Matthew McConaughey: Wrapped Up In A Bow 50:14

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So welcome back, everyone, for our very special Christmas episode of Let's Talk Off Camera. Joining me again, backed by popular demand, Mr. Holiday, Isaac Boots. Merry Christmas, darling. It's good to be here. Darling, darling, everyone loves Isaac Boots on this podcast. The podcast listeners demand more boots, more, more boots. Ha ha ha.

What are your plans? We have to look great for Pepsi Cola. We have to look great for Pepsi Cola. This is not an ad, I promise. What are your plans for Christmas this year? Well, I think the children and I... Don't get into it yet. No, I think we're going to go to Roma. Ciao, Italia. Oh,

Italy for Christmas is meant to be gorgeous. I've never done Midnight Mass at the Vatican. I think that would be a beautiful thing. And I'm excited too. I think you're going to have a divine time. I'm excited. And to be in Vatican City. I think it's really special. It's like...

I grew up Catholic. You grew up Catholic too. So there is something about it that feels like connecting to your childhood a bit. I cannot walk into a church at Christmas for Christmas mass. It's very interesting. No other masses have this effect on me except Good Friday. Like Good Friday, I get very emotional. And Christmas mass, I get very emotional. Yeah, I don't. Yeah.

It's the candles. It's the beautiful songs. Yes, it really is. It's nostalgic. It's very nostalgic. And I think it's a good time for people to get quiet and start a new slate and be thankful. Yeah, I agree. I agree. So do you have a Christmas song that gets stuck in your head? There's so many, I know. Go.

There are so many. Okay, this is so niche. Yes, I am. We like niche here. This is so niche. But Mariah Carey does a duet with her mother of O Come All Ye Faithful that is so...

Oh my gosh. And equally absurd. Yes. Because her voice is just, I mean, it makes no sense to me. It shakes you. And she goes way too high when you don't expect it to happen. It's really, it's like a bit jarring, but it is so amazing. Yeah. And I have to play it kind of on repeat. Yeah. I love it. You know, my absurd Christmas song is Hazy Shade of Winter. Yeah. Don't know.

Alright, bangles. I'm telling you, every time I hear that beginning. Time, time, time. See what's... I'm obsessive. I mean... And then it's like... Come on. Cowbell. Eyeliner. Yeah, it's so crazy. You know? And everybody's like, this is your Christmas music? I'm like, yes. Yes.

It's a great tune, though. It's a great tune, though. It's a great tune. Yeah, absolutely. Speaking of niche. I have to put that on my playlist now. Favorite holiday film? Well, Mommy Dearest, of course, darling. Of course, yes, Mommy Dearest. No Christmas Eve would be complete without that. And just so the audience knows, Kelly Ripa and I send texts to each other multiple times a week throughout the entire year that have to do usually with Christmas season and Mommy Dearest. So just saying. It is so true.

true. And also on Instagram, it doesn't matter what the post is. If you post something or if I post something, my response or Isaac's response is always in the voice of Joan Crawford. It has to be. Always. And I wonder like there are there's a handful of people that understand what we're talking about and everybody else thinks that we're just ill. Absolutely. In some way. Absolutely. I remember writing on one of your posts

It's just random. The great thing about the movie is you can pick any random quote and it'll always work. And she posted something, who even knows? And I wrote under it, damn it, Perino's is my place. And someone under it wrote, it's my place. I'm like, oh dear. Hey, hey. Somebody once angrily at tweeted me. They were like, why do you keep calling him Tina? Yeah.

Have you met him? His name is Isaac. And I was like, his name is Tina. His name is Tina. His name is Tina Darling. Okay. What Christmas-themed food is the grossest? Asks Jan Chalet. Oh. So many to choose from. I mean, yeah. Oh, what is that thing that people send? The fruitcake? Fruitcake. I never understood it.

I never really did understand it. Fruitcake can last forever, though. It's got a hell of a shelf life. Well, there's probably a reason. I think people were trying to get through the war. I think, I mean, I read something. Oh, you know what I really don't like? Actually, it's not a food, but I absolutely loathe eggnog. Like, with a passion.

