September 19, 2023 • 53 mins
This week Matthew McConaughey joins Kevin as they discuss the movies they (haven't) been in together, LA as a concept and the importance of family. They are joined by guest Leon Clayborne of the Just Keep Livin' Foundation to explore the ethos of Matthews non-profit and the power of giving kids a solid start.
*Note: this interview was recorded before the SAG-AFTRA strike took effect.
To learn more and get involved with Just Keep Living Foundation, head to jklivinfoundation.org/. To support more intitiatives like this program, text 'BACON' to 707070 or head to SixDegrees.Org to learn more.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The following episode was recorded before the WGA sag Aftra
strikes of twenty twenty three.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
You know, I had a big success with Footloose, and
I remember a lot of the films that I did
after that for a few years didn't pan out, and
the idea of playing a lead character was kind of
like drying up for me.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
But that was really a.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Blessing in a lot of ways, because I realized that
what I really wanted to do was play characters, and
if I was really going to follow my passion, I
had to say no to leading roles that just weren't
as good as the small parts. And when you do that,
it's a scary moment. But there's something really really powerful
(00:50):
about being able and learning to say no. And today
Matthew McConaughey and me dig into this. He shares in
his life and when he had to learn to say
no and all the good things that came from that
when he did.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
So lean in.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
Listen up.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
I'm pleasure welcoming Matthew McConaughey to this podcast. Thank you
so much for being here. It's kind of crazy that
our paths haven't crossed really into work. I mean, I
think we've met a couple of times, but yeah, and
(01:30):
I don't even think we've even been in the same movie,
even without scenes. So this is something that I will
look forward to and hopefully occur in the future.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
We got time, we had time.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
We do hopefully hopefully. Yeah, where are you now?
Speaker 4 (01:46):
I'm in Austin, Texas.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
This is your home? Correct, This is home.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
Austin, Texas. I went to school here, graduated eighty nine
to ninety three, moved out west with the U haul
on the career, thankfully started a family made homestead back
in Austin, and this is where we are. Three kids.
Wife still loves me still once we around, you know.
(02:11):
So we're doing all right.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
How old are your kids?
Speaker 4 (02:14):
Fourteen, twelve and nine? Wow?
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Awesome, awesome, you got years are much much younger than
my fourteen, twelve and nine. You know, that's I got
to say. When we went through this pandemic situation, you know,
I was grateful, as hard as it was for all kids,
(02:38):
I was grateful that my kids were older than yours
because to me at that age, I think back to myself,
you know, between being nine and fourteen, I can't imagine
how the kids have gotten through it to be so
cut off, especially at that moment when you are just
(03:02):
ready to explode out into the world and at the
friendships and you know, love and sports and all these things.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
We're navigating coming out of that right now, and their
re entrance into paternal groups and there, whether it's the
ballet or the sports team and have that sense of
community for the first time that you can trust, oh,
we're going to be with them next week and the
week after that, which they didn't have that for three years.
(03:30):
They're navigating that and that's even awkward, the reentry. But yeah,
those three years were.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
And we.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
I would say, lean, we were on the conservative side
of the quarantine. And we have a ninety year old
mother who's still with us, who was very susceptible their
immune systems, so we really went to lockdown. And that
meant obviously, since we were taking care of my mom,
that mean we had to sort of keep it tight
with the kiddos as well. So I tell you what
(03:58):
I mean, good side, more family dinners, they get to
see their parents, take care of their grandmother, you know,
more I don't know, more puzzles, more stuff. Forced they
were forced to get creative and I'm trying to know
I'm speaking of the upside, But yeah, they did miss
that sort of outside of the house, where can I go?
(04:21):
Because that was everybody was in limbo, we as adults
were in limbo. I think that was one of the
most frustrating parts is you couldn't really make a plan
outside of You couldn't project more than in trust, in
projection more than four day five days out for so long.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Yeah, yeah, especially when we had this terrible realization. I've
heard a lot of people say this, just like I
felt that two weeks and we were going to be done,
you know, even though the very smart people were telling us,
are you out of your mind? This is not how
this rolls? But but you know do it. Being I
(04:58):
was in New York, didn't doing the shutdown, and I thought, well,
the show's shut down, it'll be back up and run
and you know, I'll just I'll come to LA and
hang out with But my wife was out here with
my son. You know, I have a ninety year old
mother in law. And that's the other piece of it
that uh, you know, you do you really were We
(05:23):
were forced to look at our families as something that
was I mean not that I ever take my family
and the people in it for granted. But but I
do think that the that the pandemic really, as you said,
put a big focus on families and how we felt
about it. I remember that I was in the quarantine
(05:45):
with my son, but I wasn't allowed to see my daughter,
and that was like the craziest thing because it's like,
here I am with this, with this you know, man
in the house. Just it was just a series of
coincidences that he happened to be locked He locked un
out with us, and then my beautiful little girl, is
a few years younger than him, would eventually come over,
(06:08):
but we'd be outside and we wouldn't be able to
touch each other. And I was like, this is fucking crazy.
I mean, this is having when we finally it's the
tiniest thing, but you know, when we finally embraced, you know,
it was like this beautiful moment that that that I thought,
(06:30):
this is something that I have to remember and hold
on to. Yeah. Yeah, amen, Well, so you mentioned that
you all, I think that's I mean, I'm sure you've
walked down down this road many times as I have.
But I think that the origin stories of someone that
(06:52):
is such a phenomenal performer as yourself are fascinating to people,
and I'm I'm curious about that moment where you say,
all right, this is what I'm gonna do.
Speaker 5 (07:07):
With my life.
Speaker 4 (07:09):
Well, it sort of found me. I was. I was
at University of Texas Philosophy liberal arts major. I decide
I want to go into storytelling business in the business
that we're in, and I want to get into college
communication to the film department. I don't have any art,
but I got a three point eighty two GPA and
(07:30):
that was helpful. So the GPA got me in. I
go to film school. I think I wanted to be
in front of the camera. Just what didn't have the
balls to admit it at that point.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Interesting but when you first what you were thinking about
being behind the camera, or at least that's what you
were telling yourself. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
Now, in hindsight, I look back, and most of the
other students on the crews would want me to act
in their piece, or when I was trying to direct,
i'd hop over in demonstrate. So I was and I
really enjoyed that and was evidently being told he's pretty
good at that. Just shut your mouth show me what
you're talking about? You know what I mean? I walk
(08:09):
in the right bar at the right time between my
junior and senior year in Austin, Texas, top of the
High I walk in this bar because one of the
guys in film schools is the bartender and he's gonna
give me free training. So I walk in there and
he springs over a free Vodkent Tonic and says, hey, Matthew,
there's a guy at the end of the bar.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
He's a producer.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
He's in time producing a movie. I went down and
introduced myself to this And do you know this man,
Don Phillips, great casting director Don Phillips.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Uh, yeah, it does sound familiar.
Speaker 4 (08:39):
I've tried to think legendary. He works Melvin and Howard.
He was a producer. He cast Fast Time to Ridge
My High cast Days Confused, which is what he was
in town casting at this time.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
Days in Confused, which is having its thirtieth anniversary.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
Hey yeah, yeah, amazing, Phil, hadn't I introduced myself to him.
Three and a half hours later, we kicked out a
so said bar into the night. He's like, hey, you
ever done any acting? I said, well, I'm film schooled
here and I was a mineral life commercial for about
that long. Was more of a modeling job. Oh, you
might be right for this part. Come on down to
this address tomorrow morning and have a look.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
I go down.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
There's a script. It's tagged with three scenes. Check this
guy out named Woodson. You might dig him. I go
read for it. I get the part. Those three scenes
turned into three weeks work. Like Richard linklad of, the
director kept inviting me back to the set. The actors,
Jason Lundon, Cole Holser, Ben Affleck, they would all integrate
(09:38):
me into scenes. They would just lob me stuff that
wasn't scripted, and sure they were writing me into this
into the movie. So I ended up working three weeks
on that best fiom class I could have ever taken.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Trust me.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
I went back by senior year to film school, and
a lot of the teachers thought I was an arrogant
prick because I knew I knew the practical work on
the set, and I'd be like, no, actually that's not
how that's on, or actually could be done this other way.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
It's tough to teach that stuff in the classroom.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
Yeah. So I was already out of the book, and
I was out of the book, and then I had
the practical experience. So I graduated film degree. Drive out
West just as days is about to come out in
that U all twenty five hundred bucks, a bunch of
frozen loves for bread, get out to uh. I got
to tell you this story I had. I had the
(10:26):
doors la woman sitting on the sitting on the passeng
your seat, ready to play it for my entrance in
my truck. Pull my U.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Al right, would that be a a cassette or this CD?
Speaker 4 (10:42):
I believe CD O CD. Okay, now this is about it.
It's a little over seven minuteating myself.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
I'm dating myself with that question.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
I got made a track, but I but I have
it sitting there and you know that. So the drive
from Texas twenty four ish hour, well around hour twenty two,
I come across a little street that's an exit off
of the IT in out near Indio. It's called Sunset Dry.
(11:09):
I go, is that's it? I'm making great time. It's
time to put the tune in and creak it up.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Baby.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
Well, as you would know, I listened to that song
twenty seven freaking times in a road because it's another touch,
another two and a half hours, you get the Sunset
Sunset Drive and a Sunset Street.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Oh my god, they need to rename that street. Matthew
McConaughey way had me. I think, I think that would be.
That would be, that would be a great move. I
want to I'm gonna I'm gonna start lobbying the town
of Indio to name that street Matthew McConaughey Way. That
is a that is an amazing story. Well listen, I
mean the thing is is that Los Angeles for people
(11:54):
that haven't been here before, that's it is a very
confusing place to land if you've lived pretty much anywhere else,
because it's very hard. You can be in it and
have a hard time finding it. Yeah, it's like where
is the center of it?
Speaker 5 (12:12):
What is that?
Speaker 3 (12:13):
Where is the spot? And even if you think you're
you know, in your mind you're going to Hollywood, but
then there's just like that's not even Hollywood. Like like
I remember coming out and I was just like, uh,
there's a famous Stevie wondersong, you know, uh, living for
the city that starts. He says, uh la, just like
I pictured it. No, he says, New York, just like
(12:36):
I pictured it, skyscrapers and everything. Stevie Wonder says this
at the top of it thing, and it's kind of
like a little audio play that plays. My buddy John
l was out here and when I first got out here,
he picked me up at the airport and drove me
around and I said, La, just like I pictured it. No,
skyscrapers are nothing. I was just looking around like there's
(12:57):
nothing here. I don't I don't know how to hold
on to this place.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
A lot of latitude, and it's such a transient city,
you know. I mean, I've met thirty seven people born
in La in Maye since nineteen ninety two. In thirty years,
that's just over one year. Not many people are actually
from born and bred in la And every time I.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
Talk, I love that you're keeping I love you that
you're keeping track.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
I am keeping track, Yeah, because I've noticed it happened
so sparingly, you know. And yeah, a lot, a lot
of latitude. It's not necessarily a walk in town.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
I you know, you have such a remarkable career in that,
you know, you took a very very solid and successful
kind of you know, leading man in a certain kind
(13:59):
of role and a certain kind of film thing that
you had established and just completely turned it on its head.
