Matthew McConaughey’s awkward moment with Aussie journalist caught on camera
Matthew McConaughey is going viral after an incredibly awkward interview moment with an Australian journalist was resurfaced.
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Hollywood icon Matthew McConaughey’s incredibly awkward interview moment with an Australian journalist has gone viral.
The resurfaced clip was posted online by Pedestrian.TV editor Matt Galea, who was interviewing the star back in 2021 for the release of the movie, Sing 2.
In the short clip, an assistant can be heard asking Galea to introduce himself and what publication he is from before he started firing off his questions.
The now 32-year-old begins by cheerily saying “Hi Matt!”, to which McConaughey’s eyes visibly widen.
There were a few seconds of awkward silence before the star puts his finger up in the air and says “Matthew, please!” in order to correct him on his name,
Little did Galea know, there is an unspoken rule to never call Matthew McConaughey Matt.
In a 2017 interview with Jimmy Kimmel, the star explains that it has “always been Matthew” for a very good reason.
“My mum was mad when I was called Matt,” he explained.
“I was in kindergarten, and my mum was the teacher. My buddy said ‘Hey Matt, want to go play on the monkey bars?’
“I ran out and said yeah, halfway to the monkey bars I feel this hand on my shoulder and wham, I got slammed to the ground.
“I look up and it’s my mother in my face, and she’s like ‘what are you doing?’. I said, ‘I’m going to play on the monkey bars with John’.
“She said, ‘who is?’ and I said ‘I am’. She asked ‘what’s your name’ and I said ‘Matthew’.
“She told me ‘Don’t you ever answer to Matt again, I named you Matthew from the bible’.
“I was like... yes ma’am. If anybody calls me Matt today... I know they don’t know me well.”
Reflecting on the awkward moment, Galea explained that McConaughey was simply being assertive, but was never rude and the rest of the interview went “very smoothly”.
“I was offered the opportunity to interview Matthew McConaughey for the sequel to Sing and I obviously jumped at the chance because he’s such a huge star,” Galea told news.com.au.
“I also knew that our audience would be super keen on seeing a chat with him.
“I didn’t really make a conscious choice to address him in a certain way, ‘Matt’ just slipped out like a reflex, perhaps because it is my name as well and I’m generally happy for people to call me by any version of Matthew.
“I also think it comes down to a cultural thing. Aussies love to give people nicknames as a way of appearing friendly and familiar, and to break that barrier when you first meet someone.”
At the time, Galea – who is also a published author and astrologer – explained that he “had no idea” what he meant as he was so lost in the excitement of the moment, hence why he responded with ‘hi!’.
But he said he took absolutely no offence to the encounter and respects the star for being assertive.
“I thought he was just riffing off the fact that we both had the same name,” he laughed.
“It wasn’t until I watched the footage back during editing that I finally understood what he meant.
“If I knew he was telling me that his preference was Matthew, I absolutely would have responded with ‘Oh sorry Matthew, no problem!’.
“I respect the fact that he chose to let me know what his preference was rather than just leaving it be out of politeness and having me call him something he doesn’t identify with.
“He was assertive without being rude. He was perfectly polite, in my opinion.
“Could he have been more clear? Sure. But he is an eccentric, kooky guy and I took zero offence.
“He was simply stating his preference and I appreciate that.”
People in the comments of his now-viral video thought the interaction was hilarious, with some sharing their own titbits about the star.
“I worked on a movie he was in, in Australia, and he had a memo go out that all crew only call him Matthew,” one said.
“I remember back then I thought he was being a drama queen! But I get it now. Especially as we literally shorten everyone’s names here without even asking.”
“They way his eyes shot up when you said Matt,” another added.
“I would never recover!”
“It makes so much sense that as a Matt you assumed he would go by Matt too,” one pointed out.
“Awkward for both of you, but he was polite and assertive.”
Despite the initial awkwardness, Galea said that the rest of the interview went very smoothly.
“That little hiccup, if you can even call it that, did not impact the interview at all,” he said.
“He was perfectly friendly and chatty for the rest of the conversation and gave me some great quotes.
“In particular, he discussed the connection he feels with Aussies, given that he’s from Texas and apparently we have a similar sense of humour.
“Also fun fact, he once lived in Australia as an exchange student and also filmed a movie here, so he’s well-versed in the Aussie culture and spirit.”
Galea said the chat made him like McConaughey “even more” than he already did.
“When you’ve been doing this for as long as I have, you build up a treasure trove of interview moments that you just forget about cos you’re always moving on to the next thing,” he said.
“The news cycle moves so damn fast. But every now and then a certain interview memory will pop into your mind and you’ll feel compelled to watch it back.
“That’s what happened with this one, it randomly popped into my head so I went digging for the footage and shared it on TikTok.
“I thought people would get a kick out of it but did not see it going this viral or generating such a conversation.
“The responses have been incredibly vindicating as most people are saying that it took them several watches to figure out what he was on about.
“I’ve even had some fellow journos commend me on keeping my composure cos they said they would’ve crumbled.
“Honestly, Matthew is a lovely man and gave off a friendly, warm energy.
“I really enjoyed chatting to him. If anything, it made me even more of a fan.”
Originally published as Matthew McConaughey’s awkward moment with Aussie journalist caught on camera
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