I know. I love an eggnog. With a passion. I love an eggnog. I'm like, just give me the goddamn bourbon. Yes. You know what I mean? Right, yes. Like, why are we pussyfooting around? Right. But have you ever had homemade eggnog? I've been known to. Yeah. Homemade eggnog is, it's not that creamy stuff that coats your throat. Yeah, I can't with the creamy stuff. It's very nice. You know, my least favorite, you know, I grew up,

Having to go to my aunt's house for the Feast of the Seven Fishes. Doe's Fishes. And my aunt cooked with the passion of a woman who was being held with a gun to her head saying, cook these smelts and stuff them with carrots and serve them to children. Oh my God. And so we would sit there and try to pick around. You know, even the pasta, even the pasta was like with olive oil and some sort of

herb that now as adults we love, but as children we were like, it's got all this red juice when we push on it. Then don't push on it. Exactly. We're going to keep slipping into Mommy Dearest for every... There's no other option. Sorry. There's no other option. Favorite holiday ornament? You've got some good ones. Okay, I have to say, every year I have a gathering Christmas party where my small circle of girlfriends, this is for like 20 years now,

Everyone brings one gift that we do a sort of trade. And you have to bring an ornament. So we have years of these gorgeous, gorgeous ornaments. But a lot of them are offensive and ridiculous. Yes. And absurd. Best kind. And my favorite one, there's a toss-up. One, of course, is...

Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford. Yes, the best. Mommy dearest. Circa Christina Chadwick's years. Oh my gosh. Looking very stern. The other is a picture of Madonna's booty under the Christmas tree, which is very iconic. It's a hit. Tis a hit. Tis a hit. Tis a hit and it looks damn good, I have to say. Yes. And I always have it on the top of the tree. Yes. You know, um,

My friend Richard Esposito, who we go back from all my children days, who was the hairstylist, who became Alec Baldwin's hairstylist at 30 Rock. And so Richard and I go back since 1990. That's when I met him. And we've been friends for all of these years. And when Mark and I got married every year...

He sent us a silver bell with the year etched on.

on it every year for Christmas. That's so sweet. And ours came, like it always comes before Halloween. Every year it comes before Halloween. A silver bell with the year etched on it. And so we have 29 years of these bells from Richard Esposito. It's so beautiful. That's amazing. Yeah, and you can see some of them are like... That's really thoughtful. Yeah, it's the most thoughtful. And once in a while, one will go missing and I'm like,

Where's 2011? He's like, I was asking myself the same thing. I'm like, where did 2011 go? And everybody's like, I don't know. It was here when I banged it away. Okay. I thought I would begin today's episode with replaying Isaac's and my very favorite scene from our very favorite movie. Christmas film. Mommy Dearest. A lot of people wouldn't typically consider this a Christmas film, but to us, it's a Christmas film.

This is a Halloween film. Absolutely. Easter Sunday. This is an Easter Sunday film. Valentine's Day film. And any birthday, of course. Every birthday. And of course, Mother's Day. Yes. What Mother's Day would be complete without that? Without that. Okay. So this is our favorite scene. We will act it out. I will play the interviewer and Christina. Can we add real quick? Yes. That she was my matron of honor. Yes. We have to add that.

Can we add that? We are burying the lead that when Isaac and Jeffrey got married and I married them, that Faye Dunaway, a.k.a. Mommy Dearest herself, was Isaac's matron of honor. Matron of honor. Pull up the pictures. Pull up the pictures. Everybody needs to see the pictures. It is true. And I have to say, she was so lovely and gorgeous and, of course, so sweet. She was 10 minutes late, but...

But I'm not shading her. I wanted her to be because, you know, we grew up idolizing her and she's old Hollywood. And, you know, it has to be a little spicy. There was buzz. There was buzz. There was buzz. And my one request was that everyone in the wedding party wear white. And I get a text from Miss Faye Dunner, who I'm very close to for like 15 years now. And the text reads... It's the best text ever.

I apologize for my tardiness, but your all-white demand is extremely challenging. Will a crew do? I said, your Miss Faye Dunaway wear whatever the hell you want. And she ended up looking very, very chic. She looked very chic. It was a creamish, acrid crew. Will a crew do? Will a crew do?

- So what did she think you wanted, bright or white? You're not the bright Rose. - Your all white demand is extremely challenging. - Very challenging. - I love it. - Okay. - All right, here we go. - Here we go. No report on Christmas would be complete without a description of how one Hollywood family spends this holiday.

So now, let's all hop on our imaginary sleigh and whisk away to the home of one of America's foremost actresses, Ms. Joan Crawford. So very happy to have you with us, George. This is my daughter, Christina. Hello, everybody. And my son, Christopher. Hello. Hello.

All of America knows of your generosity in adopting these two homeless children. And might I say to all of our listeners, they're beautifully behaved. Thank you. I feel that discipline mixed with love is such a good recipe. Christina, do you and your brother get lots of presents at Christmastime?

Yes, we do. Mother's fans send us so many things, but we like to share them with other boys and girls who aren't so fortunate. Miss Crawford, could you tell us what will happen after we leave you this evening? Well, the children and I will probably sit and watch the Christmas tree lights, and then later we'll welcome some of the children's friends to help us sing Christmas carols.