And I'm wondering if if uh and went to some
just remarkable transformational uh not only dark subject matter, but
(14:22):
dark uh work and and fascinating characters. I'm just wondering
if that was a a conscious moment or whether or
not this is just the road that you take and
and you see what happens.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
I tell you what was conscious, Kevin, is that I
at that time had become really successful in the romantic comedies,
and and and loved them. They were fun. It's like
a Saturday night, you know, shoeless, go there and you know,
bounce along the clouds, keep that buoyant tail, that fairy
tale and I and and I loved it. But I
(15:01):
just i'd met Camilla, my wife, and we had just
had our first son. Now have your first child who
real life hits you square in the heart, square on
the head, and all of a sudden it's sober up
and go. I never more alive, or is the heart
and head more clear and more? Is a man more courageous,
you know than the first child? I don't know if
(15:21):
there has something to do with all of a sudden,
we now realize we're literally immortal or whatever we passed
on the lineage or what that is. But being a
father was always my dream, and I'd just become a father.
So real life was heavily dramatic for me in all
the I mean, happier, big, more tears, more pain, everything after,
I'd just kind of felt really grounded and courageous in
(15:44):
the world. The Roman e Colomies weren't necessarily giving me that.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
Now.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
I was like, okay, so your life is more vital
than your work, right now, that's not of I'm glad.
I was happy to be able to say that because
there's been other times whereas like, I wish my life
was as vital as my work, you know what I mean? Yeah, sure, sure, sure,
And I didn't. I wanted to do find some work
that felt as vital as my life, and those were
(16:10):
gonna be in dramas. But I wasn't getting off with
the dramas. I went to an agent to look, tell
them I'll take this pay cut, this bay cut, I'll
work for a tenth of the price of twenty like,
but they just don't. They still want it, all right,
So I said if I cannot do what I want
to do, I'm gonna stop doing what I've been doing.
And that was the hard decision, that was the tough
one that Camilla and I made together.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
So turn stuff down, you mean, yes, just to turn
stuff to turn.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
The rom calms down, the Action Adventures down. And I
wasn't sure it was a good but I was sure
in my in my in my gut that it was
the it was the right thing to do because I
because it felt right at two am, when I was
all alone and scared, you know, I was like, now,
stick with it. It's is gonna be an endurance thing.
(16:59):
But also there was no guarantee. I thought I was
maybe writing a one way ticket out of Hollywood, and
Ally was gonna go, fuck here, dude, what are you
talking about. You had your lane, man.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
You know later that's what Hollywood tends to do. So
I can see why you would be anxious about that.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
You know, Luckily I got a newborn to tend two
when I'm getting a little wobbly. Luckily I've got you know.
As as weeks turned two months and I was now
in Austin and not necessarily on the beach in Malibu,
with my shirt off, which was sort of a life
I was living that was paralleling the rom Com character, right,
(17:36):
And so it was like where where was? Where was mcconnie.
I was out of Hollywood, I was gone. I was
down in Texas. There were no beaches, and I wasn't
making movies. I was raising a kid and working on
the working on our ranch. Days got long, that old
old bottel sitting over there starting to look kind of
tasty around four pm sometimes, and I had to catch myself.
I go, no, no, no, no, we don't want to hang on.
(17:58):
You got to keep a purpose here. And I stuck
to it. And we had made I'd made a deal
with Camilla that we're going to stick to it by
hook or by crook and see what comes out of it. Now,
after about two years of that plan, it's still dry,
and I'm amazing. And he's telling me, hey, buddy, not
only do you not have any offers, I haven't heard
(18:19):
your name in a month. I'm going I might have
just done it. I started to thinking about other vocations.
You know, do I want to go teach. I want
to be a high school coach. I want to be
a wildlife expedition guide. I want to study to be
a conductor. I was thinking of all these things and
about I got to tell you this story because you
love this story, because it's puritanical and it's locked in.
(18:41):
I was on this. Okay, I get this offer for
this action comedy. It was a good one. And they
came in at eight million dollars like this is a
tasty front fee. Okay, no thank you. They came back
at ten, No thank you. They came back at twelve.
(19:04):
I said, no, thank you. They came back at fifteen five.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
I said, let me.
Speaker 4 (19:13):
Read that script again, same script, same words as the
aban I'll offer. But as you know, it was better written.
It was funnier, it had more angles. I could be
this guy. Man, this is guy work it anyway. I
ultimately said no, and that I think was, you know,
(19:34):
he can do something to the Hollywood that send a sort
of invisible sort of Oh he's not he's not effing around,
he's not.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
The power of note. It's the power of note.
Speaker 4 (19:43):
It sent something that somewhere in Hollywood, I think un
said knew I wasn't bluffy, which made me, in a
way maybe a little more. What's he up to? This
is interesting. And that's when after about two and a half,
almost three years of nothing, I think it was I
think it was h even with Killer Job that came
to me with this dark horror comedy that that was
(20:06):
like nothing that had.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
Come across some ideas.
Speaker 4 (20:08):
Awesome minute and that can nothing like that had been
come across my desk for decades. So to start with that,
Jeff Nichols comes to me he had written Mud with
me in mind, A Paperboy with Lee Daniels. Steven Soderberg
calls for a magic Mike. I had already I already
had the run, was holding on to Dallas Buyer's Club,
but still at this time, no one wanted to make
(20:30):
it with me, and many directors came by that I
would hope direct it, would direct it, but with me attached,
wouldn't direct it. Found Jean Mark Valet, the late Jehn Valet,
who just moved on recently. Uh you know, Scorsese called
for the first time for a Wall Street. All of
a sudden, I was getting these these roles in front
of me, her I was doing. I was like, this
(20:51):
is exactly what I want.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
And I mean that was a hell of a run.
That was is continues to be. I mean, it's is
really really remark arkable.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
But it all came from me saying, no, I'm not
I'm gonna quit. I don't if I can't do what
I want to do, I'm quit doing what I've been doing.
And I knew it was a risk, and I thought
and and I understood. Look, and I had to do
a lot of spiritual work at that time going because
trust me, my family, my brothers and my mother were like,
what is your major malfunction? It's just you gotta lane.
(21:22):
What are you doing, man, You're you're mentally migitating here.
They were like, why are you what you're you're you're
you're just your jackknife and yourself. What are you doing?
And I was like, no, no, I gotta do it.
And Camilla knew and I knew, and I got you know,
fortunate things came around, came back my way, and the
things I wanted.
Speaker 5 (21:39):
To do well.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
Sometimes you need two really huge things, one being the
confidence in yourself, uh you know, to be able to
do that, and when that confidence wanes, the confidence with
your partner to be able to say, okay, I'm I'm
I'm on this this this ride, you know, I'm I'm
I'm with you in that.
Speaker 5 (22:01):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
You know, I've always felt really, you know, really grateful
to have that as well. You know, because when i'm
when you make these choices, you know, I don't have
to tell you, you know, if you're, if you're if you're
in a strong marriage, these are choices that you're making
to a certain extent together, I mean, you know, and
(22:23):
and it's, uh, it really is great that you've found
someone that you're able to too, is able to you know,
be there in that on that team with you. That's
a that's super super cool.
Speaker 4 (22:36):
Well, she stood be up cool. She she stood me
straight up quite.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
A few times.
Speaker 4 (22:40):
And it was like reminded me of the night when
we made the decision and tears fell and she knew
sincere about it. She was like, we're gonna that, We're
not gonna We're not gonna let that the truth of
that moment get dusty. That was true, stick to it. Well.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
The other thing that I've always really admired about you
and I or let me just say, I could be
second guessing this, but this is what I feel about
myself and I see I think I see some of
this in you and that is that you have the
ability to take your work incredibly seriously, which you've proved
(23:22):
time and time again to us, but you don't always
take yourself seriously. And to me, this idea that we
have to like, I've always felt like I don't really
cared that much what people think about me. I'm really
(23:43):
more interested in what they think about the work. And
when it comes to me, you could just make your
decisions up. I mean, I don't mind poking fun of
myself or you know, being making an asshole of myself basically,
And I don't know, can you relate to that at all?
Speaker 4 (23:59):
Or yeah?
Speaker 3 (24:00):
Can?
Speaker 4 (24:00):
I mean, I'm to on two fronts, I think one,
I don't know if I can say I don't take
myself seriously. I do know that I take comedy seriously,
and I take the comedy of life very seriously, and
I take screw ups very seriously and I trust that
I'm gonna do them, and when I do, I'm like, Yep,
be serious about that hip fell on your face. Yep,
(24:22):
that didn't work out. I do take that seriously, so
that maybe helps me chuckle at that. I also know
this there, you know, the certain initiations in Hollywood and
they come for me. The one that came at year
seven ninety two, around ninety nine was something hit me
one day, and I think it was after Yeah, so
(24:44):
after I come in with day's confused time to kill,
I'm you know, on the cover of the magazines and
I'm a new leading man, et cetera, et cetera. Then
I did the few films in my so called star
drop a little bit, and a lot of the people
that were calling me twice a day wouldn't you back
(25:04):
after time, gil were not even returning my calls. People
that I had spent executives, I had spent holidays with,
I couldn't give them to turn my call. And it
personally hurt sure all those people, Like when I first
got to Hollywood, I remember telling my moms, I've never
heard people say I love you so much. I said,
(25:26):
I've said that to like five people in my life.
They say it all the time, der man, this place
is great. Well, then some of those people also wouldn't
return my calls, right, and I'm like, wait, but that
person says me, lovely man at the part they said
they looked me in the eyes that I love you,
and I meant something and I can't get to return
my call. But I had something hit me at year seven.
I was like, oh, you got to get the joke
in Hollywood. It's not personal, right, your business. So part
(25:50):
of that was not I think, leads into what you're
saying about not taking certain things seriously about what other
people think. And I had to get over the little
bridge of you know, being pissed off at them going
f you. You know what I mean. Now you're the
one who wouldn't turn my car. Because then when my
star went back up and I'm going, oh, now you
call again, I felt like I wanted to rub it
(26:11):
in a little bit and I was like, no.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
I don't do that.
Speaker 4 (26:13):
Be cool, be graceful.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
It's just businessman.
Speaker 4 (26:16):
Heroes back up.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Now.
Speaker 4 (26:17):
Of course they return the car. Actually they call you
take the ride as that man Don Phillips, who I
met that night in that in that bar, and Austin said,
want to give you the best advice I can give
you for success in this game. So what he goes,
lean horse long ride. He goes, it's going to do this.
It's going to do this if you can stay in
the saddle and just keep riding. Endurance can be your friend.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
People say, what's a secret to longevity. I say, there
is no secret to longevity. Longevity, he's a secret. If
you can, you can just hang in. Tell me about
green Lights before we get into just Keep Living Found,
which I'm fascinating, but I'm also interested in green lights
on your book.
Speaker 4 (27:03):
Yeah, so green Lights is h I finally got the
courage to say, you know, I've been writing. I've been
writing since I was fourteen. Journals and stuff and stories
and people in character approaches to life. I mean inherently,
I been waking up sometime every day in my life
(27:24):
since I was.
