Matthew McConaughey: Headbutting stars and naked bongos

Matthew McConaughey burst into the limelight in 1996 with his role as the young lawyer Jake Brigance in the legal drama A Time to Kill. His enigmatic cameo in John Sayles's Lone Star the same year cemented McConaughey's reputation as an old-fashioned leading man in the Paul Newman mode. Since then his choices have been diverse: the sci-fi film Contact, Spielberg's Amistad, the submarine adventure U-571, and The Wedding Planner with Jennifer Lopez, which was a box office hit despite the lack of chemistry between the leads. But the irreverent Texan – who featured in gossip columns over a fling with Sandra Bullock and a spot of naked bongo drumming that landed him in jail – is very much his own man. For his latest, the 32-year-old goes way over the top as a bug-eyed, cigar-chomping "dragon slayer" in the futuristic monster flick, Reign of Fire.

Why did you want to play a dragon slayer?

Man, it sounded like a helluva lot of fun. And I'd never dealt with fiction before. Everything I'd done was rooted in some sort of historical character, or some occupation that had a lot of structure to it. This didn't. I thought, let's just use our imaginations and have a blast. Slaying dragons and saving the world from extinction sounded like a hoot.

Your look in the film – shaved head, tattoos, muscles: was that your own idea?

Yeah. I had a dream about my character, Van Zan, in which he was bald with a beard, and the next morning I shaved my head. Then I went out to my ranch and got in really good shape. I was doing everything from wrestling with cows to throwing hay bales on to trucks to boxing and running. I got lucky, genetically, to have a body that can hold that kind of muscle.

Do you have a girlfriend at the moment? What did she make of your scary appearance?

The women whose opinions I appreciate actually liked Van Zan, they found something kinda cool and sexy about him. But I must say they like it now I've got my hair back on my head.

That's quite a good way of avoiding naming a girlfriend.

I'm good at that, aren't I?

That fantastic fight between you and Christian Bale in which you head-butt him – apparently that was real.

Yeah. It wasn't meant to happen, but in the heat of the moment ... God bless Christian, he stayed with it, didn't stop the fight. He's a tough bloke. After the fight he had an egg on his head.

Hollywood likes to stereotype its stars. But you seem to be quite non-conformist.

Yeah, it does try to package you. OK, you can have great success that way. But it also pigeonholes you and puts a time-line on that success, because you can't do the same thing forever.

In fact, after A Time To Kill you were being sold very much as Hollywood's new leading man.

And believe me, the roles I chose after that ... no one wanted to see me. They wanted to see another Jake Brigance. Heh, I like cleaning up, looking sharp and taking care of business, being "the leading man". But I wanna go and play that guy I just met on the street corner too.

Does that attitude annoy agents?

It keeps them guessing.

Being Texan seems to be very important to you.

It's sort of an honour to be Texan. There's a pride that comes with it. Texas is the one state that adds a bit of incentive for independence. It's in the South, rooted in tradition, but it is not blind to progress.

Do you still live in Texas?

Yeah. My ranch is five hours west of Austin.

Do you spend much time there?

When I can, usually before and after a film, I go there and hang out. I have one guy who looks after it, but when I'm there my brother and I ranch it. We've got horses, cows, goats. It's not too much work, to be honest.

You used to live in Austin. What's your standing there since the nude bongo incident?

If anything, it's better. It was unfortunate at the time, but looking back it was hilarious, actually.

So it's true that you were playing your drums in the nude when the police arrived and arrested you?

Yes. I was just minding my own business. One of the things I like to do is play music and play the drums. But I had the window open, it was too loud and it was 3am and I was waking up the neighbours. Anyway, I refused to go with them and I wouldn't put my clothes back on. But in the jail an inmate talked me into putting some pants on. He was the only one I was trusting at the time.

What about the rumours that you were high on drugs?

There was talk of there being marijuana and stuff, but that was a blown-up thing. The police screwed up coming in, because they didn't have a warrant, so then they tried to blow it up and find a reason. The judge just said it was a laughable case. People starting showing up with T-shirts saying "bongo naked".

So what did you learn from it?

Shut the window.

Sandra Bullock calls you "The Mayor of All Good Time"...

Yeah, she did say that.

Was that after the bongos?

That was before, during and since.

Did you go out with her?

She and I have dated. And we are still close. It's more friendship now.

I heard you helped to save someone's life recently?

I was doing a television interview, and suddenly there was this thump – the sound man had passed out on the floor. He was having this seizure, turning blue. I tried to get his mouth open, tried to get hold of his tongue, but he just clenched down on my thumb. So I asked someone to get me a shoehorn and I ended up working it in between his teeth. Sort of gagged him until he came to. Same thing happened here in Toronto. Had to give a lady mouth-to-mouth.

Are you trained in this?

No! I mean, I know what to do. I've had basic training in first aid. But it's happened twice in a year. I'm just glad to be there.