Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Garner Press Conference
Jennifer Garner: "Let’s talk about him [Matthew] before he comes."What can you tell us about him?
Jennifer Garner: "It’s just embarrassing to talk about him when he’s here, so if you want to ask, do it now."
How was it working with him?
Jennifer Garner: "It was great. He’s like the nicest best guy, such a brilliant actor and I really, really liked him. I hope I get to work with him again!"
Was he as charming as he was in the film?
Jennifer Garner: "Yeah, he is. He really is. [Matthew enters the room now]. He really is a charming, smart, funny, nice guy who has a good sense of humor about himself. Good, I’m all done. I told them if you want me to talk about him, do it before he’s here."
With a romantic comedy, do you have to accept certain things that are maybe a little unrealistic that go with the territory?
Jennifer Garner: "You mean like the ghosts?"
Matthew McConaughey: "Yeah, the ghosts were a big unrealistic thing. But that’s just one of the things that made this one original because usually it’s just guy-girl, guy-girl, guy-girl, you know we’re going to split up, look at the poster, you know we’re going to get together at the end. But, hopefully, you’re going to be entertained in how we get together at the end. This had a huge twist."
Jennifer Garner: "We had flashbacks all the way back to..."
Matthew McConaughey: "...to kids. I go get fiancé to go back with brother to get them married and then get lucky enough to have second chance with [my] childhood sweetheart. It was viewed in some really interesting ways, this one."
Did you learn anything from this?
Jennifer Garner: "Well, I think yeah, of course, there are messages to the movie: that you have to take a chance on love. That it’s worth the risk."
Matthew McConaughey: "That partying with Uncle Wayne [played by Michael Douglas] is fun."
Did you have someone you could think about when you were playing the role? Maybe bad guys you couldn’t resist, Jennifer?
Jennifer Garner: "I never had a problem resisting somebody that I knew was going to break my heart. Going after ‘the bad guy’ has not been a real issue for me. One thing that I liked about the role was that it sounded like a version of conversations I’ve had with tons of girlfriends where it’s just , 'Stay away from him!' 'Oh I can’t. I see what he could be…' Or, you know, just, 'Leave it alone. It’s never going to happen.' So that made it kind of fun."
Matthew, have you ever used any of the lines he uses? Did you model him after anybody you knew?
Matthew McConaughey: "What are his lines? Did Connor have lines? ...No, there wasn’t somebody I thought of besides the Uncle Wayne character written in. I always saw him as this sort of Bob Evans type. But, then, he’s got some brilliant dialogue in the movie. And so to go, 'All right, what was this guy’s advice?,' take it, heed it and then master that advice, that’s who Connor should be. I mean, that’s Connor’s thing. He loves women. He loves all women. That’s the problem here. There wasn’t anyone I necessarily thought of."
"It’s easy to be attracted to – it’s a fun role and you see those first like 20 pages, you usually don’t get a character that starts off with that much sort of bite in a movie like this that you’re going, 'I can’t believe they said that,' or, 'Whoa!' And so it comes off in the beginning with a lot more bite and less pander than most sort of stories like this do. And, then, gives it further. I know for me I enjoyed [the] further distance to go through. And then you got ghosts that come in and scare the hell out of me, and scare some sense into me. That’s a much better movie device for me than having the conversation where they sit down and go, 'Now, what you should do…' So, no, it wasn’t anybody in particular. But it was sort of written in there, following Uncle Wayne and having that guy to look up to in the beginning, and the viewers get to see sort of who was my father figure and why I am who I am and do what I do."
You've talked before about the advice your father gave you that always worked.
Matthew McConaughey: "Respect women. I think I was asked recently, and then asked about it today, 'What was the birds and bees talk that I had?' And it was always pop talking about respecting a woman. I think I’ve said this before."
Jennifer Garner: "You want me to tell it for you? So, his thing was that he said, 'Look, you know you’re coming of an age where you’re going to start to have different kinds of feelings towards women, and you’re going to have certain desires. And when you are with a woman, if she even hesitates for a split second, stop. Don’t go any further. Don’t ask. Leave it totally alone. Don’t go back there tonight. That night, leave absolutely alone. Chances are she’s going to want to come back. If she does, say no, and then next time... But absolutely respect the woman, and in doing that, you respect yourself.'"
Matthew McConaughey: "Bingo. That’s what he said. And so, yeah, if that’s what you mean by worked - But it wasn’t like a play. It was never written in a book but, yeah, that was it."
What was it like working with Michael Douglas?
Matthew McConaughey: "It was a ball working him, and I really enjoyed some of the time off set between shots talking about producing and just the movie business as a whole. I learned a lot of cool things from him just talking about the film business, making movies and just a lot of experiences he had, Wall Street, Cuckoo's Nest, things like that."
Did he offer you advice for your own production company?
Matthew McConaughey: "Yeah…yeah. I’m trying to seek and learn as much as I can on any producers and anyone that’s made successful films. Acting or producing, I’m always trying to seek out something."