Speaker 5 (27:27):
Thirteen.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
Probably I've wake up with some sort of perspective of
measuring weight. What's the approach for greater satisfaction, greater residuals
in life, whether that's relationships, whether that's lay down good work.
The work will speak for yourself, it'll outlive you. You know,
just don't get you know those times when you get
(27:50):
heady out there and you're like, no, just do the work,
keep it simple, focus on whatever that is. I've been
waking up trying to think about how to be a
better person, better man, find more satisfaction, looking for myself, searching,
trying to find the figure out, you know, as close
as I came to the truth or if it's fiction,
let's just call it that and go with it. Green
(28:12):
Lights was came out of going back over all, the
having the curders to go open up those journals for
the first time in my life and go where's your
head and heart been over the last thirty years and
see if we can find some themes. And there were stories,
there were people, there were places, there were approaches, perspectives, philosophies,
there was prayers, there were poems, and I sort of
(28:37):
went in and found personal stories to launch some of
these approaches that I've tested and found worked that always
were paired with stories of things that I have, grand
plans I had that I thought would work, where I
ate shit and it didn't work, which kind of goes
back to what I was saying earlier. I take the
(28:58):
comedy seriously as well, because I can trust in it coming,
you know what I mean. And so that's basically what
the book is. It's I found that you can we
can engineer success, we can have a goal, we can willpower,
we can we can right we can write that headline
(29:20):
now and then work to go achieve it, to get
to the headline in a year or two. We can
engineer it. There's things we can do, there's habits. I know.
It's true. Also, half of my successes, which is a
lot more than I thought it was going to be
when I looked in the diaries and journals of mine,
(29:41):
over half of my successes were when I took a
risk and learned to fly on the way down where
it was not engineered. It was like I just I
was lost, took a risk and figured it out and
landed right in the bucket, hit the target, and it
was like, oh, you know, I had nothing to do
with plans or engineering, just went and followed inspiration and
(30:05):
and and listened to myself and put myself in places
where I can hear the truth land like a butterfly
and a lightning bolt at the same time in which
it does. And so it's about, you know, where we
can engineer them success and where it's just part of
the art of life is just dancing and and and
and letting the magic and the inspiration hit you the
right time and trusting in it to follow through on
(30:26):
it and go. That was true even though nobody else
may have.
Speaker 5 (30:29):
Heard it.
Speaker 4 (30:31):
Follow it, and that's that's a lot of we'green lined
about that sounds amazing.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Have you gotten responses already kind of you know, anecdotal
sort of responses for people who've looked at the book
and have reached out to you to to say that
it helped them in some kind of way.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
I have, and I think the most consistent one is
people that have come up and not just say hey,
I like your book. And people come up and strangers
and will stop me, put two hands on my shoulders,
make sure they're looking them in the eye, and go.
Your stories and the risks that you took are telling
me that my stories and the risk are matter, and
(31:07):
I'm taking more risk. I'm in this place in life
because I went shed that's right. He was talking to me.
I was in a similar situation, and I, instead of
taking the risk, I went, now I don't think I will,
and now I'm going to do that. That's been the
most gratifying thing is to get that reverb, that mirror
pop back at me with someone going thank you for
(31:28):
those stories. They made me feel like my stories matter.
They made me feel like I'm going to take a
greater risk tomorrow than I did today because of a
foolish fear of what happen. That's been the greatest compliment.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
That's amazing, because I mean, I you know, I don't
need to tell you, but it's when you hear somebody
have that kind of reaction to performance. It's one thing,
you know, thank you for making that movie, Thank you
for telling that story. That meant a lot to me.
Speaker 4 (31:58):
You know.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
I feel like I can only take credit to it
up to a point because somebody else wrote it and
it was a character and it was a mighty boat.
But if it's if it's your own book, it must
just be very very satisfying, gratifying. I mean, that's that's
that's a cool thing. So, Matthew, I want to bring
on Lei Claiborne, who is the director of program strategy
(32:22):
and community Impact for Just Keep Living Foundation, which is
based in Los Angeles, and I want to hear about
this great work that you're doing, and Matthew, how this
whole thing came together.
Speaker 4 (32:35):
So fifteen eighteen something years ago, I knew I wanted to.
I was always looking for a time and the best
way to give back. I've been raised in a family
where we had a pretty ritual ways to give back,
but now it's coming into my own success. It was like,
what do I want to do. I knew I wanted
(32:57):
to do something to prevent, prevent before you to cure.
I mean, there's a ten million great ways and means
to give time, philanthropy, et cetera. But I knew I
wanted to prevention for cure. So that led me to go, oh, youngsters, children,
And then I started studying from kindergarten on up what
(33:19):
are these young men and women need? And settled on
high school students because it became very clear that's the
last that's the last four years you kind of have
them where there's a principal, there's a parent, you've got
some responsibilities you got to take care of. As soon
as you graduate, you're on your own, you're independent, you're free.
(33:42):
And if you were screwing up in high school, which
you might have got a demerit for in high school,
you might be putting in jail for in real life
once you get out. So it was the demographic of saying, look,
this is the time to get young men and women
to if they're all on the wrong track, help me
get on the right track. If they're on the right track,
let's help them double down on that and see the
(34:02):
opportunity to stay on the right track for success in
the future. We settled in high schools. We then settle
on Title I high schools, which are the lower income
high schools that we found that needed it, that needed
some of this direction and support the most. I think
our first one leon wasn't our first one Venice in
la and then Hamilton, yep. And now we're in how
(34:26):
many schools.
Speaker 5 (34:26):
Forty four programs fifteen cities.
Speaker 4 (34:30):
Forty four to fifteen cities. So that's what we've done.
It's an after school curriculum twice a week for a
few hours where these young men and women voluntarily come.
Number One, what I did not know was an asset
of the program going in is that it's it's the
first safe place that a lot of these young men
(34:51):
and women have to go after school. They didn't that.
I had no idea that that would be an asset.
I did not even know that that was needed going
into this. The students let us know that the basis is,
there's a there's a there's a they come into set
goals there's a physical goal, whether that's I want to
make the soccer team next year. Right now, I cannot
(35:12):
run a quarter of a mile. Can you help me
get in shape try and make the soccer team, or
maybe proms coming up in three months. My sister and
I have one dress. I need to lose three pounds
to fit in the one prom dress by prom. All right,
we're going to help you meet that goal. There's nutritional goals.
We go talk to them and their parents. Hey, nothing
(35:33):
wrong with those five burgers from the fast food stop
last night. But look, let's take that same amount of
money and walk you through the supermarket in the produce section.
Some beans, maybe some meat if you want it. Spend
the same amount of money, have a healthier meal, and
get to cook it as a family in your own
kitchen together. Which we believe in that that family time
is really important healthy life choices physically, mentally, spiritually. Community
(36:02):
service has become a huge part of this this again,
I did not think this was going to be popular.
When we started to say, hey, let's let's let's let's
ask these children to give community, to give back to
their communities. I thought back to my high school years Kevin,
and I was like, I wasn't going to give you
a Saturday morning at four thirty am to go pack
for the make some some some packages for the troops,
(36:24):
or clean up a beach in Venice, or clean up
a highway, or go help out some elders. I wasn't
going to do that at four thirty in the morning.
One hundred percent of our students jumped on the community
service and still do today.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
Now amazing.
Speaker 4 (36:38):
What it is is, well, the lesson I'm getting from
that I think we can all give them that we
have to be reminded that everybody wants to be accountable.
Nobody really wants to free hand out. They want to go, oh,
put me to task, what what do you? What do
I gotta do for this? I want gives them ownership, integrity,
and the dignity. And I'm amazed at one hundred percent
and they still do sign.
Speaker 3 (36:59):
Up for for for.
Speaker 4 (37:01):
All the community service that we that we offer. So
those are those are some of the pillars. The final
pillar is gratitude, which is sort of the halo over
our foundation. The end of every curriculum, students sit around
and in the circle and say thank you out loud
to everybody, all their peers, in front of each other.
(37:23):
This is something that we practice in my family before meals.
So we tried it out with these young men and women,
and trust me, it didn't go well to start off with,
because to say thank you for something in front of
your peers in high school is not necessarily cool.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
Yeah, so cool.
Speaker 4 (37:38):
So I remember the first time we went around in
the circle and I was like, got to me and
I said, really thankful this program, and no, no, no,
and the next person goes thankful to Jayuliving program. The
next person said, well, I'm thankful to Juliving program. And
then we were like okay. After a couple of weeks,
no one was really speaking up about what they were
thankful for. They were kind of repeating what the person
from said. And I noticed that Camille and I noticed that, oh,
(38:02):
they're taking this as like it has to be something
very serious and dramatic. And I remember it's coming up
on Halloween, I think leon and it got to me
and I was like, man, I'm thankful. I'm gonna get
some candy Saturday night. And then I went, oh yeah,
I met and we're like, yeah, you don't have to
be thankful for something that's like don't dout do dumk,
And all of a sudden they started going, well, I'm
(38:24):
thankful I got a kiss from my girlfriend last week,
and I'm thankful this, and I'm thankful I'm feeling sexy today,
and all of a sudden they started to laugh. This
sort of the the pressure of what you had to
share to be thankful or came off. You'd be thankful
for something that's happy and easy, and what that did
is led to people weeks later and now sharing real
things that were really hard, like my my sister got
(38:49):
out of the hospital, my dad got a job. And
the best reaction we've heard of this think gratitude circle
is this student say their favorite thing about is they
are now hearing their peers say thank you for something
that they have in their life that they've always taken
for granted and never voiced thanks for. And that is
(39:10):
the reciprocity of the gratitude that I love about our
gratitude circle that we have in the program.
Speaker 3 (39:16):
I've seen it. I've seen it, I've watched the videos
of it in action, and it is a very very powerful,
simple yet powerful tool and leon you know, part of
what I'm trying to sort of highlight on this podcast
is is certainly the fact that there are actual famous
(39:37):
people who are trying to do something positive in the world.
But the other thing is the people who are behind
the scenes and on the ground and and and you know,
doing the the the hard work of of this on
a daily basis. And I'm curious from your perspective, I
think you said you've been was it seven and a
(39:58):
half years?
Speaker 5 (39:59):
You've been with seven half years?
Speaker 3 (40:00):
Yes, Yeah, which is a long time. What do you
think it was in your upbringing, or your childhood, or
just in your personality in general that drew you to
this kind of work, Because there's a lot of other
things that we can do other than you know, helping
other people.
Speaker 5 (40:21):
Yeah, I mean there's a lot of stuff I love
to do.
Speaker 6 (40:23):
But I always go back to this time I have
when I played Little League growing up in Ontario, California,
I had a chance to volunteer to help kids with
Down syndrome learn how to play baseball.
Speaker 5 (40:35):
And I'm like eight years old, I'm like, oh, I'll
do a mom whatever whatever.
Speaker 6 (40:38):
So then in that act of me teaching, like someone
who did it, you know, those simple fundamentals of swinging
a ball or running to your right the first base.
It kind of took me back a little bit, and
it's all and it's been something that's always kind of
been in me of like helping people that not necessarily
can do exactly what you do, but how can I
articulate my skill set to someone else so they can
(41:00):
do what I do? So that was kind of like
the leaping.
