the tex-sized talent with charm to burn. >> loves life, loves women, good man, good family. >> matthew mcconaughey. his journey from promising newcomer. >> all right, all right, all right. >> i'm young and i'm inexperienced. >> to romcom king. a career that veered off of

track. he took himself out of the game. >> i needed to pull back on what i had been doing. i didn't work for two years. >> what did you say, boy? >> to plot a comeback that nobody saw coming. >> welcome to the "dallas buyer's club." >> and the nominations for the best actor role -- >> and that put him in the race for the best actor in the oscar race. actor matthew mcconaughey. i'm nischelle turner, and welcome to the texas hill country, the place where matthew mcconaughey was born and raised and still calls home. this part of the country has produced some pretty colorful characters as well as one of hollywood's most intriguing leading men. after a career spanning two decades, matthew is getting his due for in fact, playing another remarkable texan in one of the year's most celebrated movies.

one story root ed in texas, now oscar-nominated. it's texas-grown lead actor oscar nominated, too. >> welcome to the dallas buyer's club. >> i am fortunate to be in what i believe is a damn good movie. >> matthew mcconaughey. in his moment. >> this is a celebration time now. >> the actor with the major award season mojo. >> it feels good. >> a golden globe, a screen actors guild award and unending praise for the portrayal of the real ron woodward in "dallas y buyer's club." >> this is amazing. >> and "dallas buyer's club" and the star are both quint essentially texas the, and both

basking in post-season glow. >> yes, i have been doing this for 22 years, and first time nominated and the first time really going around the award season with a film and performance with some light shown on it. the film and the work is preceding me everywhere i go, and i will talk about "dallas buyer's club" and my experience until i go home. >> and you should speak about your experience. >> and "dallas buyer's club" and it is a true life story -- >> and you grew up in texas. >> well, it is a wild movie and you lost so much weight for the mo i have and the character. >> and we have to congratulate you, because it has been a great year for you. >> you have been brilliant and the film was so good. >> we will begin where we always begin, where we were born. >> in valde, texas.

>> uvalde, 7.6 square miles in southwest texas. >> he is an authentic texas character. >> fellow texan matt size profiled mcconaughey early in his career. >> that part of texas is flat and dusty and in some ways kind of existentially freaky. if you did not grow up in there, but if you did, it feels normal. >> matthew is born the youngst son to kay and jim mcconaughey, a former football player turned oil pipe salesman. jim moves the family to east texas during the oil boom where matthew plays on the golf team, and wins an award for best looks at longview high. after graduation, he enrolls in the university of texas at austin. always a good student, he reveals on inside of the actor's

studio that acting was not in the original plan. >> i was heading toward law school and so i started out with the liberal arts philosophy and go to law school, and then i switched to go to film school after my sophomore year. >> it is here at this austin e hotel where a chance meeting becomes matthew's life-changing moment. film students drink iing at the bar when he learns a casting director working with richard linkletter is sitting nearby, and matthew introduce himself, and somehow gets a audition for linkletter's next movie "dazed and confused." >> i'm thinking of getting back into school, man. >> "dazed and confused" releases in 1993. >> and you know, how is it going man? >> hey. >> and the character wooderson in only a handful of scenes steals it with this -- >> all right, all right, all

right. >> and all right, all right, all right becomes mcconaughey's lifelong catch phrase. >> and first scene and those were the first three words out of my mouth, and it is a callback to remember where i started. >> yeah, but it is soothing, because it gets everybody in the mood, all right, all right, all right. and most people know where it came from, and it is like affirmation, yeah, all right. >> all right, all right, all right. >> a sequel to "texas chainsaw massacre" follows and a full-fledged acting career begins to flourish. as he hopscotches through the movies like "boys on the side" with drew barrimore. and by the time "lone star" comes out in 1976, he is a marquee name. and while on the lone star, he strikes luck again. he receives a call from director joel schumaker who is casting for a film adaptation of john

grishom's best seller "a time to kill." >> he was originally going to audition for a different part, but he pressed joel schumaker to the part that he read him for that role of jake brugant. >> and that is based on his own experience as a lawyer of john grish shop. >> i am young and inexperienced. >> and the studio execs balk at putting a relatively unknown in the lead. >> and then hep was personally approveded by john grish shop -- grish sham, and this is a big deal, because it is an expensive hollywood movie, and the lead play played by some guy nobody had heard of, and he was some guy from texas. >> and the marketing campaign heats up on the eve of the film's release in the summer of 1996. >> remember this name, and remember this face, and he's a star of a "time to kill" and his

name is matthew mcconaughey. and he is going to bring lots of people into your theaters. >> 18 years later, he would describe a "time to kill" as the film that made him instantaneously famous. >> on one weekend? >> yeah. >> coming up, the handsome leading man taking hollywood by storm. and he keeps the tabloids tal g talking. eturn on investment isn't the only return i'm looking forward to... for some, every dollar is earned with sweat, sacrifice, courage. which is why usaa is honored to help our members with everything from investing for retirement to saving for college. our commitment to current and former military members and their families is without equal.

