This is Matthew McConaughey.
Seriously.
This is really Matthew McConaughey. MM was pap’d in NYC over the weekend working on his latest movie, Gold. He plays Kenny Wells, described as a “struggling businessman” who teams up with a character played by (scorching HOT) Edgar Ramirez to search for gold in Indonesia. I think MM has actually been filming this movie for a while, they just filmed all the “jungle” parts already, (maybe they filmed those scenes in Thailand?).
It’s widely believed in many circles that McConaughey got hairplugs many years ago. I’m trying to think back to when his hair really changed. His hairline started really receding in the mid to late ‘90s, then magically, it started to “grow back” in the early ‘00s. I mention this hair conspiracy because if Matthew had gone completely natural, this might be what he would really look like at this point. Granted, I don’t think Matthew would ever let himself get this kind of paunch in real life. I don’t even think this paunch is real, for the movie. I think he’s wearing padding. I’m almost sure of it.
I have to wonder… I realize that McConaughey is a big Oscar-winning actor now, but if they needed an actor to play a schlub, certainly the first thought was not “let’s cast McConaughey,” right? Because just in these photos, I’m already wondering why they didn’t just cast Paul Giamatti. It really looks like McConaughey is doing a Giamatti impersonation.
Also: even if McConaughey did gain weight for this role, I don’t hate it. I wish more actors and actresses gained weight for movies. I wish Michael Fassbender would take a role where he had to gain weight. Same with Benedict Cumberbatch! I like a man with a little bit of pudge.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet and WENN.
Yikes!
I’m thrilled to see his face more plump! Ever since Dallas Buyers Club he has not looked healthy. This is an improvement! Minus the hair…lol.
True. His pretty face took a hit when he lost all that weight. But still, overall, YIKES!
I still see his hotness coming through in spite of how different he looks, in his energy and how he carries himself.
Some hot guys gain weight and lose hair and develop a waddle, but he still stands like a hot guy.
Agreed
I’m so shallow. First thought was “yuck, not before my coffee.”
I love MM. 🙁 Hopefully this is a good film for him. There are tons of not-that-good-looking-but-talented actors that wouldn’t need to drastically change their look for this kind of role…
in my mind this is how he really looks lol
me too!
I think this is his real hairline.
Ever notice that no on asks an actor in an interview if he has or intends to get hair plugs (or discussions on hair loss) but actresses are asked if they have or will consider plastic surgery. ugh!
Good point!
For the record, it’s not “widely believed” that he got them. It’s a fact. Google his mugshot.
You can find some pics with him and Bryce Dallas Howard and I don’t have to think it is a remake of American Hustle
Well, Bale was supposed to do this when Michael Mann was attached to direct. Seems like they changed all names of the characters for some reason but IIRC, David Walsh, the real guy who McConaughey plays had a full head of hair.
At first glance, I thought it was Prince William. Just me? Am I nuts?
OMG, now that you mentioned, it does look like! William will not age well.
Nope! First thought was-Prince William in about 20 years.
SNORT! Although even uglied up he’s still better looking than William – who has unfortunate Windsor genes.
If only MM looked a bit more apathetic in these photos, then he’d have P-Dub downpat!
OMG you’re right!
Yikes!
I’d say clear the mantle for another Oscar. They do love transformations.
ikr?
sometimes i wonder whether they just look at how different an actor changes from their usual glamorous self and throws the statue at them. like kudos dude, here’s to the make up department.
i’m just waiting for Megatron to be enraged. dude transformed from a freaking car into a two-legged being and nobody spared a statuette.
Maybe that’s why Leo went full on Robinson Crusoe for his newest film…
And depictions of disability, DDL, Tom Hanks, Dustin Hoffman, Eddie Redmayne have all won Oscars for it. As Kate Winslet put it in Extra’s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjDufjtIr1M
Add Geoffrey Rush, Colin Firth, Nicholas Cage, Al Pacino, Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Lawrence to the list of winning an Oscar for playing a person with a disability.
Wait, when did JLaw play a person with a disability?
And Nicole Kidman when she wore the prosthetic nose in I believe, was it the Hours? Anyway, they said she won by a nose!
@laura Her character was depressed and under lots of medications after her husband’s death. But it was Russell and Cooper who went rounds of interviews about bipolar disorder. IIRC, they even met with VP, Biden.
Ah, Dame Heddy, thank you for clarifying that…
Not to dismiss bipolar mental illness (as I suffer from cyclothymic depression myself), but I suppose her performance was so subtle and nuanced (ahem!), such are her natural talents as a thespian, that I hardly noticed her disability.