Speaker 5 (41:05):
Point for me.
Speaker 6 (41:05):
And then growing up, I was really instilleding to hip
hop culture and just be born rite break born with
is breakdances or elemented hip hop, and that's what was
my real kind of leaping path to get into teaching
inner city youth a skill set. So from there on
it just blew my mind and I was able to
teach the students how to use movement and rhythm to
(41:28):
tell stories right, and then I got leadership skills, started
running programs, and then twenty years later seven and a
half of the later years I've been with just keep Living,
and it's just been it's been awesome because it's always
been like that little bit of fire that was in
me at eight years old to teach kids how to
play baseball, to teaching someone my skill set and passion
for dance to turn into someone's mentor. It's just been
(41:49):
a crazy journey and it continues to give me the
fire too.
Speaker 5 (41:52):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 6 (41:53):
Everybody's always like, why do you keep doing this? You
know you're in the director level and saying, well, you
know what, When I get to go to these events
and get to experience students' first time experiences, that's.
Speaker 5 (42:03):
What gives me the fuel.
Speaker 6 (42:05):
Because there's so much work we still need to do
in the world. And if I'm able to play a
part to give them platform and have these students utilize
our resources, I'm all in.
Speaker 3 (42:13):
I'm all in, that's amazing. Can you do they still
have the opportunity to uh, to learn how to dance
for you or to learn some.
Speaker 5 (42:21):
Sim you know.
Speaker 6 (42:22):
Every now and then I'll pull a few tricks out
the bag, and I love it's a compliment, like a
day come days or whatever. So whenever I can't get out,
I do a crazy low hip hop dance workout. I
make sure I work out when we're not just teaching
you know, wow moves, we're actually working for it.
Speaker 5 (42:39):
So it's been great.
Speaker 1 (42:46):
If you are inspired by today's episode, please join us
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(43:11):
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Speaker 4 (43:19):
As you know, we can have a good idea and
everyone can agree on it, but if you don't have
the commitment and enthusiasm of the people that are there
day to day on it, it's it's not going to work.
That's what Leon, you seven and a half years. I mean,
you came in and you said, it's what fuels you.
You you don't you're not playing a part in the
(43:41):
service that you're given with these children and with the program.
I mean, it's you seem to love it. You seem
to He does refuel, does seem to refuel you? Like
I was saying, you're not putting on it. Leon's not
putting on a different hat when he shows up to
go like okay, let's go, let's go to work. He's
always on it and you know where's that? Where does
(44:02):
that come from? And then secondly, I don't know what
with stories. You've been there seven a half years. Can
you share a story or antidote of someone who came
in as a freshman and maybe it was maybe was
was wobbling and went out and now seven a half
years later they're doing something that the program and people
like yourself help them get on track to do.
Speaker 6 (44:23):
Oh yeah, man, Well, just just to answer the question
about fire, like, where does that come from? It's about
being a quality of service, right, There's nothing like how
is someone who's very passionate about something teach that to
you or show you that. I think that's what I
want to give these kids. Let them know like, hey,
I may not be your day to day instructor, and
(44:43):
I'm at this director level. I'm still here with you
and I can still give you a skill set and
still be passionate about seeing you do good. So I
think the students just want someone they can talk to,
listen to, a cheer them on, like I'm the student's
biggest cheerleader, you know what I mean. So, in regardless
of stories, oh yeah, there's one, and it will start
With our first program at Venice, we had a student
(45:05):
named Chris Rassinos. Oh, like, he's the ultimate jk L
student post a child for sure. So when he came
in he was a freshman. Like many they'll come for
like the free snack or you know, maybe they don't
have a gym membershi if they want to come lifts
of weights, and Venice is one of the.
Speaker 5 (45:21):
Schools that has actually access to a weight room.
Speaker 6 (45:24):
Not all our programs do, and that's why our curriculum
is really based on you don't have to have equipment
to work out, right, That's what we're really basing on.
But anyhow, you know, he would come once twice a month,
but he had this energy. He always was like, Hey,
I want to learn how to I want to learn
how to box, I want to learn how to do
more fitness. He was more focused on the fitness. So
the thing that I saw turned his life around was
(45:46):
he was already doing bad at school, right, but when
he went to this thing called campum Buntu that we
take all our high school kids to in Los Angeles,
flipped his mind, changed his mind. He really started to
understand what gratitude meant. He understand what like being transparent
man with taking risks man. And you know, it's one
of those things where you're either gonna rise in the
(46:07):
occasion or you're not. When you're in these camp settings,
right because you're amongst your peers, You're like, am I
gonna do this?
Speaker 5 (46:11):
Am I not going to do this? What am I
looking at here?
Speaker 6 (46:13):
So I would say after that first year him coming
going to that camp, he came back. He had a plan.
You know, he started to come to school more, we
saw more in the sessions. He started to really take
his fitness to a whole other level. And just to
fast forward a few years, his senior year, he started
really taking up boxing, like boxing was his thing. And
always when I was like, well, what is he gonna
(46:34):
do with that?
Speaker 5 (46:34):
Like how what is he? What is he really gonna
do with that? Like it's a great skill set about
what is he gonna do?
Speaker 6 (46:39):
And then little behold, not only did he become an
actual counselor at this camp that we were taking students
to called camp and butu so he was so at
the time when he was a counselor there, we were
already taking new students up and he was mintoring them.
So that was kind of like that broke the mold
right there for him. And then I'm like, hey, you're
still doing the boxing thing. He's like he made a
(47:00):
career out of it at actual his own business. So
he ended up doing classes out of us a place
in the West, LA where me and the whole just
Kipliver team we went and took his class.
Speaker 5 (47:10):
You know, we had a support We got to support
our youth.
Speaker 3 (47:12):
So he's doing training, training people.
Speaker 5 (47:15):
He's training he's training people.
Speaker 3 (47:16):
Wow, that's amazing.
Speaker 5 (47:18):
And during the pandemic he had his own business. He's
taking ladies out to the to the beach. Said, he's
doing this thing. You know, be it all COVID safe
at the time, doing this thing. But and he's still
so what's cool. Here, here's here's the here's the like
bring it all back right.
Speaker 6 (47:32):
So now we hire him to go to Venice, to
go to these other schools around LA to teach this
skill set that he learned a little bit in JKL
just got that dedication and level of just gratitude for
it and shaped it into a business. And now we
support him and he's just like awesome. He's he's literally awesome.
(47:52):
I still talk to him. I'm texted him all the
time trying to book them more. I want to I
want to put more money in his pocket, you know.
And that's what it's about. That's what it's about. That's
what this program it's about. It's about seeing the good
in our students, giving them the resources they're helping the
rise to the occasion and if we're able to bring
it back into the fold, there's always a way for
us to do that.
Speaker 5 (48:10):
So that's what we do here. Just keep living.
Speaker 3 (48:12):
That's that's such I mean, these are the stories that
that you know, we want to hear. And and when
when you when something comes around, that's like a double
full circle. You know, it's it's it's it's it's a
beautiful thing to hear. Uh. I know people listening would
love to know how to help out, how to get involved,
(48:34):
whether there's uh donations, volunteer ship, what we're how can
they besides just googling? Just keep living? I mean, who
knows what they'll get to give us, give us a
little ways that people can get involved.
Speaker 6 (48:47):
Well, yeah, I mean you could definitely follow us on
social media right at JK Livin.
Speaker 4 (48:53):
But no g on the essay, No g on the
end of living.
Speaker 5 (48:57):
No, G, it's a verb. Verb is at the boss
man says.
Speaker 6 (49:00):
Oh, but I would definitely say volunteers. Right, So if
you go to our website Jklebanfoundation dot org, you can
send us an email there and we're always looking for volunteers.
You know, our programs are required to do community service
two times a semester, sometimes more. And if we have
some volunteers that reach out to us and they have
a special skill set, not only can they volunteer at
(49:22):
maybe it's a water station feeding the homeless, but if
they have a skill set they could bring to the table,
like they might be a martial arts instructor or a
crust then we can figure that piece out. How do
we bring that skill set into our program because our
programs have the capital to bring in professional instructors.
Speaker 5 (49:37):
To teach a skill you know what I mean.
Speaker 6 (49:39):
So anyone who has a skill set that loves to
deal with high school students, and you know, high school
students know if you really are about what you talk about, right,
they love people who come in as passionate, and if
you're not passionate, then our program is a probably not
going to be for you.
Speaker 5 (49:53):
Because our kids really want people who live and bleed
what they're telling these students. Okay, and I will say internships.
Speaker 6 (50:00):
Were always looking to, you know, collaborate with organizations who
can provide our students with internships. Really summer internships. We
don't do too many summer programs. It's more spot data
events that we do, so summer internships would be huge.
So any organizations out there listening, please send us an email,
let us say what you do. We'll get all set
up and I'll see if there's a fit for us.
(50:21):
So for sure, volunteers, any city will do a volunteer
meeting and keep you in the loop on some things
that may be happening. And then any organizations that want
to partner and provide internships for or just keep living students.
Speaker 5 (50:34):
So that's a few ways.
Speaker 4 (50:35):
If there's also people out there, A lot of people
have come to us that go, I have a school
in my community that could use this curriculum and I
want to sponsor it or I'd like to partner with
y'all to sponsor it. We are open to that. If
you're anyone out there listening or watching that says, you know,
when I got a school in my backyard or near
that could use this kind of counts from curriculum.
Speaker 3 (50:59):
Let us know.
Speaker 4 (50:59):
We we are open to working in partnering with other
people too, and businesses to go. Yep, it's uh, what's
it run a semester thirty.
Speaker 5 (51:08):
Thirty well, thirty K for the whole year, thirty.
Speaker 4 (51:10):
K for the whole year, which is a basically paying
for that teacher on the ground. Every school curriculum has
a teacher on the ground in that school that is
sort of our all star that Leon and the rest
of the staff check in on and sort of, uh,
make sure that you know we're fulfilling the mission statement
within that school, but also also customizing it to what
(51:33):
that school needs.
Speaker 3 (51:34):
Yep, that's amazing. That's amazing. So it's a it's a
it's a it's it's a package that you guys have
developed that can be put into use in anywhere. I
mean right now you're in Los Angeles, right in in
southern California, but we're in thirteen thirteen states.
Speaker 5 (51:47):
We're everywhere.
Speaker 6 (51:48):
New York, we're in Nashville, were in.
Speaker 3 (51:53):
We started in l Yeah, sorry, right, it's it's you.
It's it's awesome. It's such a great thing that you
guys are doing. I thank you so much for coming
on this podcast and sharing it today and for your
time the amazing Matthew McConaughey and Leon Claiborne. The organization
(52:20):
is Just Keep Living and check it out and volunteer, donate.
These guys are making a difference. So thanks for being here, Fellas.
Speaker 4 (52:30):
Kevin, thanks for having us, thanks for chatting with us
and getting you give it a space talk about it.
Speaker 3 (52:36):
It's been fun.
Speaker 5 (52:38):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (52:43):
Hey, guys, thanks for listening to another episode of Six Degrees.
