Actor Matthew McConaughey keeps growing as an actor and artist, and it appears his kids are one of the main reasons why.
PEOPLE interviewed the iconic actor, who revealed how his children make him thrive. He's the father of Levi (15), Vida (14), and Livingston (11) with his wife, Camila Alves McConaughey.
In the revealing interview, he discussed how raising a family has benefited him professionally. It's an interesting take on the Oscar winner, whom we often know from movies but not his personal life.
McConaughey said, “Having children I know has made me a better artist and has made me a better actor, because kids see things for the first time all the time. Their questions are innocent. I became a better storyteller because I have kids, meaning I come home from work on something like True Detective, and my 4-year-old kid goes, ‘What'd you do today?' I cannot tell them what the show's really about; it's not age-appropriate. So I have to go into a parable for them.”
He details how it's helped him tell things better in acting, considering he has to improvise a bit with his children.
The actor adds, “And so I had to become a better storyteller to tell my kids about a good guy, a bad guy and a monster in this, to tell them the parable of the story I was in.”
Another interesting aspect of McConaughey is that he realized he had not worked on anything that his kids would really love.
“As you become a parent, what do you end up watching?” the star added. “You end up watching mostly what your kids are watching, and so I was like, ‘Man, I've never been a part of an animated film,' and I like doing voice work.”
So, he played Buster Moon in 2016's Sing, and his children thought it was “cool.”
The actor was one of eleven figures on PEOPLE Magazine's 50th-anniversary special. Other celebs include Dwayne Johnson, Reese Witherspoon, Drew Barrymore, Oprah Winfrey, Jennifer Aniston, and others.
Matthew McConaughey's Dazed and Confused line
Along with chatting about his kids, the actor discussed his famous “Alright, alright, alright” line from Dazed and Confused and how long it's stayed with him.
“I had no idea that that line would precede me for the rest of my life, and people ask me all the time, ‘Are you tired of that preceding you?' And I'm like, ‘Hell, no!' That [came] out of my mouth in a scene that I was never supposed to be in, that was never written,” he said.
Matthew added, “Every time I hear it, I'm like, ‘That was the first three words you said ever on film 30-something years ago.' I take it as a compliment.”
Matthew McConaughey had a lot more to say to PEOPLE in their special edition magazine, which is out on newsstands now.
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