And surely you'll finish up by reading Twas the Night Before Christmas. No Christmas Eve would be complete without that. Well, as a special Christmas present to our listeners, would all of you like to say the last two lines? And I heard him exclaim as he drove out of sight, Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

And good night to you, Miss Crawford, and thank you for allowing all of us to share your Christmas Eve. And thank you, George. And Merry Christmas to you and to all your listeners. That was a bravo. That was incredible. That was a one-take, Tina. I mean, we watched it, God damn it. Now I want you to enjoy one of my favorite Why Am I Doing This Like Joan Crawford.

Yes, yes, exactly. Now I want you to enjoy one of my favorite and most revealing episodes. We made a lot of news with my investigative journalism skills. Take a listen to my interview with Matthew McConaughey. And Merry Christmas to everyone. And to Matthew, I'm still on standby waiting to administer the DNA test.

Hello. Howdy, Kelly. Hi, Matthew. How are you? I'm doing pretty well. I'm happy to say that. I'm looking at the background, so I'm going to set the scene. It looks like you are in the House of Congress. LAUGHTER

No, Megatourism. I'm in my office in Austin, Texas. No kidding. I have a Texas flag and an American flag in the background. Two flags I very much appreciate. And just some books and stuff from the library in the background. But those look like fine leather bound books. Those look like real books that like big people read. Oh, they are not. No.

Matthew, we all loved your book. And congratulations, by the way. It's the gift that keeps on giving. Do you have any books that you've read that struck you the way Greenlight struck the world? Og Mandino's The Greatest Salesman in the World. Oh. Wow. Oh, yeah. Well, that was a fast answer. Yeah.

I don't know if I'd be sitting here talking to you without that book. That book found me. It was one of those mystical things that found me at a time when I was searching. I was in college. I remember it was my sophomore exams in college, and I was a big studier. I had made straight A's. And for whatever reason, this day, I went to the fraternity house. I had an hour and a half before my exam, and I went to my buddy's dorm room. I'm sitting there, and I opened up my books to study. I was like, Mekhi, you got this.

Don't study anymore. First time I've done that in years. So I was like, okay, I love sports. I put on the TV. I put on ESPN. I'm flipping through. For whatever reason, this day, I was not interested. I turn off the TV. I look over to my left. There's a stack of magazines.

Sports Illustrated, Playboys. For whatever reason, I just flipped through them like, nah, I'm not interested. Well, about eight magazines deep, I looked down and there was this white paperback and a beautiful red cursor writing that said, the greatest salesman in the world. And I picked that up and I was like, well, who the hell is that? And I started reading. Forgot about my exam completely. Got to the end of the first chapter where it tells you like what to do for the rest of the book and how many times you got to read it a day, et cetera. I took that book

And it was mine. I went and read it that afternoon and then that night and did what it said to do. You read each chapter three times a day. And it gave me the courage to go, you know what? I don't want to go to law school anymore. I want to go to film school. Wow. I'm sure you would have been an incredible lawyer. You know, at this point, you are a lawyer. Let's face it. You've played a lawyer.

I'm glad I get to go play a lawyer for five months and then quit. I'm glad I made the decision to come to storytelling business. Towards reform. It just doesn't seem like a lot of fun. I like my vocation now. Yeah, we like we like it, too. I want to talk really quickly before we get into anything else.

I read that you and your wife were on this terrifying Lufthansa flight. It dropped, what, 4,000 feet, 7,000 feet, something? Captain said it dropped 4,000 feet. What does that feel like? It's suspended disbelief. I mean, it's zero gravity. You know, your red wine...

and the glass and the plates that your food was on are all suspended, floating still just in the air. And to look at it for that long, which wasn't that long with one

two, three, four, boom. And then everything just comes crashing down. Yeah, it was a hell of a scare. A complete loss of control. Your complete 100% feeling of I am not in control. I have no way to get control of this situation in the moment. Did you look at each other? Did you say anything to each other? Right after, yes. I mean, it actually, my trade table is what held me down. I did not have my seatbelt on.

and there was not a seatbelt warning right before it happened. Yeah, I just immediately reached over, made sure Camilla had her seatbelt on, held hands there, just saying, okay, is that it? Is there another one coming? Another one did come. It was odd. You hear people's reactions. Some people were ghost silent. Some people had...

big burst of laughter. And it was not like, oh, this is fun. It was like, I've just got to deal. I'm in shock. And then, you know how it is on a plane. If you see the flight attendant not looking extremely confident, you're like, uh-oh. You're right, you're right.

It's the only place my eye goes, the flight attendant. Always. Right? So we had to reroute to Washington Dulles that night. I was on my way to Vietnam, actually, which I finally did make it. But yeah, it was the hairiest flight I've ever had by far. And I'm assuming your kids were not on the flight? No, they were not.

So thank God for that. You know, you can't help but put yourself in the position of you and Camilla, right? The two of us would have, like, we would have assumed that this was it. This was the end. And we would have been glad that we were together, but we would have been filled with sorrow that we couldn't say goodbye to our kids and...