And if you want to learn more about Just Keep
Living and all the good work they're up to, head
to their website at Jklivinfoundation dot org. You can find
the links in our show notes, and if you like
what you're here, make sure you subscribe to the show
(53:03):
and tune in to the rest of our episodes. You
can find six Degrees wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 3 (53:09):
We'll see you next time.
The following episode was recorded before the WGA sag Aftra
strikes of twenty twenty three.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
You know, I had a big success with Footloose, and
I remember a lot of the films that I did
after that for a few years didn't pan out, and
the idea of playing a lead character was kind of
like drying up for me.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
But that was really a.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Blessing in a lot of ways, because I realized that
what I really wanted to do was play characters, and
if I was really going to follow my passion, I
had to say no to leading roles that just weren't
as good as the small parts. And when you do that,
it's a scary moment. But there's something really really powerful
(00:50):
about being able and learning to say no. And today
Matthew McConaughey and me dig into this. He shares in
his life and when he had to learn to say
no and all the good things that came from that
when he did.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
So lean in.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
Listen up.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
I'm pleasure welcoming Matthew McConaughey to this podcast. Thank you
so much for being here. It's kind of crazy that
our paths haven't crossed really into work. I mean, I
think we've met a couple of times, but yeah, and
(01:30):
I don't even think we've even been in the same movie,
even without scenes. So this is something that I will
look forward to and hopefully occur in the future.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
We got time, we had time.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
We do hopefully hopefully. Yeah, where are you now?
Speaker 4 (01:46):
I'm in Austin, Texas.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
This is your home? Correct, This is home.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
Austin, Texas. I went to school here, graduated eighty nine
to ninety three, moved out west with the U haul
on the career, thankfully started a family made homestead back
in Austin, and this is where we are. Three kids.
Wife still loves me still once we around, you know.
(02:11):
So we're doing all right.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
How old are your kids?
Speaker 4 (02:14):
Fourteen, twelve and nine? Wow?
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Awesome, awesome, you got years are much much younger than
my fourteen, twelve and nine. You know, that's I got
to say. When we went through this pandemic situation, you know,
I was grateful, as hard as it was for all kids,
(02:38):
I was grateful that my kids were older than yours
because to me at that age, I think back to myself,
you know, between being nine and fourteen, I can't imagine
how the kids have gotten through it to be so
cut off, especially at that moment when you are just
(03:02):
ready to explode out into the world and at the
friendships and you know, love and sports and all these things.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
We're navigating coming out of that right now, and their
re entrance into paternal groups and there, whether it's the
ballet or the sports team and have that sense of
community for the first time that you can trust, oh,
we're going to be with them next week and the
week after that, which they didn't have that for three years.
(03:30):
They're navigating that and that's even awkward, the reentry. But yeah,
those three years were.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
And we.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
I would say, lean, we were on the conservative side
of the quarantine. And we have a ninety year old
mother who's still with us, who was very susceptible their
immune systems, so we really went to lockdown. And that
meant obviously, since we were taking care of my mom,
that mean we had to sort of keep it tight
with the kiddos as well. So I tell you what
(03:58):
I mean, good side, more family dinners, they get to
see their parents, take care of their grandmother, you know,
more I don't know, more puzzles, more stuff. Forced they
were forced to get creative and I'm trying to know
I'm speaking of the upside, But yeah, they did miss
that sort of outside of the house, where can I go?
(04:21):
Because that was everybody was in limbo, we as adults
were in limbo. I think that was one of the
most frustrating parts is you couldn't really make a plan
outside of You couldn't project more than in trust, in
projection more than four day five days out for so long.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Yeah, yeah, especially when we had this terrible realization. I've
heard a lot of people say this, just like I
felt that two weeks and we were going to be done,
you know, even though the very smart people were telling us,
are you out of your mind? This is not how
this rolls? But but you know do it. Being I
(04:58):
was in New York, didn't doing the shutdown, and I thought, well,
the show's shut down, it'll be back up and run
and you know, I'll just I'll come to LA and
hang out with But my wife was out here with
my son. You know, I have a ninety year old
mother in law. And that's the other piece of it
that uh, you know, you do you really were We
(05:23):
were forced to look at our families as something that
was I mean not that I ever take my family
and the people in it for granted. But but I
do think that the that the pandemic really, as you said,
put a big focus on families and how we felt
about it. I remember that I was in the quarantine
(05:45):
with my son, but I wasn't allowed to see my daughter,
and that was like the craziest thing because it's like,
here I am with this, with this you know, man
in the house. Just it was just a series of
coincidences that he happened to be locked He locked un
out with us, and then my beautiful little girl, is
a few years younger than him, would eventually come over,
(06:08):
but we'd be outside and we wouldn't be able to
touch each other. And I was like, this is fucking crazy.
I mean, this is having when we finally it's the
tiniest thing, but you know, when we finally embraced, you know,
it was like this beautiful moment that that that I thought,
(06:30):
this is something that I have to remember and hold
on to. Yeah. Yeah, amen, Well, so you mentioned that
you all, I think that's I mean, I'm sure you've
walked down down this road many times as I have.
But I think that the origin stories of someone that
(06:52):
is such a phenomenal performer as yourself are fascinating to people,
and I'm I'm curious about that moment where you say,
all right, this is what I'm gonna do.
Speaker 5 (07:07):
With my life.
Speaker 4 (07:09):
Well, it sort of found me. I was. I was
at University of Texas Philosophy liberal arts major. I decide
I want to go into storytelling business in the business
that we're in, and I want to get into college
communication to the film department. I don't have any art,
but I got a three point eighty two GPA and
(07:30):
that was helpful. So the GPA got me in. I
go to film school. I think I wanted to be
in front of the camera. Just what didn't have the
balls to admit it at that point.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Interesting but when you first what you were thinking about
being behind the camera, or at least that's what you
were telling yourself. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
Now, in hindsight, I look back, and most of the
other students on the crews would want me to act
in their piece, or when I was trying to direct,
i'd hop over in demonstrate. So I was and I
really enjoyed that and was evidently being told he's pretty
good at that. Just shut your mouth show me what
you're talking about? You know what I mean? I walk
(08:09):
in the right bar at the right time between my
junior and senior year in Austin, Texas, top of the
High I walk in this bar because one of the
guys in film schools is the bartender and he's gonna
give me free training. So I walk in there and
he springs over a free Vodkent Tonic and says, hey, Matthew,
there's a guy at the end of the bar.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
He's a producer.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
He's in time producing a movie. I went down and
introduced myself to this And do you know this man,
Don Phillips, great casting director Don Phillips.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Uh, yeah, it does sound familiar.
Speaker 4 (08:39):
I've tried to think legendary. He works Melvin and Howard.
He was a producer. He cast Fast Time to Ridge
My High cast Days Confused, which is what he was
in town casting at this time.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
Days in Confused, which is having its thirtieth anniversary.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
Hey yeah, yeah, amazing, Phil, hadn't I introduced myself to him.
Three and a half hours later, we kicked out a
so said bar into the night. He's like, hey, you
ever done any acting? I said, well, I'm film schooled
here and I was a mineral life commercial for about
that long. Was more of a modeling job. Oh, you
might be right for this part. Come on down to
this address tomorrow morning and have a look.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
I go down.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
There's a script. It's tagged with three scenes. Check this
guy out named Woodson. You might dig him. I go
read for it. I get the part. Those three scenes
turned into three weeks work. Like Richard linklad of, the
director kept inviting me back to the set. The actors,
Jason Lundon, Cole Holser, Ben Affleck, they would all integrate
(09:38):
me into scenes. They would just lob me stuff that
wasn't scripted, and sure they were writing me into this
into the movie. So I ended up working three weeks
on that best fiom class I could have ever taken.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Trust me.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
I went back by senior year to film school, and
a lot of the teachers thought I was an arrogant
prick because I knew I knew the practical work on
the set, and I'd be like, no, actually that's not
how that's on, or actually could be done this other way.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
It's tough to teach that stuff in the classroom.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
Yeah. So I was already out of the book, and
I was out of the book, and then I had
the practical experience. So I graduated film degree. Drive out
West just as days is about to come out in
that U all twenty five hundred bucks, a bunch of
frozen loves for bread, get out to uh. I got
to tell you this story I had. I had the
(10:26):
doors la woman sitting on the sitting on the passeng
your seat, ready to play it for my entrance in
my truck. Pull my U.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Al right, would that be a a cassette or this CD?
Speaker 4 (10:42):
I believe CD O CD. Okay, now this is about it.
It's a little over seven minuteating myself.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
I'm dating myself with that question.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
I got made a track, but I but I have
it sitting there and you know that. So the drive
from Texas twenty four ish hour, well around hour twenty two,
I come across a little street that's an exit off
of the IT in out near Indio. It's called Sunset Dry.
(11:09):
I go, is that's it? I'm making great time. It's
time to put the tune in and creak it up.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Baby.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
Well, as you would know, I listened to that song
twenty seven freaking times in a road because it's another touch,
another two and a half hours, you get the Sunset
Sunset Drive and a Sunset Street.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Oh my god, they need to rename that street. Matthew
McConaughey way had me. I think, I think that would be.
That would be, that would be a great move. I
want to I'm gonna I'm gonna start lobbying the town
of Indio to name that street Matthew McConaughey Way. That
is a that is an amazing story. Well listen, I
mean the thing is is that Los Angeles for people
(11:54):
that haven't been here before, that's it is a very
confusing place to land if you've lived pretty much anywhere else,
because it's very hard. You can be in it and
have a hard time finding it. Yeah, it's like where
is the center of it?
Speaker 5 (12:12):
What is that?
Speaker 3 (12:13):
Where is the spot? And even if you think you're
you know, in your mind you're going to Hollywood, but
then there's just like that's not even Hollywood. Like like
I remember coming out and I was just like, uh,
there's a famous Stevie wondersong, you know, uh, living for
the city that starts. He says, uh la, just like
I pictured it. No, he says, New York, just like
(12:36):
I pictured it, skyscrapers and everything. Stevie Wonder says this
at the top of it thing, and it's kind of
like a little audio play that plays. My buddy John
l was out here and when I first got out here,
he picked me up at the airport and drove me
around and I said, La, just like I pictured it. No,
skyscrapers are nothing. I was just looking around like there's
(12:57):
nothing here. I don't I don't know how to hold
on to this place.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
A lot of latitude, and it's such a transient city,
you know. I mean, I've met thirty seven people born
in La in Maye since nineteen ninety two. In thirty years,
that's just over one year. Not many people are actually
from born and bred in la And every time I.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
Talk, I love that you're keeping I love you that
you're keeping track.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
I am keeping track, Yeah, because I've noticed it happened
so sparingly, you know. And yeah, a lot, a lot
of latitude. It's not necessarily a walk in town.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
I you know, you have such a remarkable career in that,
you know, you took a very very solid and successful
kind of you know, leading man in a certain kind
(13:59):
of role and a certain kind of film thing that
you had established and just completely turned it on its head.
