Academy Award-winning actor Matthew McConaughey called on the country’s leaders to leave entertainment to celebrities during Utah Gov. Spencer Cox’s final “Disagree Better” event as chair of the National Governors Association on Friday.
McConaughey, a philanthropist and advocate for being “aggressively centric,” told the group of around a dozen governors and several hundred attendees at The Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City that they needed to find out how to sell a politics of hope instead of the fearmongering that fills airwaves and too often the halls of Congress.
“The extremes on the right and left, they have the microphone. It’s more entertaining,” McConaughey said during a conversation with Cox and NGA vice chair Colorado Gov. Jared Polis. “This 60% in the middle where we do agree on the basic values ... we got to take the mic back.”
The actor, known for his leading role in movies like “Dallas Buyers Club,” “Mud” and “Interstellar,” joined Cox to talk about the role of culture in polarization as part of the NGA summer meeting. The event has seen appearances from former Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse and scholars discussing the success of the governor’s “Disagree Better” initiative.
The schedule on Friday revolved around a visit from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy which included the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Utah and Kyiv Oblast.
What did McConaughey say about ‘Disagree Better’?
McConaughey confirmed on Friday he is interested in possibly seeking elected office in the future. But before the entertainer decides whether to trade the red carpet for public service, he said elected officials need to remember they’re not on a movie set.
“I’m in the entertainment business — our leadership and leaders don’t need to be in the entertainment business,” McConaughey said to a round of applause. “You know when you see me in a film that it’s basically fictional — I’ve read a script, I’m playing a character. That’s not the role that the leaders of our nation need to be playing.”
Real leadership is not casting the other side as the enemy or perfecting talking points to undermine a caricature of their policy views, McConaughey said. Instead, it’s getting onto the field (one of McConaughey’s many football analogies) with players from the other team and negotiating from a place of mutual understanding.
This means that real leadership requires real disagreement, McConaughey said. But that can be a good thing if the goal is longterm solutions instead of short term political gain.
“We’re not having real confrontation right now. If I invalidate your position off the bat that’s a lack of courage on my part right out of the gate — that’s not good confrontation with somebody,” McConaughey said.
At the root of the problem is that marketing successful negotiations is more difficult than cutting a quick ad for partisan pugilism, according to McConaughey. “Fear is easier to sell than hope,” he said.
“We’re all, right now, caught up in short term, short money wins. And so we come to the table, and we argue and we call each other names,” McConaughey said. “I want to hear more vision from our leaders rather than just ‘I want to do the opposite of what they want.’”
Why was Matthew McConaughey in Utah?
The governor’s tenure as NGA chair, beginning in July 2023, gave him the opportunity to promote any message of his choice. Cox chose “Disagree Better,” or the idea that Americans must learn to disagree without hating each other, which he saw as one of the central problems facing the United States.
The initiative has seen Cox film dozens of “Disagree Better” ads with governors on both sides of the aisle modeling constructive ways of navigating divisive issues. Friday was Cox’s final day as chair before passing on the gavel to Colorado Gov. Jared Polis.
Cox said he thought of inviting McConaughey to the event to get “‘Disagree Better’ into the cultural bloodstream.”
“It’s one thing to have politicians say this stuff — and that’s important to see good faith people that we disagree with,” Cox said. “But it’s much better to have important cultural figures actually talk about this as well, and say what we’re saying and walking the walk.
Outside of his acting career, McConaughey has made a name for himself calling for bipartisan action on reducing gun violence.
After the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting in 2022, when 21 students and teachers were killed, McConaughey — a Uvalde native — spoke before Congress and launched Greenlights Grant Initiative, an organization that helps schools access federal funds for enhanced security measures.
McConaughey also founded the just keep livin Foundation that funds after-school fitness programs in 45 inner-city high schools to encourage teens to make positive life choices.
When asked by New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy whether he would run for public office, McConaughey said he has been exploring the option for a few years.
“I’m on a learning tour, and have been for probably the last six years, to understanding what this category means, what it takes, do I have the instincts, the intellect that it would be a good fit for me and I would be a good fit for it, I would be useful. I’m still on that learning tour,” McConaughey said. “This is something I’ve been thinking about and something I have great reverence for.”