People Magazine did a funny interview with Matthew McConaughey to promote his latest film, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. He didn’t really break any news, although he tells several funny stories. Like how his son Levi pees on him and laughs. The apple didn’t fall far, did it? Matthew also describes his co-star Jennifer Garner as “very sly and cunning and witty”, words that I would never think to use for Garner.

He also tells the story of the origin of “Just Keep Livin’”, his famous quote from Dazed and Confused. I’d actually heard him talk about that story before – he came up with it because his father passed away right before filming. Reading Matthew discuss it again makes me think that he’s feeling the pain of his father’s death all over again now that Matthew is a father. He comes across as really sweet:

What was it like working with Jennifer Garner in Ghosts of Girlfriends Past?
McConaughey: I had a ball with Jennifer. She’s very elegant, yet sort of a classic woman, actress. She does her own thing, and she also doesn’t bring a lot of hoity-toity false drama to the process. But she’s also very sly and cunning and witty. She’s with it and she’s fun to work with. You might think you’re pulling one over on her, and she’ll flip it right around. She’s very keen and coy.

• Did you ever get your heart broken? How did you get over it?
McConaughey: Oh yeah, I had my heart broken several times, especially growing up. It starts off with having a good mom who comes in, sees you’re heartbroken, lets you sit there for a while and then the next morning it was like, “Let’s get on with it! You’re going to get back out there.” She’d always tell us, “It was their loss.” It made us feel better. It got us back out the door. We were never allowed to stay around and sulk about anything.

• Was your j.k. livin foundation really inspired by Dazed and Confused?
McConaughey: j.k. livin was inspired by the passing of my father. A week into shooting Dazed and Confused, my father moved on. So I was dealing with the loss of him and how do you maintain a relationship with somebody who is no longer physically around on the earth, right? So, I was dealing with how do I maintain that relationship, how do I keep him alive in my mind and in my spirit and that’s where “just keep livin” came from. So in the film there was a scene where I actually said it. That sort of got quoted and laid down into immortal words in a film but it came from what I was dealing with and how I was approaching my father’s death.

• What is your funniest memory of an experience you had with your father?
McConaughey: Dad was very funny. This won’t sound funny, but I’m gonna tell it anyway. There was a time when I was 19, it was after work and I was home for the summer and there was a little bar down the street we went into. And there is a guy at the door and some locals and they’re all getting pretty sauced and getting real lippy and as we were leaving I remember the guy at the door going, “Whoa, whoa, hey, did you pay your bill?” My dad goes, “Yeah, son” and removed his hand [from my father’s shoulder]. We did pay the bill. And all of sudden two other guys come, and they come running at Pop and this one guy – as soon as he started lifting his arm – I just decked him and took [him] down over this table. I handled it pretty quick. One punch and down! Then dad comes over and lifts me off the table and he’s just laughing. We were hootin’ and hollering and laughing! It was like me and Pop in our first fight!

• Do you help change nappies? And has [your son Levi] peed on you yet?
McConaughey: Yes! And yes! More than a few times to both. And he gets the joke when he pees on me. He laughs. He laughs his butt off! I think I am [good at changing diapers]. I could have a race-off with some other dads out there.

• How has Levi changed you? And what is the best thing about being a parent?
McConaughey: The coolest thing I’ve learned from Levi is kids really remind you of [your] sense of humor. Like I was just saying, they pee on you and they’re just laughing and all of sudden you’re reminded of having a sense of humor about everything. You can watch Levi, and everything he sees is for the first time, so you see the wonder in something we see every day. You see the wonder of picking up a coffee cup and hitting on the plate and it makes a sound and all of sudden for 15 minutes the kid is just entertained with this little thing. So it’s reminded me to see things for the first time, not in a naïve way, but in an innocent way. It’s a ball!

• What are some of the things you want to share with Levi that your parents and grandparents instilled in you? McConaughey: First of all, work ethic … Then respect of elders, particularly respect of women, which I was very much instilled [with]. We believe in “yes, sirs, no sirs” and “yes, ma’ams,” and “no ma’ams.”

• What’s your favorite thing about being a Texan?
McConaughey: We’ve got an honor when you come out of Texas. And when you leave Texas and come back to it – if you’re from Texas – there’s a certain a way you carry yourself, with an honor and a certain pride and certain independence.

[From People Magazine]

There are several gossip stories out there about how “settled” he and Camila Alves are right now. When they made a rare red carpet appearance, the launch of the new Malibu Lumber Yard, all they could talk about was their son Levi. After that, they sat quietly in a corner, then cut out early to go home. As much as I like to get a few jabs in at Matthew for the eccentric, bongo-playing stoner dude he sometimes manifests, he seems like a really decent guy who is rapidly maturing with fatherhood.

Here’s Matthew McConaughey and Levi are shown out shopping in Malibu on 3/30/09. Images thanks to INF Photo.