And I'm wondering if if uh and went to some
just remarkable transformational uh not only dark subject matter, but
(14:22):
dark uh work and and fascinating characters. I'm just wondering
if that was a a conscious moment or whether or
not this is just the road that you take and
and you see what happens.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
I tell you what was conscious, Kevin, is that I
at that time had become really successful in the romantic comedies,
and and and loved them. They were fun. It's like
a Saturday night, you know, shoeless, go there and you know,
bounce along the clouds, keep that buoyant tail, that fairy
tale and I and and I loved it. But I
(15:01):
just i'd met Camilla, my wife, and we had just
had our first son. Now have your first child who
real life hits you square in the heart, square on
the head, and all of a sudden it's sober up
and go. I never more alive, or is the heart
and head more clear and more? Is a man more courageous,
you know than the first child? I don't know if
(15:21):
there has something to do with all of a sudden,
we now realize we're literally immortal or whatever we passed
on the lineage or what that is. But being a
father was always my dream, and I'd just become a father.
So real life was heavily dramatic for me in all
the I mean, happier, big, more tears, more pain, everything after,
I'd just kind of felt really grounded and courageous in
(15:44):
the world. The Roman e Colomies weren't necessarily giving me that.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
Now.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
I was like, okay, so your life is more vital
than your work, right now, that's not of I'm glad.
I was happy to be able to say that because
there's been other times whereas like, I wish my life
was as vital as my work, you know what I mean? Yeah, sure, sure, sure,
And I didn't. I wanted to do find some work
that felt as vital as my life, and those were
(16:10):
gonna be in dramas. But I wasn't getting off with
the dramas. I went to an agent to look, tell
them I'll take this pay cut, this bay cut, I'll
work for a tenth of the price of twenty like,
but they just don't. They still want it, all right,
So I said if I cannot do what I want
to do, I'm gonna stop doing what I've been doing.
And that was the hard decision, that was the tough
one that Camilla and I made together.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
So turn stuff down, you mean, yes, just to turn
stuff to turn.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
The rom calms down, the Action Adventures down. And I
wasn't sure it was a good but I was sure
in my in my in my gut that it was
the it was the right thing to do because I
because it felt right at two am, when I was
all alone and scared, you know, I was like, now,
stick with it. It's is gonna be an endurance thing.
(16:59):
But also there was no guarantee. I thought I was
maybe writing a one way ticket out of Hollywood, and
Ally was gonna go, fuck here, dude, what are you
talking about. You had your lane, man.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
You know later that's what Hollywood tends to do. So
I can see why you would be anxious about that.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
You know, Luckily I got a newborn to tend two
when I'm getting a little wobbly. Luckily I've got you know.
As as weeks turned two months and I was now
in Austin and not necessarily on the beach in Malibu,
with my shirt off, which was sort of a life
I was living that was paralleling the rom Com character, right,
(17:36):
And so it was like where where was? Where was mcconnie.
I was out of Hollywood, I was gone. I was
down in Texas. There were no beaches, and I wasn't
making movies. I was raising a kid and working on
the working on our ranch. Days got long, that old
old bottel sitting over there starting to look kind of
tasty around four pm sometimes, and I had to catch myself.
I go, no, no, no, no, we don't want to hang on.
(17:58):
You got to keep a purpose here. And I stuck
to it. And we had made I'd made a deal
with Camilla that we're going to stick to it by
hook or by crook and see what comes out of it. Now,
after about two years of that plan, it's still dry,
and I'm amazing. And he's telling me, hey, buddy, not
only do you not have any offers, I haven't heard
(18:19):
your name in a month. I'm going I might have
just done it. I started to thinking about other vocations.
You know, do I want to go teach. I want
to be a high school coach. I want to be
a wildlife expedition guide. I want to study to be
a conductor. I was thinking of all these things and
about I got to tell you this story because you
love this story, because it's puritanical and it's locked in.
(18:41):
I was on this. Okay, I get this offer for
this action comedy. It was a good one. And they
came in at eight million dollars like this is a
tasty front fee. Okay, no thank you. They came back
at ten, No thank you. They came back at twelve.
(19:04):
I said, no, thank you. They came back at fifteen five.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
I said, let me.
Speaker 4 (19:13):
Read that script again, same script, same words as the
aban I'll offer. But as you know, it was better written.
It was funnier, it had more angles. I could be
this guy. Man, this is guy work it anyway. I
ultimately said no, and that I think was, you know,
(19:34):
he can do something to the Hollywood that send a sort
of invisible sort of Oh he's not he's not effing around,
he's not.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
The power of note. It's the power of note.
Speaker 4 (19:43):
It sent something that somewhere in Hollywood, I think un
said knew I wasn't bluffy, which made me, in a
way maybe a little more. What's he up to? This
is interesting. And that's when after about two and a half,
almost three years of nothing, I think it was I
think it was h even with Killer Job that came
to me with this dark horror comedy that that was
(20:06):
like nothing that had.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
Come across some ideas.
Speaker 4 (20:08):
Awesome minute and that can nothing like that had been
come across my desk for decades. So to start with that,
Jeff Nichols comes to me he had written Mud with
me in mind, A Paperboy with Lee Daniels. Steven Soderberg
calls for a magic Mike. I had already I already
had the run, was holding on to Dallas Buyer's Club,
but still at this time, no one wanted to make
(20:30):
it with me, and many directors came by that I
would hope direct it, would direct it, but with me attached,
wouldn't direct it. Found Jean Mark Valet, the late Jehn Valet,
who just moved on recently. Uh you know, Scorsese called
for the first time for a Wall Street. All of
a sudden, I was getting these these roles in front
of me, her I was doing. I was like, this
(20:51):
is exactly what I want.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
And I mean that was a hell of a run.
That was is continues to be. I mean, it's is
really really remark arkable.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
But it all came from me saying, no, I'm not
I'm gonna quit. I don't if I can't do what
I want to do, I'm quit doing what I've been doing.
And I knew it was a risk, and I thought
and and I understood. Look, and I had to do
a lot of spiritual work at that time going because
trust me, my family, my brothers and my mother were like,
what is your major malfunction? It's just you gotta lane.
(21:22):
What are you doing, man, You're you're mentally migitating here.
They were like, why are you what you're you're you're
you're just your jackknife and yourself. What are you doing?
And I was like, no, no, I gotta do it.
And Camilla knew and I knew, and I got you know,
fortunate things came around, came back my way, and the
things I wanted.
Speaker 5 (21:39):
To do well.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
Sometimes you need two really huge things, one being the
confidence in yourself, uh you know, to be able to
do that, and when that confidence wanes, the confidence with
your partner to be able to say, okay, I'm I'm
I'm on this this this ride, you know, I'm I'm
I'm with you in that.
Speaker 5 (22:01):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
You know, I've always felt really, you know, really grateful
to have that as well. You know, because when i'm
when you make these choices, you know, I don't have
to tell you, you know, if you're, if you're if you're
in a strong marriage, these are choices that you're making
to a certain extent together, I mean, you know, and
(22:23):
and it's, uh, it really is great that you've found
someone that you're able to too, is able to you know,
be there in that on that team with you. That's
a that's super super cool.
Speaker 4 (22:36):
Well, she stood be up cool. She she stood me
straight up quite.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
A few times.
Speaker 4 (22:40):
And it was like reminded me of the night when
we made the decision and tears fell and she knew
sincere about it. She was like, we're gonna that, We're
not gonna We're not gonna let that the truth of
that moment get dusty. That was true, stick to it. Well.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
The other thing that I've always really admired about you
and I or let me just say, I could be
second guessing this, but this is what I feel about
myself and I see I think I see some of
this in you and that is that you have the
ability to take your work incredibly seriously, which you've proved
(23:22):
time and time again to us, but you don't always
take yourself seriously. And to me, this idea that we
have to like, I've always felt like I don't really
cared that much what people think about me. I'm really
(23:43):
more interested in what they think about the work. And
when it comes to me, you could just make your
decisions up. I mean, I don't mind poking fun of
myself or you know, being making an asshole of myself basically,
And I don't know, can you relate to that at all?
Speaker 4 (23:59):
Or yeah?
Speaker 3 (24:00):
Can?
Speaker 4 (24:00):
I mean, I'm to on two fronts, I think one,
I don't know if I can say I don't take
myself seriously. I do know that I take comedy seriously,
and I take the comedy of life very seriously, and
I take screw ups very seriously and I trust that
I'm gonna do them, and when I do, I'm like, Yep,
be serious about that hip fell on your face. Yep,
(24:22):
that didn't work out. I do take that seriously, so
that maybe helps me chuckle at that. I also know
this there, you know, the certain initiations in Hollywood and
they come for me. The one that came at year
seven ninety two, around ninety nine was something hit me
one day, and I think it was after Yeah, so
(24:44):
after I come in with day's confused time to kill,
I'm you know, on the cover of the magazines and
I'm a new leading man, et cetera, et cetera. Then
I did the few films in my so called star
drop a little bit, and a lot of the people
that were calling me twice a day wouldn't you back
(25:04):
after time, gil were not even returning my calls. People
that I had spent executives, I had spent holidays with,
I couldn't give them to turn my call. And it
personally hurt sure all those people, Like when I first
got to Hollywood, I remember telling my moms, I've never
heard people say I love you so much. I said,
(25:26):
I've said that to like five people in my life.
They say it all the time, der man, this place
is great. Well, then some of those people also wouldn't
return my calls, right, and I'm like, wait, but that
person says me, lovely man at the part they said
they looked me in the eyes that I love you,
and I meant something and I can't get to return
my call. But I had something hit me at year seven.
I was like, oh, you got to get the joke
in Hollywood. It's not personal, right, your business. So part
(25:50):
of that was not I think, leads into what you're
saying about not taking certain things seriously about what other
people think. And I had to get over the little
bridge of you know, being pissed off at them going
f you. You know what I mean. Now you're the
one who wouldn't turn my car. Because then when my
star went back up and I'm going, oh, now you
call again, I felt like I wanted to rub it
(26:11):
in a little bit and I was like, no.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
I don't do that.
Speaker 4 (26:13):
Be cool, be graceful.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
It's just businessman.
Speaker 4 (26:16):
Heroes back up.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Now.
Speaker 4 (26:17):
Of course they return the car. Actually they call you
take the ride as that man Don Phillips, who I
met that night in that in that bar, and Austin said,
want to give you the best advice I can give
you for success in this game. So what he goes,
lean horse long ride. He goes, it's going to do this.
It's going to do this if you can stay in
the saddle and just keep riding. Endurance can be your friend.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
People say, what's a secret to longevity. I say, there
is no secret to longevity. Longevity, he's a secret. If
you can, you can just hang in. Tell me about
green Lights before we get into just Keep Living Found,
which I'm fascinating, but I'm also interested in green lights
on your book.
Speaker 4 (27:03):
Yeah, so green Lights is h I finally got the
courage to say, you know, I've been writing. I've been
writing since I was fourteen. Journals and stuff and stories
and people in character approaches to life. I mean inherently,
I been waking up sometime every day in my life
(27:24):
since I was.
Speaker 5 (27:27):
Thirteen.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
Probably I've wake up with some sort of perspective of
measuring weight. What's the approach for greater satisfaction, greater residuals
in life, whether that's relationships, whether that's lay down good work.
