It's hard to go more shocking than his role in The Paperboy, where he plays a self-loathing gay newspaper reporter hide their promiscuous sexual behavior. He has a scene where he discovered naked, gagged and bloody on a plastic tarp in a seedy hotel room.
He says he does not hesitate to take part when contacted by writer / director Lee Daniels.
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"The only thing I insisted on (with Daniels) was it had to be more than shocked. Because when you throw me for this part, it's going to be an inherent shock value."
The film, which also stars Nicole Kidman and Zac Efron, is scheduled for release in Europe this fall, but no domestic dates are set.
McConaughey is in non-romance with mud channel (no release date yet), in which he plays a fugitive being pursued by bounty hunters, along with Reese Witherspoon and Michael Shannon. Jeff Nichols directs.
The surprises will continue.
McConaughey will play a seedy assassin in William Friedkin's Killer Joe ("it's a wild ride of a movie") opened in selected cities in 27 July and he will star as an ambitious male stripper in Steven Soderbergh-directed Magical Mike (29 June) along with Channing Tatum.
McConaughey appears naked in Paperboy, but he assures that he sees "much better" in Magic Mike. Playing a stripper is a serious gym motivation.
"You will see a guy come in the form, telling him (butt) shall be 40 feet high on a screen," McConaughey says, laughing. "It's me do everything with spray tans and all. It's going to be a fun."