Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#103
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Matthew McConaughey represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 33 years in, and Matthew is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Matthew McConaughey appears in 55 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Matthew. A drawl used as misdirection, hiding some of the most exact screen acting of its decade. Interstellar is the clearest case: a film rated 9.4 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for tv movie, documentary, crime. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Paul Greengrass, Shawn Levy, Garth Jennings and others, Matthew McConaughey helped set a standard other performers now audition against. 1 Academy Award confirm what the films already argue.
Interstellar (2014) as Cooper · Interstellar (2014) as Cooper · The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) as Mark Hanna
Career snapshot
Ranked #103 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
55
1993–2026
Career length
35 yrs
Active since 1991
Academy Awards
1
Competitive wins
Oscar nominations
1
Career total
Highest Nutevio score
9.4
Interstellar
Average Nutevio score
6.5
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.7
Interstellar
Most frequent director
Garth Jennings
4 films together
Longest collaboration
4×
With Garth Jennings
Most common genre
Drama
30 titles
Average runtime
1h 58m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
1
Career total
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.2
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
7.4
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
2010s
6.9 average MV
The 2010s are where the work and the material meet. Serenity, Between Two Ferns: The Movie, The Beach Bum — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
6.9
Across 20 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2010s
6.8
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
2010s
1 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Serenity, Between Two Ferns: The Movie, The Beach Bum.
Most productive era
2010s
20 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.97 films | 6.25 films | 6.916 films | 3.52 films |
| Action | 6.11 film | 6.15 films | 6.32 films | 7.82 films |
| Thriller | 6.02 films | 6.13 films | 6.35 films | 3.52 films |
| Comedy | 6.06 films | 6.18 films | 6.66 films | 7.65 films |
| Sci-Fi | — | — | 9.41 film | — |
| Crime | 6.82 films | 6.52 films | 7.05 films | 3.92 films |
| Romance | — | 6.15 films | — | — |
| Horror | 4.61 film | — | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
Career begins
1991Working from 1991
The start of the professional record — years before the catalogue picks the story up.
First film in Nutevio
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Wooderson.
First Academy Award nomination
2014Dallas Buyers Club
Best Actor — the moment the industry started writing the same sentences our editors had been writing.
First Academy Award
2014Dallas Buyers Club
Best Actor. Confirmation rather than revelation, which is how the best of these usually arrive.
First Nutevio masterpiece · Highest rated performance · Career peak
2014Interstellar
The first film here to clear 9.0 on our scale — a threshold fewer than one film in ten reaches. 9.4 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer. Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
The current state of the argument, as Amziah King.
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
55 of 55 films
as Cooper
Directed by Christopher Nolan
as Cooper
Directed by Christopher Nolan
as Ron Woodroof
Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée
as Buster Moon (voice)
Directed by Garth Jennings
as Mark Hanna
Directed by Martin Scorsese
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Showing 24 of 61 titles · 67 total credits · active 1993–2026
A CNN & Variety Town Hall Event: Timothée Chalamet and Matthew McConaughey
2026 · Self
The Rivals of Amziah King
2026 · Amziah King
Brothers
2026 · TV · Matthew McConaughey · Executive Producer
Bear Grylls is Running Wild
2026 · TV · Self
The Lost Bus
2025 · Kevin McKay
Deadpool & Wolverine
2024 · Cowboypool (voice)
Sing: Thriller
2024 · Buster Moon (voice)
Agent Elvis
2023 · TV · Elvis (voice) · Executive Producer
Sing 2
2021 · Buster Moon (voice)
Roll Up Your Sleeves
2021 · Self
Come Home
2021 · Buster Moon (voice)
The Gentlemen
2020 · Michael Pearson · Producer
One World: Together at Home
2020 · Self
Disclosure
2020 · Ron Woodroof (archive footage)
Serenity
2019 · Baker Dill
Between Two Ferns: The Movie
2019 · Matthew McConaughey
The Beach Bum
2019 · Moondog
White Boy Rick
2018 · Richard Wershe Sr.
The Dark Tower
2017 · Walter O’Dim
Kubo and the Two Strings
2016 · Beetle / Hanzo (voice)
Sing
2016 · Buster Moon (voice)
Gold
2016 · Kenny Wells · Producer
Free State of Jones
2016 · Newton Knight
The Sea of Trees
2016 · Arthur Brennan
The defining work
#1
Cooper
Interstellar (2014)
Performance score9.7
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Cooper gives Matthew McConaughey a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Cooper
Interstellar (2014)
Performance score9.2
Interstellar asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Cooper is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Ron Woodroof
Dallas Buyers Club (2013)
Performance score8.5
Dallas Buyers Club asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Ron Woodroof is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Buster Moon (voice)
Sing 2 (2021)
Performance score8.3
Sing 2 asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Buster Moon (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as Cooper
Start here. Interstellar is the clearest statement of what Matthew McConaughey does — accessible, 169 minutes, and rated 9.4 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Matthew at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.
