The Hollywood Outsider – Film and Television Podcast | Reviews An award-winning film and television podcast for the fan in all of us
Alright, alright, alright…you really have to admire Matthew McConaughey. Not because the man has the chiseled features of an Adonis, not because he seems to be the only actor alive that has managed to perfect the Southern drawl. No, you have to admire McConaughey for doing what so few actors have been able to do – He has completely reinvented himself.
With all due apologies to Dazed and Confused fans, McConaughey burst into the spotlight with his scene-dominating turn as Jack Brigance in A Time to Kill. After a few initial stabs at agreeably dramatic fair, McConaughey dropped into Johnny Generic roles in movies like Failure to Launch, Fool’s Gold and Ghosts of Girlfriend’s Past. His stock in Hollywood began to plummet, when apparently something snapped in Matt – The Actor.
Beginning with The Lincoln Lawyer, McConaughey started taking roles that challenged him, roles that took him far away from the generic hero or sexy southerner he had portrayed in every other film. Killer Joe, The Paperboy, Mud, Magic Mike, True Detective and, of course, culminating with this past year’s stellar turn as Ron Woodruff in Dallas Buyers Club. Not a one of these roles were calculated for maximum ‘Box Office’ potential, they were choices that the actor felt he could breathe new life into, that his heart was invested in. These roles reinvented McConaughey from the charming stud coasting to varied success in bland romantic comedies, to the roaring ACTOR McConaughey can now lay claim to, from spending too much time with Kate Hudson to shepherding a Christopher Nolan opus.
Which makes you think, what other actors could make this change? Who else out there has been coasting on the same repetitive path like our Matty did? Of those actors, who COULD make this kind of change? This list is not just of actors that were fading, there are some legitimate players that are just in danger of falling into McConaughey’s previous path.
Here are the top 10 actors who could DEFINITELY pull a McConaughey…
10. Channing Tatum
A former model, Channing Tatum has emerged the last few years as a minor Box Office titan through his various ‘safe’ roles as in The Vow, G.I. Joe and the 21 Jump Street films. The actor is one of the more charming and amusing actors working today, yet he continues to play it relatively safe.
Some would argue that is all he can do, or that he has not done enough to qualify for this list. NONSENSE! This guy is multi-talented and has almost 10 years of work behind him, therefore was an easy pick for this list. Watch his small but pivotal role in Side Effects, or even the under-appreciated Haywire, and you will see that Tatum has serious acting chops. Unfortunately, he does not seem to want to commit to them and instead prefers playing Joe Hero, gliding along the easier and more commercially viable path.
Not only does he have the acting skills, he has the likeability factor. This is a guy who, much like McConaughey himself, could play the most treacherous of leeches and you would still find yourself, deep down, rooting for him. Time to take a chance, and hopefully Foxcatcher is only the beginning.