So she was playing what I thought was “normal”, but I guess that’s just me. 😉
I really don’t see how gaining/shedding a lot of weight, can enhance the capability of an actor. If I were them, I would ask myself if the award went to me for my skills as an actor or for having undergone such an unnecessary ordeal. Dallas Buyers’ Club was a good (but not exceptionally good) movie, while MmC was fantastic in Mud and Killer Joe, in which he was his usual good-looking self.
I don’t mind actors and actresses that physically transform themselves for roles. And let’s be honest, how often to we read comments criticizing actors and actresses who *don’t* do that? Complaining how they always look the same in every role. I think that’s part of the appeal and challenge for them in taking on these characters. Because that’s what we want (or at least I do), isn’t it? To see them play a *character*.
I don’t have ANY sympathy for him, for his public persona. BUT, I do admire the courage it takes for a known actor or actress to change their looks and sometimes their health for a role. This is vanity land (Hollywood) and forgetting about that and just do whatever you feel you need to do for the character shows commitment. And I respect that,
His face actually looks better to me than it has in a while. He needed to gain weight. I thought hair plugs were permanent. No, that’s not true, I never really thought about it. But can you take them out? Or is that a bald wig?
It is a wig. If you look closely, you can see the line.
He has never looked the same since losing weight for that role. Yet he looks closer to his ‘old self’ (facially) here.
I agree, the weight loss a few years back really changed his appearance.
Édgar Ramírez is one sexy man. More of him please.
God help me but I still find him hot, Bale in Hustle I didn’t but MM like this yes! I will slink away to the corner and think about my choices in men lol.
P.S. Edgar Ramirez hot damn!! Yes please!!
Never in a million years would have guessed this is MM, without having read the header title. That is one heck of a transformation. And it’s not pretty!
It seems like seeing an otherwise handsome name actor such as Matthew M. “go fugly”, or transform himself, for a film is part and parcel of its appeal.
Someone such as Paul G. just wouldn’t attract audiences in the lead role, even if he already fits the physical characteristics…
But then there’s always Leo D.
Kaiser, my man is starting to get a tiny little pudge and he HATES it. A little somethin’-somethin’ on MM is a-OK with me 🙂 A little pudginess is sort of like love handles, you want to grab onto something lol
Yes, haha! Like when Chris Pratt was “pudgy”, I loved that.
I didn’t hear or see anything past Edgar Ramirez!!!!
Edgar Ramirez is so hot. SO. HOT.
Love it (had to laugh a bit) and hope he gives us another good performance. Looks like that middle-age man in everyday life.
Those car ads of his are creepy! He’s like this weirdo creep driving around. He goes to a weird “party” and there are only like two other people there. Then he drives home with a weird creepy smile on his face. Creepy!
I love those ads. LOL And they’ve been a big success for Lincoln.
So creepy and successful, here’s Jim Carrey mocking them on SNL: http://youtu.be/z3eN9u5N2Q4
oh man I can’t crush on him ever now that this image will creep into my mind. To me he looks recognizable, like in a parallel universe he wasn’t a movie star and was a regular joe who’d let himself go and couldn’t afford a hair transplant or cosmetic procedures, that’s what he would look like.
CONSPIRACY: that’s his real hair. Remember back when, he was starting to lose his hair? And he shaved his head for some godawful alien apocalypse movie? Then he claims that his hair magically grew in thicker.
What if he’s been wearing a toupee all this time???!
Hahaha I fully support your theory! I want it to be true.
Hand to God (or whomever) I thought the thumbnail was Prince William before I actually read it.
I think he looks like Benjamin Franklin.
lol, You want Fassy to gain weight. Let women have one thing please. ONE thing.
Ramirez reminds me of Javier Bardem.
ps – MM just looks like MM to me. He’s probably playing a schlubby character because the less bare-chested he is in a medium the more people take him seriously. I always figured he was a good character actor but if people saw the chest they didn’t see the performance anymore. That said they’ll probably do a chest shot anyway to show he’s gained weight and un-MM like. Go figure. It’s interesting to see him a different way – but the weight gain does make him look healthier than DBC-era has. Wonder what he’ll do next?
Dwight Yoakum neck up.
I want the old, muscled, perfectly gorgeous version back … please!
Ehhh… ever since I found out he was a co-owner of a canned hunting ranch (i.e. enclosed land in Texas in which rich guys pay to kill exotic animals from various zoos & circuses & roadside “conservation” shows), I have negative effs to give to MM.