Matthew McConaughey pulls of Cannes double header
By JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press
To have one film competing at the Cannes Film Festival is a privilege. To have two, Matthew McConaughey says, is wonderful good fortune — and the reward for a spell of hard labor in the trenches of independent cinema.
In Lee Daniels' steamy Southern noir "The Paperboy," McConaughey plays a journalist who returns to his Florida hometown to investigate a murder.
In Jeff Nichols'"Mud," which screened Saturday as the festival's final competition entry, he is a story-spinning fugitive holed up on an island in the Mississippi who is befriended by two local boys.
McConaughey laughs when asked if having two movies competing for the Palme d'Or gives him divided loyalties.
"That would be a high-class problem," he said. "I'm really, really endeared to both of them for different reasons — and they're very, very different from each other.
"I'm very honored. I've got two films that I'm proud of, two experiences that I really loved, and I've got two characters that I really care about."
The two films take the Texas-born actor on a tour of the U.S. South — and of men on society's margins.
In "The Paperboy," McConaughey's Ward James is a crusading reporter with dark depths to his psyche that imperil his quest for the truth.
His title character in "Mud" is being hunted as a dangerous fugitive, but may be a wild innocent driven by love.
Critics have hailed McConaughey's turn in "Mud," and director Daniels said he was wowed by McConaughey's nuanced performance in "The Paperboy."
"I'm so happy that he's so understated in the film," Daniels said. "There were moments when I didn't recognize Matthew."