Dallas Buyers Club (2013)
Keeps the drama register of Interstellar but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
Keeps the drama register of Dallas Buyers Club but asks for a colder reading of it.
Interstellar (2014)
Keeps the drama register of The Wolf of Wall Street but asks for a colder reading of it.
Sing 2 (2021)
A deliberate change of key after Interstellar — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Garth Jennings
Director
4 films together
Notably Sing 2
Richard Linklater
Director
3 films together
Notably Dazed and Confused
Christopher Nolan
Director
2 films together
Notably Interstellar
William Dear
Director
1 film together
Notably Angels in the Outfield
Herbert Ross
Director
1 film together
Notably Boys on the Side
Kim Henkel
Director
1 film together
Notably The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Howard Franklin
Director
1 film together
Notably Larger Than Life
Joel Schumacher
Director
1 film together
Notably A Time to Kill
John Sayles
Director
1 film together
Notably Lone Star
Steven Spielberg
Director
1 film together
Notably Amistad
Robert Zemeckis
Director
1 film together
Notably Contact
Ron Howard
Director
1 film together
Notably EDtv
Jonathan Mostow
Director
1 film together
Notably U-571
Adam Shankman
Director
1 film together
Notably The Wedding Planner
Bill Paxton
Director
1 film together
Notably Frailty
Rob Bowman
Director
1 film together
Notably Reign of Fire
Donald Petrie
Director
1 film together
Notably How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
Paul Abascal
Director
1 film together
Notably Paparazzi
D.J. Caruso
Director
1 film together
Notably Two for the Money
Breck Eisner
Director
1 film together
Notably Sahara
McG
Director
1 film together
Notably We Are Marshall
Andy Tennant
Director
1 film together
Notably Fool's Gold
Ben Stiller
Director
1 film together
Notably Tropic Thunder
Mark Waters
Director
1 film together
Notably Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
William Friedkin
Director
1 film together
Notably Killer Joe
Lee Daniels
Director
1 film together
Notably The Paperboy
Jean-Marc Vallée
Director
1 film together
Notably Dallas Buyers Club
Martin Scorsese
Director
1 film together
Notably The Wolf of Wall Street
Gus Van Sant
Director
1 film together
Notably The Sea of Trees
Gary Ross
Director
1 film together
Notably Free State of Jones
Stephen Gaghan
Director
1 film together
Notably Gold
Travis Knight
Director
1 film together
Notably Kubo and the Two Strings
Yann Demange
Director
1 film together
Notably White Boy Rick
Harmony Korine
Director
1 film together
Notably The Beach Bum
Scott Aukerman
Director
1 film together
Notably Between Two Ferns: The Movie
Steven Knight
Director
1 film together
Notably Serenity
Guy Ritchie
Director
1 film together
Notably The Gentlemen
Shawn Levy
Director
1 film together
Notably Deadpool & Wolverine
Paul Greengrass
Director
1 film together
Notably The Lost Bus
Anne Hathaway
Actor
1 film together
Notably Interstellar
Michael Caine
Actor
1 film together
Notably Interstellar
Jessica Chastain
Actor
1 film together
Notably Interstellar
Casey Affleck
Actor
1 film together
Notably Interstellar
Wes Bentley
Actor
1 film together
Notably Interstellar
Topher Grace
Actor
1 film together
Notably Interstellar
Mackenzie Foy
Actor
1 film together
Notably Interstellar
Ellen Burstyn
Actor
1 film together
Notably Interstellar
John Lithgow
Actor
1 film together
Notably Interstellar
Bill Irwin
Actor
1 film together
Notably Interstellar
David Gyasi
Actor
1 film together
Notably Interstellar
Timothée Chalamet
Actor
1 film together
Notably Interstellar
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Garth Jennings
Director
4 films together · 7.4 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 4 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Sing 2Richard Linklater
Director
3 films together · 6.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Dazed and ConfusedChristopher Nolan
Director
2 films together · 9.1 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
InterstellarMartin Scorsese
Director
1 film together · 8.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Wolf of Wall StreetJean-Marc Vallée
Director
1 film together · 8.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dallas Buyers ClubShawn Levy
Director
1 film together · 7.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Deadpool & WolverineGuy Ritchie
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The GentlemenTravis Knight
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Kubo and the Two StringsRobert Zemeckis
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ContactJoel Schumacher
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Time to KillPaul Greengrass
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Lost BusBill Paxton
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
FrailtyMcG
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
We Are MarshallDonald Petrie
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
How to Lose a Guy in 10 DaysSteven Spielberg
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
AmistadGary Ross
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Free State of JonesJohn Sayles
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Lone StarBen Stiller
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Tropic ThunderStephen Gaghan
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
GoldJonathan Mostow
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
U-571William Friedkin