Is the will updated? And who did we leave our kids to again? Like all of that comes into your mind, right? Well, I didn't project that far ahead. I didn't do that much math. Now that you say it, I think most of that stuff is in line. I also, as a person who's not a pilot, my mind goes to the actual engineering of the plane.

the steel and it buckled and you go, how can something withstand that? I happen to have a friend of mine sitting next to me who was a pilot. Wow. He was calm as could be. He was like, and I was like, can the plane hold that? And he was like, these things are so tested that yes, don't worry about the plane. Structurally, it can hold that. That was a big relief. Do you always fly with your own pilot just in case? Now on, I always have my own pilot.

The wife to the left, the pilot to the right. You know, people always say God is my co-pilot. Matthew's like, no, my co-pilot is actually my co-pilot.

I did check and I was like, if something's wrong, can you fly this thing? And he was like, no problem. No problem. And I was like, great. Love to hear that. That is a valuable friend. Albert, we got to talk. We have to talk. I'll give you a parachute. Albert would access the emergency exit, whether it was needed or not. And just, we would all get sucked out one at a time. Now, your friend, Woody Harrelson, whom I love and adore.

And when I think about a great bromance, not to interfere with the bromance you have with your co-pilot, but when I think of a great bromance, I think of you and Woody Harrelson. And Woody said during his SNL promo that you were his weed guy. Are you his weed guy? Because I think of him as his own weed guy. You know, you're thinking clearly. Yeah.

I think Woody's his own. It's another W. Woody the Weep. Yeah. Woody's pretty self-sufficient. You know, you've worked together. I love the two of you in True Detective. It kept me awake at night. It was truly a terrifying, thrilling...

television series. I enjoyed the series too. I kind of miss it. I do too. You're working on something else together? Yeah, so it's called Brother From Another Mother. I love it. It's amazing. And we, you know, where I start and where he ends and where he starts and I end has always been like a murky line. And that's part of our bromance, right? My, you know, kids call him Uncle Woody. His kids call me Uncle Matthew, et cetera, et cetera. And you see pictures of us. And

My family thinks a lot of pictures of him are me. Right. His family thinks a lot of pictures of me are him. And in Greece, a few years ago, we're sitting around talking about how close we are and our families and et cetera. And my mom is there. Yeah. And she says, Woody, I knew your dad. Oh, yeah.

Oh. Stop the presses. Now, does everybody lean into this statement? Everyone was aware of the ellipsis that my mom left after "new." It was a loaded K-N-E-W. Well, we went on to unpack this what "new" meant.

Did some math and found out that his dad was on furlough at the same time that my mom and dad were in their second divorce. Then there's possible receipts in places out in West Texas where there might have been a gathering or a meeting. Uh-huh.

or a new moment. - So have you done any of these DNA tests? - This is what we're on the precipice of now. Look, it's a little easier for Wood to say, "Come on, let's do it!" Because what's the skin in it for him? - Right, right. - It's a little harder for me, 'cause he's asking me to take a chance to go, "Wait a minute, you're trying to tell me my dad may not be my dad? I'm 53 years of believing that? I got a little more skin in the game."

Anyway, so we're doing a series about our families. It's based on truth. Woody always shows up unannounced. Yeah. Never comes to the front door, shows up unannounced. How the hell he finds me, I don't know. He showed up at my place out of nowhere, showed up. I noticed it was him when he was in the bed with me and my wife. Climbed in seconds to where he came in through the balcony, all right, as Wood does.

It's not the third time you've done that, okay? So one night turns into two nights, turns into three nights, turns into, hey, mind if I park my bus? You got a nice size property here, which turns, you can borrow the extension cord and hook up that, oh, how about the cable TV? How about the satellite? Hey, what's your code on this? And all of a sudden his whole life started to creep into my home. You had a Harrelson encampment. Oh yeah. And where Woody and I are the best of friends,

We have different approaches in how we raise our children and how we go about certain things. I may be a little more organized on some certain things. And this is a story about, it's a love story about us, he and I and our families coming together and the conflicts and comedy that come with that. I cannot wait. Like, I can't wait. I would like to volunteer my services to administer any and all DNA tests.

Maybe that should be part of the show. I definitely think Auntie Kelly should come over. Oh, yes. Just for, you know, just with a swab. Just with a swab. I'll do a quick swab. We don't even need to swab Woody. We'll just steal, we'll steal like his toothbrush or something out of the minivan. It's connected to a bamboo handle. Of course it is.

