Actor Matthew McConaughey is showing off a part of his youth, reminding his fans and followers that he was “Mr. Little Texas.”
In an Instagram post, McConaughey shows off a picture of a much-younger “Dazed and Confused” and “Dallas Buyers Club” actor and author.
On McConaughey’s shirt is the name of a city in the Texas Hill Country region, Bandera, Texas. He was born in Uvalde, Texas, which is also considered to be in that area as well.
McConaughey offers some perspective on the photo in a Wall Street Journal article from 2020.
“My mother, Kay, wasn’t subtle,” McConaughey said. “When she was dating my dad, Jim, she handed him an invite to their wedding and told him he had 24 hours to decide. He hadn’t even introduced her yet to his mother.
“Mom prepared me to be an actor long before my first audition,” he writes. “She’d say, ‘You don’t walk into a room like you want to buy the place. You walk in like you own it.’
“She always felt I was special,” McConaughey continues. “When I was 7, she entered me in the Little Mr. Texas contest in Bandera. I won a trophy. A picture of me with the award went up on the kitchen wall. A day didn’t go by without her saying, ‘Look at you, winner, Little Mr. Texas.’
“Years later, I noticed the trophy’s nameplate said ‘runner-up,’ McConaughey said. “She said the kid who took first place won because his family was rich and bought him a fancy suit. She viewed that as cheating.”
Matthew McConaughey Speaks Out On Social Media Perils
With three children of 12, 10, and 8, Matthew McConaughey knows how toxic social media can be for many reasons.
He shared his thoughts about it in a conversation with WWE pro wrestler Drew McIntyre.
McConaughey spoke with McIntyre about what dangers social media can present. While it can be a good tool, more often than not McConaughey believes it can be a forum for putting other people down.
In a brief video of their conversation shared on Twitter, McIntyre asks McConaughey about his relationship with social media. While McConaughey claims to stay away from it as much as possible, his children sometimes suffer from these perils.
“I don’t (dwell on social media’s negativity), but I think about it because I have kids,” McConaughey says. “It’s a great tool– social media– but at the same time… So often on social media, we feel like if I put you down, I pump myself up… but that’s a short charge.”
McConaughey’s point is that social media encourages us to rely on others’ approval. He encourages people not to think this way. “Don’t rely on seeking others’ approval for your own sense of significance,” he said.
H/T: Wall Street Journal
