Possibly the best part is that he’s enjoying some quality whiskey while explaining the difference.
Before Matthew McConaughey was an Oscar winner and ‘serious actor’ in the likes of True Detective, Interstellar and Dallas Buyers Club, he was best-known for (admittedly, pretty mediocre) romantic comedies like Failure to Launch, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, The Wedding Planner, and fan favourite How To Lose a Guy in Ten Days.
On his talk show, Stephen Colbert inquired about a previous comment the actor had made about the latter type of movie being more of a challenge to make, and he answered: “If you’re really honest about how you feel in a romantic comedy, you sink the ship. You have to bounce along the clouds and not love as hard, get mad as hard, hate as hard or laugh as hard in those things.
“In drama, you hang your head on humanity at every single turn. You sit there and you go ‘Now how do I feel about that?’ You can go hard – the ceiling is higher and the basement is lower in a drama.”
Makes sense.
You can watch him talk about the difference between the genres and about his new film The Dark Tower below:
And here the two enjoy some Wild Turkey whiskey while McConaughey talks about being the ‘creative director’ and ‘chief storyteller’ for the brand: