Actor Matthew McConaughey Pushes Lincoln, But Loves Trucks
In the tidal wave of media coverage actor Matthew McConaughey is receiving for his role in the space thriller, "Interstellar," the editors at Business Insider can't get their head around one automotive story he told in a recent People magazine interview.
As retold in the BI article, McConaughey describes how he sold his much beloved four-cylinder pickup truck (describing it as "informal, rugged, social like me") in high school to buy a sports car. He quickly regretted the decision and sold the sports car to buy back his pickup.
BI's transportation editor Matthew DeBord is bewildered that McConaughey could call a pickup truck "social." He seems to understand how a pickup could be seen as "informal" and "rugged," and we might be able to help him out with the idea that a pickup is "social."
For those who appreciate and enjoy the values inherent in owning a pickup truck, the truck itself is designed to do work for the owner or anyone else. In much the same way a tool has an intended purpose: It is not unusual for that tool to be used by someone other than the actual owner.
We'd argue that anyone who owns a pickup inherently understands that owning the truck usually comes with an implied proviso that you may, at some point in the future, be asked to help a friend, neighbor or family member to move some gear or furniture across town; your boss might need you to move some equipment to the shop annex, or you get the call to meet aunt Edna at the airport as she comes into town with her eight pieces of luggage. A sports car can't do any of that.
What a sports car can do is go fast and make the driver (and sometimes a willing passenger) feel really good for a few moments going around that corner at high speed. Maybe the sports-car owner feels cool again at a stoplight where the mash of his pedal helps him beats the guy next to him a quarter-mile down the expressway. Of all the advantages there are to owning a sports car, helping someone you know or even those you don't know out or making anyone feel good (other than the driver) is usually not on the list.
We're guessing that's one of the reasons McConaughey liked the fact his character in "Interstellar" drove a one-ton Ram dually Quad Cab with a manual transmission. That's a cool truck. Not only did his character, Cooper, try to save his family farm, but he's able to communicate through time in an attempt to save the whole human race. No wonder he drives a pickup. And before we're attacked for giving away the movie's ending it's actually given away in the beginning when some elderly folks discuss the main character–even the people who made the movie want the viewers to know it has some kind of happy ending. Besides, the best thing about the movie is all the stuff that happens in the middle.
Paramount Produciton images
