Phew buddy, that was a good one.
The always iconic Matthew McConaughey was a recent guest on the Lex Fridman Podcast (a personal favorite of mine) and as you can imagine, it was as great as it was deep and inspiring.
The two Austin, Texas residents ran the gambit on everything from love and death, to aliens and AI, to principals and morals, to politics and movies and beyond, stringing the seemingly unrelated topics together in a stream of consciousness that is well worth the listen.
But of course, the topic of McConaughey’s casting in a Yellowstone spinoff had to be brought up, especially as uncertainty looms around the original series.
Filming for TV’s most popular show was halted halfway through Season 5, with the majority of public blame being put on Kevin Costner, who confirmed this season would be his last, had his wife file for divorce, and got in a spat with creator Taylor Sheridan, allegedly over the filming schedule, although Sheridan found himself in hot water with Paramount over reported excessive spending.
Despite this very bumpy road, the network still says Season 5 will be finished, but there’s been no announced timetable and it appears the conflict is ongoing.
Basically it has been a little while since Yellowstone fans have gotten some good news, that is until McConaughey chatted with an MIT researcher, computer programmer, and jiu jitsu black belt.
Lex went straight to the heart of it, asking him how he feels about the “Cowboy ethos” at the core of Yellowstone and other Taylor Sheridan shows, to which McConaughey replied
“I admire the simplicity of it… One way you can explain Yellowstone and Costner’s role is “What would man do to protect land and family?” … There’s a cowboy ethos that deems trespassing more clear, earlier, than other hats. I admire that simplicity of right and wrong.”
Lex responds by saying that simplicity does not always correlate to the law and Matthew replies
“No, it’s above the law… The law ain’t handling this, I am. And then it is, the law’s not going to handle this, therefore I am. And then it is, I’m handling this. Law? Talk to them when you get to them, I’m handling this.”
The conversation then evolved to a conversation of if humans are less evolved than we give ourselves credit for (Which McConaughey believes), Lex saying that the cowboy ethos is one step toward admitting that with Matthew nodding in agreement.
If there were any questions if McConaughey can live up to the role, let them be put to rest now. Not only does he recognize what is required to play the part, he unquestionably already lives part of it in his own life, in his own way.
The entire conversation is phenomenal and I can’t recommend giving it a listen more highly. When two of the brightest, most unique minds on the planet sit down to sort things out, it’s well worth our time to pay attention.