He whittled it himself. Yeah, yeah. Is it like goat hair or something? It's definitely not the bristles that most of us have on our mouth. It's some bio-organic, some kind of goat hair or something. Yeah, it's something like that. So I was telling Albert, who's here, who just turned 50, about you writing your book, Greenlights. You started when you were 50, writing that, correct? Yeah, yeah. And you went off...

into the desert or the woods by yourself? Desert. Desert. And you stayed hunkered down there with your journals because you're a prolific journaler. Yeah. When you went back and started reading your journals, what did that reveal to you? Well, there were quite a few things. I've been thinking about similar things in life. I've been thinking about things similarly since I was 15 years old.

Have my thoughts evolved? Yes, they have. But boy, the same things that interested me then sort of still interest me now. There was stories, poems, prescribes, prayers, ways that I noticed I had engineered success in my life by choices and I could measure, oh, you did this. It adds up. There

There was a trail. There was also mystical green lights, as I call them, successes I've had that had no reason. They were just rhyme. I was in the right place at the right time, met the right person, took the right opportunity. Boy, if I'd have caught that red light instead of that green light back there, I wouldn't have met that person and may not be here today. Because, you know, it's all a mystery. Our life's a mystery going forward. It's a science looking back. We can look back at all of our years and connect the dots.

But when we're in those mystical moments, we're like, this makes no sense. I don't know what's in this for me. I'm lost. And you find out, no, actually, that led you somewhere. I went back and a lot of the stuff I did and thought and believed, I was quite embarrassed about. I even had some shame.

for a lot of things. But then after I given myself no option to be with anything else than me and my past 50 years of journaling stuck with me and my past, I started to laugh at some of those things. Yeah. So to forgive myself for some of those things. So

started to say, oh, that same, that thing you wrote at 16, you're still working on that today. Okay. So I started to connect, gave my history a little lineage to where I am now. And so I put those in the book. There's a lot of stories. There are prescribes, poems and prayers, et cetera. There are methods and processes. I think there is a science to satisfaction. There are ways we can engineer success and satisfaction in our life. There's also an art

to live in, which is more that mystical sense of that comes with some wisdom of being able to make call the audible along the way. And it may not make sense or take the risk at a moment where you're like, I don't know where this is going, but I'm taking it anyway. There's also times where taking the risk is not making a move at all that I found can sometimes work. And that becomes the art of living for all of us. And when you talk about like having shame,

I find that shame is one of the things that gets people hung up. When they cannot forgive themselves, when they cannot let go, when they are mired in shame, I find a person that is unable oftentimes to move forward. And so how did you like turn, say, the red lights in your life into green lights? Well, as I said, I forgave myself for some of it and noticed that some of them, some of the things I was ashamed of,

I said, "Oh, well, you have amended that in the last 30 years. You did update your iOS between your ears and your heart, McConaughey. Okay, good. You did evolve." I noticed somewhere, I was like, "Oh, you're still a repeat offender there, buddy." So is that just who you are?

Or do we need to amend this and say the buck stops here? I'm not going to do that anymore. And that's what so many people ask me about after putting the book out is like, what do I do with a red light in life, a crisis, pain, loss, or the dead end? Doesn't make sense. High uncertainty. And part of it is trusting that there is a gift or a lesson in that red light. And that's where it eventually turns green.

So, you know, I think in life, you know, the yellow lights in our life are the most like life because you have a choice. You can either put the pedal to the metal and blow that son of a bitch and go, I'm not giving that crisis credit. Or you can slow down and go, you know what? I need to take a pause here. I need to heed the caution. I need to change my ways a little bit. Take some inventory, look over my shoulder and figure out why I keep stepping in the same pile of shit.

And if you do that, you slow down. What do you literally end up at? You end up at a red light where you have to stop and be with yourself and go, okay. What's your percentage when you're at the yellow light? Do you tend to speed up or are you more of a slow down kind of guy? Well, so I was raised as a blow through every yellow light. Don't give anything crisis. You trip, get up, dust yourself off, keep going.

So I was raised as a big repeat offender. I step in the same pothole every time around the track. So what I've tried to do is go, hey, I've done that 50 times. I was raised to just get up, be resilient and go. Wait a minute. What if I pause and go, oh, there's that hole. So when I make that turn, go wide instead of come on the inside, I don't step in the same damn hole again.

So I think I've gotten more considerate than I was raised to be. And I do a little more inventory on my life and my past than I was raised to do. At the same time, I admire a certain genius that my mother has.

of just denying red lights and she's not shallow she still has pain but she's just like immediately and i think that's the that's the spot for all of us not not do we deny a red light but how quickly do we admit all right i don't know what the hell it is but i know there's a gift in this for me

I'm going to deal with this crisis, but I'm believing that there's a light on the other side of this tunnel and it's going to be great. But your mom, she's from New Jersey, right? Is she originally from New Jersey? She's actually from Altoona, Pennsylvania. Altoona. Trenton, because she said, who would want to be from a place called Altoona? So anybody from Altoona out there, that's my mom and her words. But she spent time in New Jersey? Yes. She was Miss Trenton. Oh my gosh, she was Miss Trenton. Holy cow.

It was a big deal for her. So, you know, what's so fascinating, because I think that your parents sound like a lot of parents. We all are of similar ages here in this room. And I say, I always say that's 70s parenting, 70s parenting where they're like,

Get up. Keep going. You're not bleeding. You're fine. You know, how many times were you told you're fine? Yeah. Rub it. It's not a bruise. So what impact? And this is like, to me, so fascinating that your parents married each other three times. What? Yeah.

Did that tell you, like, what is the message in that? Yeah. The main message is that love won in the end. They were divorced twice, married three times. Yeah. Well, all right. Then the love that can't live without you beat the can't live with you. Yeah. Three to two. Right. That's what I take from it. And also, yeah.

They were wild. They were, it was a wild ass love affair. Yeah. And they, that's what my mom to this day would say. That's what she wanted and needed. She doesn't like a relationship that's a smooth running stream. She likes the roller coaster. Yeah. That's what she gets off to. Yeah. And it's awesome. It's not for me, but the love was never in question in my family or the love was never in question between the two of them.

Even in those divorces. Now, mind you, I didn't know. They didn't tell me they were in a divorce, the one that I was alive for. I thought mom's on an extended vacation down in Florida. And I was just living with dad at the trailer park in East Texas. Not till later was I told, oh, that was a divorce. And then not till a few years ago was I told, oh, that's when she met and knew Woody's dad.

Woody's dad. It never gets old. They were wild. Yeah, they were wild. They were wild. And in the end, the love won. You've heard all the buzz about micro laser fat removal at Sono Bello, right? It's remarkable how in just one visit, your stubborn fat is gone permanently. Once a year, Sono Bello invites listeners to their exclusive summer savings event featuring their best pricing of the year for a limited time only. Approximately

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Yeah. So you couldn't say the word hate. I got my first butt whooping for saying I hate you, Pat, to my brother. And I only heard that word at school and I wanted to sound like I was a little bit older. So I said it at my own birthday party.

Of which my mom stopped the birthday party and gave me a whooping in front of all my friends at my birthday party. Again, listeners, this was the 70s and this was like normal parenting. And I was not, I was never injured. I was never abused. It was how they, it was, I don't blame them for that. Of course. There was, you couldn't say can't.

I remember, can't was like a really dirty word. I remember there was a morning I had to get up and mow the lawn on Saturday morning for my chores. And I went out and I had to start the lawnmower and I wouldn't start. And I came in and my dad was in the kitchen. I said, dad, I can't get the lawnmower started. And he got up, just calmly grabbed him by the arm, walked. We walked out of the kitchen, through the garage, around the backyard to the lawnmower. He tried to start it, didn't start. He got down, tinkered with it, got out the toolbox,

fixed it, whatever, 10 minutes, pulled it, it started. And while the lawnmower was running, he walked over to me and squatted down, looked me in the eye and he goes, you see, buddy, you were just having trouble. And what he was saying, what he taught me then was like,

Even if you're unable to do something, you can go find help sometimes. So you're still just having trouble. So can't, hate, and don't lie. Oh, you couldn't lie. So when we were punished for lying, saying I can't, or saying I hate, what we were learning was, well, I guess I'm supposed to do the opposite of that. Now look at the antonyms of those three words. The antonym of hate is love. Right.

The antonym of can't is I can or I'm having trouble. And the antonym of lying is tell the truth, be honest. So it was an indirect way of teaching us constructive and valuable values. And to this day, I mean, I still practice it with my kids. C-A-N-T is a word we don't allow for those same reasons. H-A-T, it's a big...

Big word. People throw that around loosely. And we're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. That's big. Do you understand what you're saying? To lie and own up to the truth. If you let me know now, you're going to be in a whole lot less trouble than if I find out you were lying later. Come on. And plus, whatever it is you're lying about, I bet we've done it before. Yeah, right. You know what I mean? Yep. So that's what those words meant. We got in trouble for those words which taught us to, well...

Do the opposite, which are three very good, valuable words. Do they have chores?

Do they keep journals? Are you instilling the things that were so instrumental in your, I would say, success overall? Trying to. Yeah. You know, they all have chores. And then at the end of each week, we get together and then we all sit down and say, how do you think you did? Let's go over them. And they'll go over, oh, I forgot to make my bed on Wednesday morning. Hey, but I remember to feed the dogs every time. And I pick up

poop and da, da, da, da, da. And then they say what they think they should get. And then we take a consensus from the brother and sister. What do you think that's fair? And then we pay out our allowance. Journaling. My eldest is starting to journal. My daughter's journaling. They don't have it as a practice yet. Like a daily practice. It's hard because they're in school. So they have to do so much schoolwork. Journaling almost feels like a punishment at the end of the day. Yeah. Or we try to say though, you know, even before you get your day started,

Even if you just lay there and read for an extra five, 10 minutes, it says your alarm early or before you go to bed, just to kind of go through what tomorrow is going to have, what you plan to do with tomorrow. You sleep better, can have you get up a little more composed. It's a form of meditation, even if they're not writing it down. But I'm big on writing things down. I mean, no one likes to write things down anymore, but I think it's a lost art and one that should be resurrected.