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Killer JoeYann Demange
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
White Boy RickHerbert Ross
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Boys on the SideGus Van Sant
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Sea of TreesRob Bowman
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Reign of FireD.J. Caruso
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Two for the MoneyMark Waters
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Ghosts of Girlfriends PastRon Howard
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
EDtvWilliam Dear
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Angels in the OutfieldScott Aukerman
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Between Two Ferns: The MovieBreck Eisner
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SaharaAdam Shankman
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Wedding PlannerAndy Tennant
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Fool's GoldHarmony Korine
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Beach BumHoward Franklin
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Larger Than LifeSteven Knight
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SerenityLee Daniels
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The PaperboyPaul Abascal
Director
1 film together · 5.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
PaparazziKim Henkel
Director
1 film together · 4.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Return of the Texas Chainsaw MassacreSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Recognition
3 wins
2 wins · latest 2015
Interstellar
Dallas Buyers Club · as Actor
1 win · latest 2014
Dallas Buyers Club · as Actor
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
Interstellar
as Cooper
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Dallas Buyers Club
as Ron Woodroof
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Interstellar
as Cooper
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Disclosure
as Ron Woodroof (archive footage)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Interstellar
as Cooper
If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.
In their films' words
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Matthew McConaughey has known it for a long time.”
“Do not go gentle into that good night.”
“Murph, I'm coming back.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
| Nutevio Performer Score | 8.4 | 9.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Career ranking | #43 of 681 | #1 of 681 |
| Awards on file | 2 recorded | 3 recorded |
| Oscar wins | 1 | 1 |
| Oscar nominations | 1 | 5 |
| Average Nutevio score | 9.4 | 9.1 |
| Genres | Sci-Fi, Adventure, Drama | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, History |
| Directors | Christopher Nolan | Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese |
| Performance DNA | Screen presence, Drama, Physical performance | Transformation, Drama, Screen presence |
| Career timeline | 2014–2014 | 2006–2026 |
| Most iconic role | Cooper — Interstellar | Odysseus — The Odyssey |
| Most rewatchable film | Interstellar | Interstellar |
| Filmography | 1 catalogue film | 4 catalogue films |
Films together
Interstellar
Shared directors
Christopher Nolan
Shared collections
Top 100 Mind-Bending Movies, Christopher Nolan Movies Ranked, Best Time Travel Movies, Adventure Movies, Sci-Fi Movies, Best Space Movies
Collaborators in common
Christopher Nolan · Anne Hathaway · Michael Caine · Jessica Chastain · Casey Affleck · Wes Bentley · Topher Grace · Mackenzie Foy
Matt Damon edges ahead here — a higher floor across a comparable body of work.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
33 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Editor's Icon
Awarded
Named by our desk for a body of work we return to when we need to explain what screen acting is for.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Drama Legend
Awarded
30 catalogue titles in drama, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
Interstellar
as Cooper
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Interstellar
as Cooper
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Sing: Thriller
as Buster Moon (voice)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Interstellar
as Cooper
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Interstellar
as Cooper
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Reign of Fire
as Denton Van Zan
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Sing: Thriller
as Buster Moon (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Interstellar
as Cooper
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
Across the library
Every Nutevio collection this name turns up in, and how high they rank there.
Collection footprint
Appears in 9 Nutevio collections
Keep reading
theme
Top 100 Mind-Bending Movies
Features Interstellar at #1
Read the collectiondirector
Christopher Nolan Movies Ranked
Features Interstellar at #1
Read the collectiontheme
Best Time Travel Movies
Features Interstellar at #1
Read the collectiongenre
Adventure Movies
Features Interstellar at #1
Read the collectiongenre
Sci-Fi Movies
Features Interstellar at #1
Read the collectiontheme
Best Space Movies
Features Interstellar at #2
Read the collectionFrom the magazine
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Community
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