The work will speak for yourself, it'll outlive you. You know,
just don't get you know those times when you get
(27:50):
heady out there and you're like, no, just do the work,
keep it simple, focus on whatever that is. I've been
waking up trying to think about how to be a
better person, better man, find more satisfaction, looking for myself, searching,
trying to find the figure out, you know, as close
as I came to the truth or if it's fiction,
let's just call it that and go with it. Green
(28:12):
Lights was came out of going back over all, the
having the curders to go open up those journals for
the first time in my life and go where's your
head and heart been over the last thirty years and
see if we can find some themes. And there were stories,
there were people, there were places, there were approaches, perspectives, philosophies,
there was prayers, there were poems, and I sort of
(28:37):
went in and found personal stories to launch some of
these approaches that I've tested and found worked that always
were paired with stories of things that I have, grand
plans I had that I thought would work, where I
ate shit and it didn't work, which kind of goes
back to what I was saying earlier. I take the
(28:58):
comedy seriously as well, because I can trust in it coming,
you know what I mean. And so that's basically what
the book is. It's I found that you can we
can engineer success, we can have a goal, we can willpower,
we can we can right we can write that headline
(29:20):
now and then work to go achieve it, to get
to the headline in a year or two. We can
engineer it. There's things we can do, there's habits. I know.
It's true. Also, half of my successes, which is a
lot more than I thought it was going to be
when I looked in the diaries and journals of mine,
(29:41):
over half of my successes were when I took a
risk and learned to fly on the way down where
it was not engineered. It was like I just I
was lost, took a risk and figured it out and
landed right in the bucket, hit the target, and it
was like, oh, you know, I had nothing to do
with plans or engineering, just went and followed inspiration and
(30:05):
and and listened to myself and put myself in places
where I can hear the truth land like a butterfly
and a lightning bolt at the same time in which
it does. And so it's about, you know, where we
can engineer them success and where it's just part of
the art of life is just dancing and and and
and letting the magic and the inspiration hit you the
right time and trusting in it to follow through on
(30:26):
it and go. That was true even though nobody else
may have.
Speaker 5 (30:29):
Heard it.
Speaker 4 (30:31):
Follow it, and that's that's a lot of we'green lined
about that sounds amazing.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Have you gotten responses already kind of you know, anecdotal
sort of responses for people who've looked at the book
and have reached out to you to to say that
it helped them in some kind of way.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
I have, and I think the most consistent one is
people that have come up and not just say hey,
I like your book. And people come up and strangers
and will stop me, put two hands on my shoulders,
make sure they're looking them in the eye, and go.
Your stories and the risks that you took are telling
me that my stories and the risk are matter, and
(31:07):
I'm taking more risk. I'm in this place in life
because I went shed that's right. He was talking to me.
I was in a similar situation, and I, instead of
taking the risk, I went, now I don't think I will,
and now I'm going to do that. That's been the
most gratifying thing is to get that reverb, that mirror
pop back at me with someone going thank you for
(31:28):
those stories. They made me feel like my stories matter.
They made me feel like I'm going to take a
greater risk tomorrow than I did today because of a
foolish fear of what happen. That's been the greatest compliment.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
That's amazing, because I mean, I you know, I don't
need to tell you, but it's when you hear somebody
have that kind of reaction to performance. It's one thing,
you know, thank you for making that movie, Thank you
for telling that story. That meant a lot to me.
Speaker 4 (31:58):
You know.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
I feel like I can only take credit to it
up to a point because somebody else wrote it and
it was a character and it was a mighty boat.
But if it's if it's your own book, it must
just be very very satisfying, gratifying. I mean, that's that's
that's a cool thing. So, Matthew, I want to bring
on Lei Claiborne, who is the director of program strategy
(32:22):
and community Impact for Just Keep Living Foundation, which is
based in Los Angeles, and I want to hear about
this great work that you're doing, and Matthew, how this
whole thing came together.
Speaker 4 (32:35):
So fifteen eighteen something years ago, I knew I wanted to.
I was always looking for a time and the best
way to give back. I've been raised in a family
where we had a pretty ritual ways to give back,
but now it's coming into my own success. It was like,
what do I want to do. I knew I wanted
(32:57):
to do something to prevent, prevent before you to cure.
I mean, there's a ten million great ways and means
to give time, philanthropy, et cetera. But I knew I
wanted to prevention for cure. So that led me to go, oh, youngsters, children,
And then I started studying from kindergarten on up what
(33:19):
are these young men and women need? And settled on
high school students because it became very clear that's the
last that's the last four years you kind of have
them where there's a principal, there's a parent, you've got
some responsibilities you got to take care of. As soon
as you graduate, you're on your own, you're independent, you're free.
(33:42):
And if you were screwing up in high school, which
you might have got a demerit for in high school,
you might be putting in jail for in real life
once you get out. So it was the demographic of saying, look,
this is the time to get young men and women
to if they're all on the wrong track, help me
get on the right track. If they're on the right track,
let's help them double down on that and see the
(34:02):
opportunity to stay on the right track for success in
the future. We settled in high schools. We then settle
on Title I high schools, which are the lower income
high schools that we found that needed it, that needed
some of this direction and support the most. I think
our first one leon wasn't our first one Venice in
la and then Hamilton, yep. And now we're in how
(34:26):
many schools.
Speaker 5 (34:26):
Forty four programs fifteen cities.
Speaker 4 (34:30):
Forty four to fifteen cities. So that's what we've done.
It's an after school curriculum twice a week for a
few hours where these young men and women voluntarily come.
Number One, what I did not know was an asset
of the program going in is that it's it's the
first safe place that a lot of these young men
(34:51):
and women have to go after school. They didn't that.
I had no idea that that would be an asset.
I did not even know that that was needed going
into this. The students let us know that the basis is,
there's a there's a there's a they come into set
goals there's a physical goal, whether that's I want to
make the soccer team next year. Right now, I cannot
(35:12):
run a quarter of a mile. Can you help me
get in shape try and make the soccer team, or
maybe proms coming up in three months. My sister and
I have one dress. I need to lose three pounds
to fit in the one prom dress by prom. All right,
we're going to help you meet that goal. There's nutritional goals.
We go talk to them and their parents. Hey, nothing
(35:33):
wrong with those five burgers from the fast food stop
last night. But look, let's take that same amount of
money and walk you through the supermarket in the produce section.
Some beans, maybe some meat if you want it. Spend
the same amount of money, have a healthier meal, and
get to cook it as a family in your own
kitchen together. Which we believe in that that family time
is really important healthy life choices physically, mentally, spiritually. Community
(36:02):
service has become a huge part of this this again,
I did not think this was going to be popular.
When we started to say, hey, let's let's let's let's
ask these children to give community, to give back to
their communities. I thought back to my high school years Kevin,
and I was like, I wasn't going to give you
a Saturday morning at four thirty am to go pack
for the make some some some packages for the troops,
(36:24):
or clean up a beach in Venice, or clean up
a highway, or go help out some elders. I wasn't
going to do that at four thirty in the morning.
One hundred percent of our students jumped on the community
service and still do today.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
Now amazing.
Speaker 4 (36:38):
What it is is, well, the lesson I'm getting from
that I think we can all give them that we
have to be reminded that everybody wants to be accountable.
Nobody really wants to free hand out. They want to go, oh,
put me to task, what what do you? What do
I gotta do for this? I want gives them ownership, integrity,
and the dignity. And I'm amazed at one hundred percent
and they still do sign.
Speaker 3 (36:59):
Up for for for.
Speaker 4 (37:01):
All the community service that we that we offer. So
those are those are some of the pillars. The final
pillar is gratitude, which is sort of the halo over
our foundation. The end of every curriculum, students sit around
and in the circle and say thank you out loud
to everybody, all their peers, in front of each other.
(37:23):
This is something that we practice in my family before meals.
So we tried it out with these young men and women,
and trust me, it didn't go well to start off with,
because to say thank you for something in front of
your peers in high school is not necessarily cool.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
Yeah, so cool.
Speaker 4 (37:38):
So I remember the first time we went around in
the circle and I was like, got to me and
I said, really thankful this program, and no, no, no,
and the next person goes thankful to Jayuliving program. The
next person said, well, I'm thankful to Juliving program. And
then we were like okay. After a couple of weeks,
no one was really speaking up about what they were
thankful for. They were kind of repeating what the person
from said. And I noticed that Camille and I noticed that, oh,
(38:02):
they're taking this as like it has to be something
very serious and dramatic. And I remember it's coming up
on Halloween, I think leon and it got to me
and I was like, man, I'm thankful. I'm gonna get
some candy Saturday night. And then I went, oh yeah,
I met and we're like, yeah, you don't have to
be thankful for something that's like don't dout do dumk,
And all of a sudden they started going, well, I'm
(38:24):
thankful I got a kiss from my girlfriend last week,
and I'm thankful this, and I'm thankful I'm feeling sexy today,
and all of a sudden they started to laugh. This
sort of the the pressure of what you had to
share to be thankful or came off. You'd be thankful
for something that's happy and easy, and what that did
is led to people weeks later and now sharing real
things that were really hard, like my my sister got
(38:49):
out of the hospital, my dad got a job. And
the best reaction we've heard of this think gratitude circle
is this student say their favorite thing about is they
are now hearing their peers say thank you for something
that they have in their life that they've always taken
for granted and never voiced thanks for. And that is
(39:10):
the reciprocity of the gratitude that I love about our
gratitude circle that we have in the program.
Speaker 3 (39:16):
I've seen it. I've seen it, I've watched the videos
of it in action, and it is a very very powerful,
simple yet powerful tool and leon you know, part of
what I'm trying to sort of highlight on this podcast
is is certainly the fact that there are actual famous
(39:37):
people who are trying to do something positive in the world.
But the other thing is the people who are behind
the scenes and on the ground and and and you know,
doing the the the hard work of of this on
a daily basis. And I'm curious from your perspective, I
think you said you've been was it seven and a
(39:58):
half years?
Speaker 5 (39:59):
You've been with seven half years?
Speaker 3 (40:00):
Yes, Yeah, which is a long time. What do you
think it was in your upbringing, or your childhood, or
just in your personality in general that drew you to
this kind of work, Because there's a lot of other
things that we can do other than you know, helping
other people.
Speaker 5 (40:21):
Yeah, I mean there's a lot of stuff I love
to do.
Speaker 6 (40:23):
But I always go back to this time I have
when I played Little League growing up in Ontario, California,
I had a chance to volunteer to help kids with
Down syndrome learn how to play baseball.
Speaker 5 (40:35):
And I'm like eight years old, I'm like, oh, I'll
do a mom whatever whatever.
Speaker 6 (40:38):
So then in that act of me teaching, like someone
who did it, you know, those simple fundamentals of swinging
a ball or running to your right the first base.
It kind of took me back a little bit, and
it's all and it's been something that's always kind of
been in me of like helping people that not necessarily
can do exactly what you do, but how can I
articulate my skill set to someone else so they can
(41:00):
do what I do? So that was kind of like
the leaping.
Speaker 5 (41:05):
Point for me.
