing a crucial part of who you are, a foundational part of your humanity. Once they're gone, that beacon you once cherished vanishes. It's even worse when you're younger because you expect to have them around for your entire life. That grief sticks with you forever, wishing you could see and talk to them again but you can't. Matthew McConaughey knows this tragedy far too well after he lost his father. Now, he's opening up about how that moment goes hand in hand with his aspirations as an actor.
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Recently, the Interstellar star sat down with Landman actor Jacob Lofland for Interview Magazine. There, the pair navigate grief, Lofland grappling with losing his father not long ago. Unfortunately, McConaughey had a similar experience early in his life. His father James passed away in 1992, shortly before he started working on the iconic Richard Linklater film Dazed & Confused. For him, it was just hard to imagine that something bad could happen to someone like his father.
Matthew McConaughey Reflects on Losing His Father in 1992
"Well, when my father moved on, it was obviously hard because I didn't even think he was killable, you know?" he says. "Through the mourning and the pain, it's the biggest moment of becoming a man. . . Do you feel like I felt? I remember feeling like, 'There's a certain safety net that I've always had behind me that's gone.'"
Lofland doubles down by reflecting on a sobering loneliness that he feels ever since losing his dad. Then, McConaughey stresses how foundational that moment was into his transition into manhood. He explains that being a father gives him a newfound perspective and it came with losing his own. "Because dads are, like, they're above the law... I remember, though, gaining a lot of courage," McConaughey says. "There were things I was doing that he had taught me how to do, but I was kind of half-assing them, because I felt like, 'Well, the real dude's right behind me.' His moving on kind of gave me a kick in the caboose to have courage."