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drop the case. >> if i quit now, awe of this is for nothing. >> with the success of "a time to kill, matthew mcconaughey is sudden suddenly a hot commodity. >> i am young and inexperienced. >> it did establish him as a lead i leading man and you have a pivotal moment of where are you going to go with this? >> and mcconaughey goes with "contact" a sci-fi film from the

powerhouse robert zimetkis. >> he played a preacher character. >> and i can't imagine a case where god didn't exist. >> and steven spielberg calls him for "homicide" and another lawyer with mutton chops. >> and it did not connect with the academy or the audiences. >> and how about sex? >> in 1999, he stars in "ed tv." >> well, story, i have to pass. it is not an age thing, because you are a handsome man. >> and a comedy about a guy who lets a camera crew follow his every move. >> maybe this is not a good move. >> and despite another a-list director ron howard, it gets poor reception. >> the movie was not bad, but it was not great either. >> the film may not connect with moviegoers, but mcconaughey cannot identify with the

character whose life is for all to see. and the paparazzi catch him with a succession is of leading ladi ladies. >> look, we have all played games in dating. we have all played games. >> and patricia arquette. ashley judd. penelope cruz. sandra bullock, his co-star from "a time to kill." >> and your privacy is the toughest part. the private life of mine and i didn't like sharing it before i was famous, and when nobody gave a damn about what it was, and now everybody wants to know. >> and protecting that private life is no simple matter. >> it takes a little moxie, and a little work the defend it. you really want to. i could go get a place and put up 40-foot walls and be a recluse and not have any trouble whatsoever, but that is not what makes me tick. >> what makes him tick is the subject of curiosity, and then

fans learn that he dances to the beat of a different drum. in 1990. specifically, a bongo. >> hollywood actor matthew mcconaughey is free on bail. >> he was arrested earlier this morning in the terrytown neighborhood. >> police say he was apparently intoxicated dancing in the living room naked and playing the bongo drums. >> i would not want to rent a place there, but it was a nice stay for a night. >> and so famous that it gets a puppet parody treatment. >> through the window, i could see a nude white male dancing and playing bongo drums. >> bob ba lao! >> and he may live an unorthodox life off screen, but the movie roles are more and more conventional. >> and this man is strong. this man is sturdy. >> hollywood leans on him for a series of romantic comedies. "wedding planner" opposite jennifer lopez. "how the lose a guy in 10 days" with kate hudson.

and "failure to launch" with sarah jessica parker. >> commercially, they were all money makers, and he has nothing but fond memories of making them. >> critics though, they are not so fond. >> i don't know what they were trying to turn him into. he is nothing like this rather tedious handsome man that you are seeing in the rom-come. >> and you live with your parents? >> is that a problem. >> and the roles may not require him to flex his acting muscles, but they do show off his smoking body. he is not shy about displaying his assets off screen either. >> i like to be in touch with my body, and my mind and my spirit. >> you open up "us" weekly, and there he is without the shirt on. >> and in 2005, that pec appeal helps to make him "people" magazi magazine's sexiest man alive. and the fae mail fans may drool,

but by 2007, mcconaughey has given his heart to a single lady, brazilian bombshell camilla al vez. >> she is a model and a host and a handbag designer. >> in 2008, matthew and camilla welcomed their first child, son levi. >> we are having a great time with him. i have a woman i care about, and it is her and i. >> and his personal life has come together, be professionally the picture is mixed. >> well, you are doing a great job! still here, right? >> "fool's gold" and "surfer du dude" and "sahara" were not hits. still, there are occasional glimpses of what mcconaughey is truly capable of. >> what are you celebrating?