If I even write down my to-do list, not on my laptop, but if I write it down on a buck clip and have it next to my bed or what I'm doing tomorrow, just to look at it and know that it's there, I sleep more soundly. Yeah. Knowing, yep, I see what I've got tomorrow and it's super fun to cross them off the next day.

Yeah, I'm a big fan of the written word. And I agree with you. I think it's a lost art form. But if anybody can bring it back, it's you, Matthew. You can bring back the lost art form. Let me ask you another question about Woody's kids' chores. Now, do they have chores at your house? No.

Yeah, Uncle Wood. I don't know if they have children. I don't know if they do. I'm sure they got some. If he's not making them do it, then Laura is. Why? Because here's the problem. When your kids get together... Right.

If those kids don't have chores, they will tell your kids, you know, you shouldn't have to do this. You're just a kid. Well, you know, obviously we go through some of that and we're going through it now where you can be friends with this person, but understand that we have different expectations and you have different responsibilities than maybe they do. We talk a lot about delayed gratification.

Okay, your friends are coming over. Get those chores done now so you can have free time, freedom to play when they come over. But get them done now so you're buying yourself a green light in the future so I don't have to pull you out of the pool or pull you out of the park to come back and do your chores. And that's going to suck if we've got to do that. So right now, while you kind of don't have anything you're really doing, get it.

Yeah, smart. What about, you know, you have 14, 11, and what are your... 14, 13, 10. 14, 13, and 10. Okay. So 14 is a really interesting age for boys. 14 to 17 for boys to me is the most interesting age. Yeah. Whereas girls become fascinating from like 11 until 21. Like really interesting. Like it's a real high energy time. Yep. Do you have...

those talks like the birds and the bees talks and how does a parent do that now because I feel like the times have changed a lot over the 10 years since we've done that great great question you know I don't want to talk out of school on my son because I would need to get his approval of course but

He did come to me with questions about that. And you know, as a parent, there's certain questions that our kids have for us that we know, the light goes off, oh, this better be a good answer because this is going to be branded in them. You know, this is how they're going to actually see life going from here. And the book today for the birds and bees talk is different. You sure as hell don't want to go online and type something up. Who knows what you're going to get fed there.

Right. So I went back. It's a story in my in my next book about what this talk was. But I had an hour and a half. I ordered particular things, books, and we sat down and went through them together.

And I shared stories of awkward times early and the expectations that I had that didn't work out, you know, from the question of like, well, you know, when you go in for a kiss, do you turn your head left or right? There's not a science to it, buddy. And guess what? My first kiss, my lip got hung up on Amy's braces and I was hung there. It did not go well. You know what I mean? I had a bloody lip coming out of it. So these things, and I remember my dad,

Talking to me and I remember he and I shared this with my son, but he said a very very cool thing He goes you're gonna come a time. You're gonna get have some intimacy with a woman if you feel her Stop. Mm-hmm. Yes, and if you stop sometimes

After you stop, she may go, okay, well now let's go. And he goes, don't go further. Say, hey, if we get back together and it's all just flows and goes further, great. But that's all for now. So your dad was ahead of the time. He wasn't ahead. I guess that would be ahead of the time, but it was, it was, it was very wise thing to say. And I think it's, it's, it's, it's ideal for,

any intimacy. It's a great blueprint. Yeah. If both people are just flowing, if it's all green lights, you go as far as it's comfortable. But if you feel someone tense up, it's like, hey, we got time. And when you're young, that happens, you're like, I'll never be here again. And it's hard to say, oh, let's pause. But that's also...

Part of what my mom tried to instill with this is make sure you respect yourself enough to go, hey, you know, we don't have to press it right now. We can wait and wait until it just, if it unravels and flows all naturally later on, that'll be better for the both of you. Yeah, thinking about it now, Albert, when I think about my kids, we had two by green light and one by yellow light. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

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Yeah, it's called the Art of Living event. It's on April the 24th. I'm going to do it for free. I've never done anything like this. It's going to be myself, Tony Robbins, Dean Graziosi, Trent Shelton, and Marie Forleo. And we're going to get under the hood of green lights for four to five hours with you. So please sign up. You can go to artoflivingevent.com. Again, Tony and Dean came to me.

and said how much they appreciated the book Green Lives and how much it was an approach book, an approach to life book, right? And they said, look,

We'd like to dig under the hood and define how this is a process book, how this can be transformational for people and even more particular for individuals to see, oh, you're giving me tools to the process of the science of satisfaction, which leads to the art of living. And so that's what we're going to do. We're going to define those things and try and make it more granular so more people can understand, oh, that's how I can particularly apply it in my life.

