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Matthew McConaughey is sharing the key to making his marriage work.
During a recent interview with Digital, the 56-year-old actor spoke about his new film, “The Rivals Of Amziah King,” which arrives in theaters on Aug. 14, and the biggest lesson he learned that has contributed to his decades-long marriage.
“You got times where one seems to be affirming and sprinting ahead,” he said. “And you got times when somebody else may be a little more insecure or a little more unstable on their feet about their choices and what they’re doing.”
He explained that when in a relationship, it is important to “try not to get too much of a gap between those two” stages.
Matthew McConaughey shared the biggest lesson he has learned that has helped his marriage. (David Parry/PA Images via Getty Images)
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“Is there a way to go, ‘I’ll slow down so you can catch up, or ‘You slow down so I can catch up a little bit?'” he added. “Not asking you to not be in the lead because I want you to be in the lead because when the fire’s hot, keep it burning. Go, go, go, go, go. But just keep me in arm’s length over here. Keep me in arms length.”
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McConaughey and Camila Alves got married in June 2012, six years after they first met in a nightclub in West Hollywood in 2006.
Over the course of their relationship, the couple has welcomed three kids together; sons Levi, 18, and Livingston, 13, and daughter Vida, 16.
In his new film, also starring Kurt Russell and Cole Sprouse, the “Dallas Buyers Club” star plays Amziah King, a musician, beekeeper and pillar in his community in Oklahoma, whose life is turned upside down when his former foster daughter returns as he is also dealing with threats to his honey business.
Alves and McConaughey share three children together. (Rick Kern/Getty Images)
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While the actor grew up in Texas rather than Southeast Oklahoma, he was able to relate to his character in the movie, as “it’s got a lot of the same characters in it” as he saw growing up.
WATCH: Matthew McConaughey says new movie characters remind him of people he knew growing up in Texas
“There’s a lot of people in a lot of places all across the United States where music is how you communicate, it’s how you survive, it’s how you keep belief alive, it’s how they keep hope alive, because if you look at logic, and you look at the facts every single day, all we got to do is look at the news,” he said.
“Oh, that doesn’t do a lot for keeping your belief and hope alive. If anything, it puts a damper on it,” he added. “So music and belief are like, ‘Hey, we’re gonna play through the struggle. We’re going to sing through it. We’re gonna dance through it, we’re going to say that any time is a good time to put you in the spotlight and say, you’re on, go.'”
McConaughey told Digital he had the opportunity to play the instruments himself and sing in the film, noting, “singing and playing at the same time is not as easy as I thought.”
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McConaughey plays instruments and sings in his new film. (Robby Klein/Getty Images for IMDb)
The actor shares that “musicality” is important to him in all his roles, saying, “There is a rhythm for every character,” and while he always has “a set of djembes in my trailer,” he found that when singing and playing at the same time, “my hands couldn’t keep up with my mouth.”
“It’s a very musical character and I actually got to play and sing in this and that was a hell of a lot of fun,” he said. “And I had a lot of help from the real musicians that were there.”
“The Rivals Of Amziah King” hit theaters on Friday, Aug. 14.
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Last week, McConaughey and Alves were photographed meeting Pope Leo XIV at St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City.
The actor and his model wife grinned during the moment, which took place during the pope’s weekly general audience.
The actor has been in Italy filming his new Netflix movie “Positano.” McConaughey stars in the movie alongside Zoe Saldana.
The Texas-born movie star has been open about his faith over the years, and has even published a book called “Poems & Prayers” in 2025.
McConaughey told Digital he felt “a little nicely anxious” about meeting the Pope.
“Yeah, as the man in the world that represents most cleanly the moral aperture and judgment. What an awesome position,” he added. “And, you know, the Pope has had different amounts of power through the history of time in politics. There were paintings there where… actually the kings in the past came to kiss the Pope’s feet for the blessing, you know what I mean?”
Last week, McConaughey and Alves were photographed meeting Pope Leo XIV at St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City. (Simone Risoluti – Vatican Media via Vatican Pool/Getty Images)
The movie star noted that the Pope is still “the moral compass,” which he says is “really important, especially… as politics has gained so much power and popularity and has been sort of our fulcrum for which we look at, for almost where our values come from. Politics is part of the values of whether you want to call it religious or not.”
“He noted that while there’s a separation between church and state, there’s still “values of politics” that “need to come down through certain religious aspects, I believe. And they’re even built on those in some way. Yeah, I understand law is separate from belief or values, so to speak, but they’re always going to be intrinsically aligned and should be in some way,” McConaughey said.
“And it’s something we’re going through now. We’re trying to figure out the standards of A.I., you know, what are the morals and ethics and the values that we need to set as a standard within A.I. – that’s becoming this new power and platform and tool in our lives,” he said.
When asked what he talked to the Pope about, he said, “That’s between he and I.”
