Matthew McConaughey Wheels and Deals

Matthew McConaughey may enjoy doing business out of his car like his slick, oft-chauffeured criminal defense attorney character in “The Lincoln Lawyer” (opening this Friday), but he’d prefer to do the driving himself.

As someone who’s frequently limo-ed and town car-ed around Hollywood himself, McConaughey admits he's on a first name basis with a regular driver (“I’ve got my guy,” he chuckles). And just like fictional lawyer Mickey Haller’s relationship with his driver Earl, some bits of McConaughey’s backseat business are better left unheard.

“There are times when they have to put on the proverbial headphones,” the actor tells PopcornBiz. “It’s best that you don’t hear. Don’t incriminate yourself. So if a judge ever comes around, you can go ‘I don’t know – I didn’t hear that. The headphones were on.’ If it’s going to be a long day with a lot of meetings or if I’m going to be out late at night, it’s nice to get a driver, and get some business done in the backseat.”

But McConaughey would rather be behind the wheel whenever he can. “I really like to drive,” he says. “Behind the wheel is my favorite spot. My own car is a mobile office. I will leave two hours early just to find a good spot to park and hang out. I’m going to make my phone calls under this tree parked outside of this place two hours before my meeting. I love sitting in a car seat, controlling my music, controlling the temperature, backing the seat up, putting my leg out over the side mirror.”

“I love having meetings in cars,” he explains. “I’ll do that a lot. I’ll say where we going to meet: ‘Meet me at this place. I’ll come pick you up and let’s go for an hour drive.’ When I was living in my trailer and traveling across the United States I would do things like that. Someone would go ‘It’s Thursday, I could come in Saturday morning to meet you,’ and I’d look at the map and say ‘I’m heading east – I’ll be in Tucson by Saturday morning. Why don’t you fly into Tucson Airport and I’ll pick you up and I’m going to keep driving east. We’ll spend the day together and I’ll drop you off, you can get a flight out of El Paso and I’ll drop you off at the airport at El Paso.’ It was some of the best business I ever did! It’s a great, freeing place to get some business done.”

McConaughey says becoming a dad hasn’t changed his pace on the road, either.  “I’ve always been a lean-to-the-slow-side-of-driving guy anyway – I’d rather leave early and just cruise, because I enjoy driving. So I don’t want to rush it."

"It’s like my brother says: ‘I drink Lite Beer because I like to drink beer and I can drink more of it.’”

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