The McConaissance is complete. Matthew McConaughey has capped off a great couple of years with top-tier performances in films like “The Lincoln Lawyer,” “Magic Mike,” “Killer Joe,” “Mud” and “The Wolf of Wall Street” by landing a Best Actor Oscar for his performance in “Dallas Buyers Club.”
Like other actors who took the stage Sunday night, he took a moment to praise the work done by his co-nominees in the category. “All of these performances were impeccable, in my opinion,” McConaughey said. “I didn't see a false note anywhere.”
It was an expressed goal of the actor's to change the trajectory of his career after a decade of studio flare that didn't appear to challenge him more than appeal to his movie star charisma. For the role of Ron Woodroof – a Texas homophobe diagnosed with AIDS and forced to track down alternative, unapproved medication abroad – McConaughey lost quite a bit of weight and found himself in a run-and-gun operation far from the cush environs of a studio production.
“It's basically when [Woodroof] really found some form and function in his life for the first time,” McConaughey told HitFix in an October interview. “He found the first thing, from wake to sleep – and he didn't sleep much – he could fight for. It was a new frontier, so he was pioneering, finding out all this sh*t. So that's what I kind of found myself doing with the research, is I was like, 'We'll just keep pounding on it. Pounding on it.' And I got more energy after I got down there. I needed three hours less sleep a night, which was odd. I didn't expect that.”
“Dallas Buyers Club” also won Oscars for Best Supporting Actor and Best Makeup and Hairstyling Sunday night.