The Comeback of Matthew McConaughey

For many a year he was never taken that seriously in Hollywood, he was renowned for bad rom-coms that generally were poorly written, had mediocre box office takings and involved him being topless. In the serious acting circles he wasn't even on the radar but suddenly he now has an Oscar and a Golden Globe for Best Actor for Dallas Buyers Club as well as being in serious contention for an Emmy for his role as Rust Cohle in True Detective. 

To be fair this change didn't come about out of nowhere, McConaughey starred alongside Chris Cooper in the impressive Lone Star. A film set in Texas about the solving of a murder of a policeman played right into his strengths and his roots, McConaughey hails from Uvalde in Texas. He impressed here and then went onto to make a A Time to Kill with Samuel L. Jackson and Sandra Bullock where he plays a defense lawyer for a black man who is alleged to have murdered two people and raped a 10 year old girl. Against the backdrop of a resurgent Ku Klux Klan he's forced to fight for the mans freedom. This showed the promise of what would come about well over a decade later.

McConaughey picking up his Best Actor award at the Oscars

In the years inbetween was a lot of the formerly mentioned rom-coms that he then became renowned for with the likes of How to lose a Guy in 10 days, Failure to Launch and The Wedding Planner all having varying degrees of success and more failure whilst the terribly named Surfer, Dude probably representing the low point just before the resurgence in 2008. But following that he began to turn heads again with films like The Lincoln Lawyer and Killer Joe showing that potential we saw back in the mid-90's, his violent homicidal nature in William Friedkin's Killer Joe was stunning to watch. From there he barely looked back with more impressive performances in Mud and The Paperboy all leading him to the Oscar win for Dallas Buyers Club. 

Now all he needs is to complete the set with an Emmy win for the simply sublime True Detective which has its final episode of the first season next Sunday. His character Rust Cohle is a damaged yet obsessive Police Detective in Louisiana trying to solve a string of ritualistic murders, against the tide of the rest of the police force who believe the case to be over. His portrayal in this crime drama is stunning and one of the most intriguing performances I've watched on the small screen in quite a few years.

So what next for Mr McConaughey? The only known projects are a role in Christoper Nolan's new film Interstellar and a possible sequel of Magic Mike. But it will be interesting to see what the next few years have in store.