The risks that Matthew took for Dallas Buyers

MANILA, Philippines - Matthew McConaughey won the Oscar for Best Actor for his performance in Dallas Buyers Clubfor his portrayal of AIDS patient Ron Woodroof.  The 44-year-old walked away with his first Oscar after winning both the Golden Globe and SAG Award.

He dropped close to 50 pounds to play Ron, a Lone Star hell-raiser and rodeo cowboy who had enough smarts to work as an electrician. In 1985, he was diagnosed with AIDS, and became a self-taught expert on the treatments, smuggling in experimental drugs  from other countries, both for himself and later on for others. To circumvent legal issues involving the sale of unapproved medicine, he charged a fee for a club membership and handed out the drugs for free. He grew into a crusader for patients’ rights in the process and lived for seven more years.

“Ron was an American original,” McConaughey has said of his character. “He shook a tree. He made a noise. I said, ‘I want to get this made, get Ron’s story told.’”

You were born and raised in Texas. Did you know people like Ron and his pals who adopted this hardcore macho lifestyle?

“Ron Woodroof and his clan? These wonderful rednecks? They weren’t my immediate friends, but I know those people. I know that language, I know that perspective, I know that anarchic humor. And, you know, one of the things I wanted to make sure about this is to stick with that anarchic humor, stick with him being a selfish bastard, stick with him being a businessman out for himself.”

You and Jared Leto (who plays Rayon, a transsexual HIV-positive patient who acts as Ron’s go-between with the gay community) make for a memorable odd couple, one that has been compared to Joe Buck and Ratso Rizzo in Midnight Cowboy. You refer to Rayon as “Miss Man.”

“That came out on the day. One of the other things I threw in there, maybe it’s Southern, is a little throwback to my dad. I’m talking with Jennifer Garner (as a doctor who supports Ron’s efforts) in the restaurant and I go, ‘I’ve got a little change in my pocket and I’m a proud owner of a Texaco card.’ My Dad ran a Texaco station and my first credit card ever was a gas card. Didn’t have a Mastercard, didn’t have a Visa, didn’t have an American Express, but you could get a gas card.”

One weight question. You look like you are pretty much at your fighting weight again. How did you go about gaining it all back? You can’t just pig out and stay healthy.

“It’s a little more dangerous than dropping it. Dropping it, there was a system. Four pounds a week and it goes straight down. Yeah, I’m hungry but this is what I’m doing. Coming back, the digestive has to get back in shape again. This is the most interesting part. The first time I ate a regular meal, my body immediately remembered, ‘Oh, we live at 182.’ So it wants to sprint back. And you just have to pull the reins and go ease off and eat more healthy. But the first time I ate a meal the size I used to eat at 182, it immediately remembered. I could feel it. My diet has changed. It’s not like it is before. On purpose.”

There are risks with doing these types of movies. They sometimes have trouble attracting an audience even if they are good. Some people might be put off by the fact that Dallas Buyers Club is about a person dealing with AIDS. The movie managed to find some laughs in the situation. But you might not expect that after reading the plot description.

“It’s an independent movie about HIV. OK, it’s going to be important. It’s going to be good medicine, right? It doesn’t even have to be entertaining and usually it won’t be. But I think we made it an entertaining one, too. That is where you are doing it for under $5M in 27 days. OK, I get it. We are going to get a character-driven tour de force role that I want to go do. But, man, the movie may just be nothing but medicine. And not entertaining. I’ve been getting experiences in good films that turned out to be arguably good films. Good films that had identities and worked. And that was no guarantee.”

Released and distributed by Captive Cinema, Dallas Buyers Club is now showing nationwide.