WENN
Sharp-dressed, sharp-tongued Matthew McConaughey showed an Austin audience Thursday that he’s no stranger to some sharp scissors, too.
The actor (who shaved his head in December) took to the Texas Film Hall of Fame awards stage sporting a super-short haircut and an only slightly scruffy face — and announced that he’d recently moved his family to Texas. The star — there to honor the state’s filmmakers and actors — said that he especially appreciates the laid-back vibe of the Capitol city, Austin.
“No one recognizes you and no one asks you, ‘Hey, what do you do?,’ because I don’t think anyone cares,” McConaughey said. “Fridays show up sooner here. You want to get along in Austin, you want to get along in Texas, all you have to do is be yourself.”
McConaughey should know: he grew up in the small West Texas town of Uvalde, and went to school at the University of Texas in Austin. His love of the city brought him — along with fiancée Camila Alves, their children Levi and Vida and Alves’s mother — back four months ago.
“My mother-in-law from Brazil has traveled around the world and we’ve lived in Los Angeles and New York,” McConaughey told the audience. “She says to me the other day, ‘In L.A., people will walk on your back and stand on your shoulders to get where they are going, in New York, they will just pull out a gun and tell you they will kill you. Here in Texas, everybody walks together.’ I think that is a compliment, Austin.”
The Texas Film Hall of Fame awards kicked off the South by Southwest film and music festival, happening in Austin now through March 18.
–Alicia Dennis
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