>> rain of fire. >> and one dragon down and three men dead, and at that ratie, we might get somewhere in 320 years. >> there was a flash of him in "dazed and confused." >> i'm a football coach. push it to the limit. >> and it was more than making a movie, but it was a piece of art that was connected with the real li life. >> we are marshall." >> and he is wonderful there. >> and any time you sdr a truth movie. >> and he should have been making like "we are marshall"'s a year. and he would have had four oscars by now. >> i'm flattered, really. >> but as the 30s evaporate, he decides to make another romantic comedy, "ghosts of girlfriend's past." >> i will be happy to take off of the rest of my clothes to prove it. >> he has "ghost of girlfriend's past" and he is 40 and there is a moment when everybody looks in the mirror at 40 and says, what the hell am i doing with my

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sweetheart. >> by 2009, mcconaughey is the king of the rom com but about to make a professional shift. >> i had to pull back on what i had been doing. >> he pulls back from the bankable comedic roles he was known for and steps out of the spotlight. >> i didn't work for two years because i said i don't want to do things i have been doing. i enjoy those and may do them again but i want to do something different. >> that is dramatic roles in smaller in dependent films. >> somewhere in that two years i gained anonymity and became some people's new good fresh idea and i got some calls and offers for roles that skmard in a good way and went to work. >> work in films like "the lincoln lawyer." >> i'm trying to make it right. >> "lincoln lawyer" sets him on

a path to darker and grittier roles. next playing a detective with a side gig as an assassin in "killer joe". >> you want me off the job? >> he follows with a performance as a tree-dwelling fugitive in "mud." >> they weren't seen by a ton of movie goers but they were seen by the right people in hollywood. >> steven soderbergh casts him in a role that brings an entirely different kind of exposure. >> the law says that you cannot touch but i think i see a lot of law breakers up in this house now. >> mcconaughey works as a club owner and stripper stud in 2012's "magic mike." >> it's like he is performing to buy his soul out of hell. that's the level of intensity.

>> the success gives mcconaughey the momentum to take on his most challenging project to date. >> "dallas buyers club" script had been sitting on his desk for four or five years. >> you tested positive for hiv. >> it is inspired by the true story of a hard-living texan diagnosed with aids in the '80s who works around the system to increase access to medication. >> they have good meds in mexico. >> the story is turned down by hollywood more than 100 times. the movie shoots in 2012 for an estimated $5 million in just 25 days. mcconaughey's physical transformation is jaw dropping. >> the weight loss was something

i needed to do. if i cheated i wouldn't look like i was sick. >> reporter: when "dallas byers club" premiers the drum beat for the oscars starts instantly. >> i was like, wow, he is on a roll. >> he sweeps more than a dozen film industry nominations and awards. now parents of three, his wife camilla by his side every step of the way. >> you won the golden globe. were you surprised? there has been this ground swell of momentum for you. >> yeah, i was surprised. i have been genuinely surprised with each victory that i've gotten. absolutely. >> but few were surprised when mcconaughey's academy award nomination awards in january. despite the acclaim and a possible oscar in his near

future, mcconaughey says he is just getting started. >> it's a wonderful moment in my career that is in the middle of its approach. >> along his approach, a role as a detective troubled by his past and the search for a serial killer in the hbo series "true detective". >> he is just killing it week after week. >> matthew mcconaughey is conducting his career as if he is expecting to be dead and wants a legacy. >> it holds true to the roles he is gravitating towards these days. >> obsessed characters a lot on the fringes in society but it's they make up their own rules and laws. they don't placate or pander to society. there's a freedom i found in that. >> move the money into your pocket. >> and his appearance in that

other oscar-nominated film. "the wolf of wall street". >> what can i bring for you? >> two martinis. and then two more and then two more after that every five minutes until one of us passes out. >> excellent strategy, sir. >> his two or three scenes at the beginning of that movie set the tone for the madness and insanity that follows. >> as the insanity of oscar season approaches its close, whether mcconaughey brings home a trophy sunday night or not, there's no question he is having a golden moment. >> i know why i have a nomination is i put my head down and thought process, and do the work and enjoy the experience so much that was reward enough. >> finally some oscar recognition and a family, i

would say that things are turning out more than all right, all right, all right for the texas boy turned hollywood superstar. i'm nischelle turner. thanks for watching. thanks for watching. good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com a scheming stripper with a fake identity. >> i created edith because i needed her to survive. i'm done with that now. >> the tension it created felt very organic. sort of frenetic desperation. >> i've been looking for you, lone star. >> a transgendered woman fighting for her life. >> i need more of that cocktail [ bleep ] you got. >> i almost didn't recognize you. >> do you like this dress? i think the neckline is a little plunging. >> these physical transformations really helped to propel an inner transformation as well.