Matthew McConaughey Doesn't Think Beto O'Rourke Threw 'Shade': 'He Called Me a Good Man'

Matthew McConaughey has some thoughts about politics these days — but as the 2022 race for governor of Texas begins to take shape, he's not yet felt the need to answer specific questions about his political points of view.

Which is what prompted another unofficial candidate, former Rep. Beto O'Rourke, to slip in comments some took as "shade" — while simultaneously praising the actor — when asked about on set of recent polling numbers that showed McConaughey leading O'Rourke and Republican incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott.

"He's a really popular figure whose political views have not in any way been fixed," O'Rourke said in September. "I don't know how he feels about any of the issues."

Addressing the alleged "shade," McConaughey was decisive: "Coming from Beto, I don't take that as shade," he said in a new interview for The New York Times' Sway podcast. "He called me a good man. I can say he's a good man."

But when asked about characterizing his process of considering a run for office as "measuring it," the self-proclaimed "poet-statesman" answered the question with more questions.

"Who am I going to be?" McConaughey told podcast host Kara Swisher. "Where can I be most useful? Is politics an embassy for me to be of the most use to myself, to my family, to the most amount of people in my life moving forward?"

His elusiveness is purposeful, he said.

"Taking sides on a political issue right now, to me, precedes the discussion of something larger and much more important," he said. "What the hell is politics? … What is progress? Or how about this question: Do we really want to be a United States of America? And I don't say that with arrogance or condescension. It's a question we got to answer."

"What is leadership? Why is our nation's trust level so low with our leaders, with ourselves, with each other?" he continued. "That's more interesting to me, before I start hopping in the middle of politics going, 'Well, this is where I stand here, and this is where I stand here.' Everybody needs to be in the conversation to answer the questions that I was just bringing up."

As to the actor's stance on issues defining Texas politics in 2021, Swisher asked McConaughey about the state's restrictive abortion ban, mask mandates and voting rights.

On the use of masks to help slow the spread of COVID-19, which has become a flashpoint among conservatives, McConaughey said, "No one likes being told what to do. We are all more afraid of the word 'mandate' than we were the damn mask. And I think our pride trumped and stamped down our honor there. I think we chose privilege over principle. And this small inconvenience of the mask — [the] small investment we're asking everyone to have for long-term freedom, we should have taken. I would have said, mandate masks."

On the bill that prohibits abortions after only six weeks of pregnancy, McConaughey said, "I'm not going to come out and tell you right now on this show, 'Here's where I stand on abortion.' We've been trying to figure out that, and how to play God with that situation, since the beginning."

Pressed on whether he "is liking" the abortion bill that was passed in Texas, McConaughey said, "Not really."

On voting rights, McConaughey said, "I think it should be easier to vote. I think everyone should, if you're an American citizen, and you're of age, and you don't have your criminal record, that you should be able to vote."

The actor, who lives in Austin with his wife, Camila Alves, and their children — Levi, Livingston and Vida Alves McConaughey — finished up the interview with a gloomy assessment of American politics today but was also hopeful for the future.

"I do not think we're in a good place. I think we're in a place where it's an amazing opportunity right now. I think we are — do I think it's doomsday? No. Am I an optimist? Yeah, you're damn right I am."