“I-24!” It’s early April, and Matthew McConaughey is playing a role unlike any you’ve ever seen: bingo boss. While the country is practicing social distancing, McConaughey is running a raucous bingo game over Zoom for a senior living center in Round Rock, Texas. It’s a small moment—or was before it blew up—but it’s also one that’s telling. McConaughey imbues his humanitarian work with humor, and he lends his laid-back charm to serious situations to great effect. Later the actor appears on Instagram as a character named Bobby Bandito and teaches followers how to make homemade protective masks; it’s the rare public service announcement that actually alleviates anxiety.
Since long before the current crisis, McConaughey and family have been giving back. In 2008 the 50-year-old Oscar winner and his wife Camila Alves McConaughey introduced their Just Keep Livin’ Foundation in two Los Angeles high schools, never imagining how essential their program would become.
Three years in, when students at L.A.’s Animo Inglewood Charter High School were surveyed about JKL, as it’s known, one said that she finally had a violence-free destination when classes let out. “That’s a very basic need we didn’t even think of,” Matthew says. “We’re actually offering a lot of kids a safe place to be.”
Today, Just Keep Livin’ employs 84 teachers in 37 high schools in a program that serves almost 3,000 students in six states plus Washington, DC—the vast majority of the kids from families that fall below the poverty line. Any student can participate in the four-hour-per-week curriculum, which includes aerobic exercise and yoga, nutrition tips, weekend service projects, and a regular “gratitude circle,” a take on a dinner table ritual from McConaughey’s own childhood.
When the Covid-19 crisis closed schools, the foundation immediately started raising funds to provide distance learning computers and meals for its students.
The McConaughey approach appears to get results. Though the average graduation rate in JKL’s high schools is about 50 percent, every senior in the program last year graduated. “What makes the program unique is how all students are welcomed. You are not your GPA, you are not your trauma, you are not your insecurities or your home life,” says Maria Gutierrez Salmeron, a program alumna. “Just Keep Livin’ gives you the chance to just be you.”
Here, Matthew and Camila talk about focusing their giving, the importance of working with kids, and the unexpected hedonism in helping others.
Is it true that the Just Keep Livin’ Foundation began with the birth of your oldest child, Levi?
Camila Alves: When you have your first child and you’re in the position that Matthew is, whoever gets that first photo will make a lot of money. When we found out that the person was going to make over a million dollars on a photo, we were like, “No. We’re going to do an exclusive and get the money and put it into the foundation.”
You called your charity Just Keep Livin’. Where did that come from?
Matthew McConaughey: In 1992, I was five days into shooting Dazed and Confused and I got a phone call that my father had passed on. I drove to Houston to be with my family. I was with them for five days, and they told me to get back to work. The first night back, I was walking around and it hit me that my father was no longer here, but I could still keep his spirit alive if I talked aloud to him. So, 28 years later, I’ve been unable to find anything that isn’t better if you take that mantra and slap it on it. There are choices in life; there’s a way to make the “just keep livin’ ” decision with every decision we make.
Matthew, you’ve been involved in philanthropy before, such as rescuing stranded pets after Hurricane Katrina. Why did you decide to help at-risk kids?
MM: I always knew I wanted it to be kids, because I wanted the entire foundation to provide prevention before we needed a cure. High school’s the last place you can catch somebody and get them on the right track, before they no longer have to listen to a teacher or parent. If they’re screwing up in high school and do some of the same stuff after they graduate, they may go to jail—or worse.
Some kids really take to the program. I heard about one who was just accepted by Harvard.
MM: It’s a one-way ticket to the Ivy League! [Laughs] We end up getting really exceptional kids—some who were already doing okay but then really excelled, others who were on the wrong path and do complete turnarounds. They’ll become valedictorian, get a scholarship, graduate, and land a great job.
Matthew, there was a period when you were considered a hedonist, but hedonism and service don’t seem compatible. Has something changed?