Speaker 6 (41:05):
And then growing up, I was really instilleding to hip
hop culture and just be born rite break born with
is breakdances or elemented hip hop, and that's what was
my real kind of leaping path to get into teaching
inner city youth a skill set. So from there on
it just blew my mind and I was able to
teach the students how to use movement and rhythm to
(41:28):
tell stories right, and then I got leadership skills, started
running programs, and then twenty years later seven and a
half of the later years I've been with just keep Living,
and it's just been it's been awesome because it's always
been like that little bit of fire that was in
me at eight years old to teach kids how to
play baseball, to teaching someone my skill set and passion
for dance to turn into someone's mentor. It's just been
(41:49):
a crazy journey and it continues to give me the
fire too.
Speaker 5 (41:52):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 6 (41:53):
Everybody's always like, why do you keep doing this? You
know you're in the director level and saying, well, you
know what, When I get to go to these events
and get to experience students' first time experiences, that's.
Speaker 5 (42:03):
What gives me the fuel.
Speaker 6 (42:05):
Because there's so much work we still need to do
in the world. And if I'm able to play a
part to give them platform and have these students utilize
our resources, I'm all in.
Speaker 3 (42:13):
I'm all in, that's amazing. Can you do they still
have the opportunity to uh, to learn how to dance
for you or to learn some.
Speaker 5 (42:21):
Sim you know.
Speaker 6 (42:22):
Every now and then I'll pull a few tricks out
the bag, and I love it's a compliment, like a
day come days or whatever. So whenever I can't get out,
I do a crazy low hip hop dance workout. I
make sure I work out when we're not just teaching
you know, wow moves, we're actually working for it.
Speaker 5 (42:39):
So it's been great.
Speaker 1 (42:46):
If you are inspired by today's episode, please join us
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(43:11):
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Speaker 4 (43:19):
As you know, we can have a good idea and
everyone can agree on it, but if you don't have
the commitment and enthusiasm of the people that are there
day to day on it, it's it's not going to work.
That's what Leon, you seven and a half years. I mean,
you came in and you said, it's what fuels you.
You you don't you're not playing a part in the
(43:41):
service that you're given with these children and with the program.
I mean, it's you seem to love it. You seem
to He does refuel, does seem to refuel you? Like
I was saying, you're not putting on it. Leon's not
putting on a different hat when he shows up to
go like okay, let's go, let's go to work. He's
always on it and you know where's that? Where does
(44:02):
that come from? And then secondly, I don't know what
with stories. You've been there seven a half years. Can
you share a story or antidote of someone who came
in as a freshman and maybe it was maybe was
was wobbling and went out and now seven a half
years later they're doing something that the program and people
like yourself help them get on track to do.
Speaker 6 (44:23):
Oh yeah, man, Well, just just to answer the question
about fire, like, where does that come from? It's about
being a quality of service, right, There's nothing like how
is someone who's very passionate about something teach that to
you or show you that. I think that's what I
want to give these kids. Let them know like, hey,
I may not be your day to day instructor, and
(44:43):
I'm at this director level. I'm still here with you
and I can still give you a skill set and
still be passionate about seeing you do good. So I
think the students just want someone they can talk to,
listen to, a cheer them on, like I'm the student's
biggest cheerleader, you know what I mean. So, in regardless
of stories, oh yeah, there's one, and it will start
With our first program at Venice, we had a student
(45:05):
named Chris Rassinos. Oh, like, he's the ultimate jk L
student post a child for sure. So when he came
in he was a freshman. Like many they'll come for
like the free snack or you know, maybe they don't
have a gym membershi if they want to come lifts
of weights, and Venice is one of the.
Speaker 5 (45:21):
Schools that has actually access to a weight room.
Speaker 6 (45:24):
Not all our programs do, and that's why our curriculum
is really based on you don't have to have equipment
to work out, right, That's what we're really basing on.
But anyhow, you know, he would come once twice a month,
but he had this energy. He always was like, Hey,
I want to learn how to I want to learn
how to box, I want to learn how to do
more fitness. He was more focused on the fitness. So
the thing that I saw turned his life around was
(45:46):
he was already doing bad at school, right, but when
he went to this thing called campum Buntu that we
take all our high school kids to in Los Angeles,
flipped his mind, changed his mind. He really started to
understand what gratitude meant. He understand what like being transparent
man with taking risks man. And you know, it's one
of those things where you're either gonna rise in the
(46:07):
occasion or you're not. When you're in these camp settings,
right because you're amongst your peers, You're like, am I
gonna do this?
Speaker 5 (46:11):
Am I not going to do this? What am I
looking at here?
Speaker 6 (46:13):
So I would say after that first year him coming
going to that camp, he came back. He had a plan.
You know, he started to come to school more, we
saw more in the sessions. He started to really take
his fitness to a whole other level. And just to
fast forward a few years, his senior year, he started
really taking up boxing, like boxing was his thing. And
always when I was like, well, what is he gonna
(46:34):
do with that?
Speaker 5 (46:34):
Like how what is he? What is he really gonna
do with that? Like it's a great skill set about
what is he gonna do?
Speaker 6 (46:39):
And then little behold, not only did he become an
actual counselor at this camp that we were taking students
to called camp and butu so he was so at
the time when he was a counselor there, we were
already taking new students up and he was mintoring them.
So that was kind of like that broke the mold
right there for him. And then I'm like, hey, you're
still doing the boxing thing. He's like he made a
(47:00):
career out of it at actual his own business. So
he ended up doing classes out of us a place
in the West, LA where me and the whole just
Kipliver team we went and took his class.
Speaker 5 (47:10):
You know, we had a support We got to support
our youth.
Speaker 3 (47:12):
So he's doing training, training people.
Speaker 5 (47:15):
He's training he's training people.
Speaker 3 (47:16):
Wow, that's amazing.
Speaker 5 (47:18):
And during the pandemic he had his own business. He's
taking ladies out to the to the beach. Said, he's
doing this thing. You know, be it all COVID safe
at the time, doing this thing. But and he's still
so what's cool. Here, here's here's the here's the like
bring it all back right.
Speaker 6 (47:32):
So now we hire him to go to Venice, to
go to these other schools around LA to teach this
skill set that he learned a little bit in JKL
just got that dedication and level of just gratitude for
it and shaped it into a business. And now we
support him and he's just like awesome. He's he's literally awesome.
(47:52):
I still talk to him. I'm texted him all the
time trying to book them more. I want to I
want to put more money in his pocket, you know.
And that's what it's about. That's what it's about. That's
what this program it's about. It's about seeing the good
in our students, giving them the resources they're helping the
rise to the occasion and if we're able to bring
it back into the fold, there's always a way for
us to do that.
Speaker 5 (48:10):
So that's what we do here. Just keep living.
Speaker 3 (48:12):
That's that's such I mean, these are the stories that
that you know, we want to hear. And and when
when you when something comes around, that's like a double
full circle. You know, it's it's it's it's it's a
beautiful thing to hear. Uh. I know people listening would
love to know how to help out, how to get involved,
(48:34):
whether there's uh donations, volunteer ship, what we're how can
they besides just googling? Just keep living? I mean, who
knows what they'll get to give us, give us a
little ways that people can get involved.
Speaker 6 (48:47):
Well, yeah, I mean you could definitely follow us on
social media right at JK Livin.
Speaker 4 (48:53):
But no g on the essay, No g on the
end of living.
Speaker 5 (48:57):
No, G, it's a verb. Verb is at the boss
man says.
Speaker 6 (49:00):
Oh, but I would definitely say volunteers. Right, So if
you go to our website Jklebanfoundation dot org, you can
send us an email there and we're always looking for volunteers.
You know, our programs are required to do community service
two times a semester, sometimes more. And if we have
some volunteers that reach out to us and they have
a special skill set, not only can they volunteer at
(49:22):
maybe it's a water station feeding the homeless, but if
they have a skill set they could bring to the table,
like they might be a martial arts instructor or a
crust then we can figure that piece out. How do
we bring that skill set into our program because our
programs have the capital to bring in professional instructors.
Speaker 5 (49:37):
To teach a skill you know what I mean.
Speaker 6 (49:39):
So anyone who has a skill set that loves to
deal with high school students, and you know, high school
students know if you really are about what you talk about, right,
they love people who come in as passionate, and if
you're not passionate, then our program is a probably not
going to be for you.
Speaker 5 (49:53):
Because our kids really want people who live and bleed
what they're telling these students. Okay, and I will say internships.
Speaker 6 (50:00):
Were always looking to, you know, collaborate with organizations who
can provide our students with internships. Really summer internships. We
don't do too many summer programs. It's more spot data
events that we do, so summer internships would be huge.
So any organizations out there listening, please send us an email,
let us say what you do. We'll get all set
up and I'll see if there's a fit for us.
(50:21):
So for sure, volunteers, any city will do a volunteer
meeting and keep you in the loop on some things
that may be happening. And then any organizations that want
to partner and provide internships for or just keep living students.
Speaker 5 (50:34):
So that's a few ways.
Speaker 4 (50:35):
If there's also people out there, A lot of people
have come to us that go, I have a school
in my community that could use this curriculum and I
want to sponsor it or I'd like to partner with
y'all to sponsor it. We are open to that. If
you're anyone out there listening or watching that says, you know,
when I got a school in my backyard or near
that could use this kind of counts from curriculum.
Speaker 3 (50:59):
Let us know.
Speaker 4 (50:59):
We we are open to working in partnering with other
people too, and businesses to go. Yep, it's uh, what's
it run a semester thirty.
Speaker 5 (51:08):
Thirty well, thirty K for the whole year, thirty.
Speaker 4 (51:10):
K for the whole year, which is a basically paying
for that teacher on the ground. Every school curriculum has
a teacher on the ground in that school that is
sort of our all star that Leon and the rest
of the staff check in on and sort of, uh,
make sure that you know we're fulfilling the mission statement
within that school, but also also customizing it to what
(51:33):
that school needs.
Speaker 3 (51:34):
Yep, that's amazing. That's amazing. So it's a it's a
it's a it's it's a package that you guys have
developed that can be put into use in anywhere. I
mean right now you're in Los Angeles, right in in
southern California, but we're in thirteen thirteen states.
Speaker 5 (51:47):
We're everywhere.
Speaker 6 (51:48):
New York, we're in Nashville, were in.
Speaker 3 (51:53):
We started in l Yeah, sorry, right, it's it's you.
It's it's awesome. It's such a great thing that you
guys are doing. I thank you so much for coming
on this podcast and sharing it today and for your
time the amazing Matthew McConaughey and Leon Claiborne. The organization
(52:20):
is Just Keep Living and check it out and volunteer, donate.
These guys are making a difference. So thanks for being here, Fellas.
Speaker 4 (52:30):
Kevin, thanks for having us, thanks for chatting with us
and getting you give it a space talk about it.
Speaker 3 (52:36):
It's been fun.
Speaker 5 (52:38):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (52:43):
Hey, guys, thanks for listening to another episode of Six Degrees.
And if you want to learn more about Just Keep
Living and all the good work they're up to, head
to their website at Jklivinfoundation dot org. You can find
the links in our show notes, and if you like
what you're here, make sure you subscribe to the show
(53:03):
and tune in to the rest of our episodes. You
can find six Degrees wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 3 (53:09):
We'll see you next time.
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