And that's what we'll be doing on April 24th. That's the thing. People don't have the tools. We're not given the tools so oftentimes in our lives. So we walk through with whatever impacted us, whatever was blueprinted on us as children, and we get stuck in there. And if you can just develop the tools. So it is, I just want to say it again, artofliveinevent.com, April 24th.

I'm going to sign on. Please. I'm logging in because this has been a really fun conversation. For me too. I mean, look, and especially now, we're coming out of a universal three or so years of disruption. Everyone's affected in some way. We were all in some form of limbo.

and uncertainty for at least three years. And now we're coming out where we can kind of make some bets, reform some trust, renegotiate the path forward, regenerate and restore some tried and true tested values that worked in the past that should go with us in the future. But we still got to adapt because it's a new day. We still got to update the old iOS between our ears. And now's the right time to do that.

And hopefully this course and how we're going to get into the process is going to be some tools for how to get solid steps going forward and write the story, help write the story of our own lives. Will Uncle Woody be stopping by to the event? Do you know? I sure hope so. Like I said, man never comes to the front door. He doesn't have a schedule. So who knows?

I love you both so much. I really do. Thank you so much for joining us. Really appreciate it. My pleasure. Thanks. I enjoyed it. Matthew McConaughey, everybody. All right, man. Go write that book, Albert. He's going to write it. He's going to write it. Well. Well. I mean, he didn't disappoint. Let me tell you something. Dear listeners, we could have potentially uncovered a mystery here. Oh, my God.

I think you need to get over there with a swab. You got to get that toothbrush, girl. Get that toothbrush. I'm going to get that wooden, hand-carved...

Hand-stitched toothbrush of Woody Harrelson's. Rotten toothbrush. We're going to swab McConaughey, and we're going to figure out who's related to him. Oh, my God. Wouldn't that be amazing? It would be insane. It would be the greatest. He's like, I have the receipts. There are receipts.

I love it so much. I love that he comes over and he's like, can I park my bus here? And then he starts hooking everything up to him. I love that his mom was Miss Trenton. That's crazy. I mean, how great is that? That's really big. That's big. That's a big deal. Yes, Trenton's huge. My cousin was Miss Bridgeport Speedway. Not to brag. It's a smaller pageant, but it was still something.

Also obsessed with the words that he wasn't allowed to say. What words did you have? Any words you weren't allowed to say? We weren't allowed to say the Lord's name in vain. Oh, yes. Ever.

We weren't allowed to use foul language, which I know must shock my parents when they hear me now. They must be like, she's a pirate. Oh, also hate. We couldn't say we hated. Wow. Hate was a big word. That was a big, big, big word. Wow. You heard what he said though. Yes. Albert, he wants you to write. I heard. I know. I'll think about what that book is. Go off to the desert. Go off to the desert.

Albert will go to Palm Springs. We'll never see him again. I'll be with Kelly in Palm Springs. He'll be on a lounge chair with his martini set. We're supposed to be writing today, aren't we? Yeah, let's... What do you want me to say? Albert, tell me about yourself. Kel, get your iPad. I'll sit there with my iPad. And this is what I sound like, everyone, when I type. Ready? Shit. That's how fast it goes. That is the speed with which I type. And you know what you're going to hear from me in the background? What?

That would be the sound of a martini shaker. Yeah.

Well, everyone, I hope you're happy. I hope you're happy with this episode because this episode deserves its own Peabody Award. I'm nominating us for a Peabody Award. I agree. We need the Matthew McConaughey Let's Talk Off Camera show to be nominated because we revealed and uncovered a mystery on this podcast. I can't wait to see that TV show. Must see Appointment Television.

So everybody, listen to the latest episode of Let's Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa on Amazon Music and make sure to follow us. Let's Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa is a co-production of Melojo Productions and PRX Productions with help from Goat Rodeo. Our theme song is Follow Me from APM Music.

From Melojo, our team is Kelly Ripa, Mark Consuelos, Albert Bianchini, Jan Chalet, Devin Schneider, Michael Halpern, Jacob Small, Roz Therrien, Seth Gronquist, and Nick Ribula. From PRX Productions, our team is Cara Schillen, Genevieve Sponsler, Megan Nadolski, Edwin Ochoa, Rebecca Seidel. Additional sound design by Terrence Bernardo.

The executive producer of PRX Productions is Jocelyn Gonzalez. This show is powered by Stitcher.

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