MM: Your hypothesis is backward. I’ve always been a hedonist, and part of having a foundation is putting a capital H on hedonism. Being able to give back in ways is a selfish endeavor. It feels good to me to see a smile or hear a young person say thank you. That’s called a selfless act? I call it a selfish act.
Philanthropy is as affected by the coronavirus pandemic as anything else. How is the current crisis going to change the future of your philanthropy?
MM: There’s going to have to be more self-reliance on staying true to your voluntary obligations. It’s already tough; we humans love to procrastinate. In our foundation, one of the things we’re trying to teach is self-reliance, saying, “Why do you do it? Do it for you.” That’s what I mean about how being selfless is a selfish thing to do.
Camila, there’s deep poverty in your native Brazil. Was it a difficult choice to make the program benefit kids in the U.S. and not there?
CA: With Matthew’s work, we travel all over the country. That was eye-opening to me, being from a different country. The poverty was like the poverty I’d seen in the third world. The kids have no access to food, education, healthcare, or clothing. I had no idea that this existed in the United States.
Your curriculum focuses on physicality. I’m curious: Why not the arts?
MM: Being active is incredibly important—physically, mentally, and spiritually. There’s science behind how exercise and nutrition can help your mental acuity, and how that helps kids in our age group. Their grades go up, behavior gets better, it’s a stress reliever.
Do either of you feel that if circumstances had been different during your teen years, you would have been at risk?
MM: No. I was very fortunate. I grew up upper-middle-class, and I had a roof over my head, food on the table, parents that loved and supported me, a car that was paid for, and a job, and I made straight A’s.
Matthew, is it true your parents got married three times and divorced twice?
MM: My parents were probably just saying, “I’ve had enough of you for a while. I’ll see you in a year or so.” It wasn’t a perfect upbringing, but I was in a position where I was never going to be a victim.
Were you ever in danger of going down the wrong path, Camila?
CA: No, though my parents did marry and divorce each other three times as well.
Seriously?
CA: I would call them two people extremely in love who cannot find a way to communicate. It’s all fine now. But when I was growing up, in Brazil, my mom would always extol to me and my brother the importance of giving back.
Is there anything you’re doing to keep your own kids’ heads on straight?
MM: We better be. Sometimes loving your kids means giving them just what they want. Other times it means tough love. Affluent people can give their kids everything they want, but they’re not usually going to get what they need. Loving a child is a lot harder if you really give a damn. “No” takes a lot more energy. It’s a lot easier to say “yes.”
In your family, which parent says no more?
MM: From the snicker that my wife’s giving me, it seems that I’m more consistently the yes guy. She’s probably right.
I keep hearing the expression “around the horn” mentioned as part of the program’s regular practice. What is that?
MM: “Around the horn” is a baseball term, where you pass the ball around. It takes the preciousness off the idea of a gratitude circle. We’ve implemented this in the curriculums instead of a prayer circle, because we believe gratitude isn’t a denominational thing. We all have the ability to be thankful.
CA: That’s true regardless of your beliefs.
MM: Saying thank you for something when you’re in high school isn’t necessarily cool. When this first started, the students were whispering these very generic things. They were embarrassed to be thankful. So one day I said, “I’m thankful I got an open-mouthed kiss from my wife this morning.” And they all said, “Whoa!” But we were like, yes, you can be thankful for stuff that’s light. Soon the kids started saying things like, “I’m thankful my grandmother is out of the hospital,” or “I’m happy my dad got a job, because he was out of work.” All of a sudden they started sharing these really heartfelt things about life-and-death situations and survival.
Photographs by Philip Montgomery and Styled by Anne Christiansen
In this story: Hair by Adir Abergel for Virtue Labs at SWA Agency (Camila). Hair by Johnny Hernandez for Fierro Agency (Matthew). Makeup by Carola Gonzalez at Forward Artists (Camila). Makeup by Kara Yoshimoto Bua for Chanel at SWA Agency (Matthew). Manicure by Denise Bourne for Chanel Le Vernis. Tailoring by Susie Kourinian. Set design by Dïn Morris. Production services by Viewfinders US
