Matthew McConaughey covers the November issue of Esquire and don’t hate me, but I barely even skimmed the interview. While I don’t actively dislike The McConaughey, he’s not my favorite person and a little bit goes a long way, especially with his interviews. You can read the full Esquire piece here if you’re feeling alright alright alright and you want to just keep livin’ with your McConaughey love. Here are some highlights:

His first child made him feel like a man: “Out comes this screaming little life with a pair of balls. Man is never more masculine than after the birth of his first child. I don’t mean in a macho way. I mean in terms of giving a man strength.”

His wife Camila Alves helped his career: “A good woman gives a man courage and confidence. The courage to have the confidence to go and do it, to not be worried as much or consider as much what the rest of the world thinks.”

He didn’t always believe in marriage: “What is [marriage] more than a signed document? What is it more than a formality? I gotta believe in this thing. I spent a good amount of time talking about the sacrament of marriage with Pastor Haney, getting past that fear of, ‘Am I going to lose myself?’ And seeing it’s not, ‘Now I’m one and if we marry I’m 50 percent of myself and you’re 50 percent of you.’ No, it’s one and one, and multiply and become three.”

His proposal to Camila: “I remember hitting the knee, looking into her eyes, and … I remember her face. I remember this smile coming up from her feet. I remember her having to catch her breath. And she didn’t say yes right away. And then the whole family was going, ‘Jeezus, she’s gonna say no.’”

He’s not going to stop doing those weird Lincoln commercials: “F–k that. Because I’m going to. And I like ‘em. And they pay well. And they allow me to go and do these other little movies for a lot less.”

He was a frat boy: “I didn’t grow up acting. I don’t enjoy thespian, Hamlet-ian talks. I was the first frat boy in the University of Texas film school who wore button-down denim shirts, boots, and a buckle when all the Gothic artists were all in black. I went to see the big Hollywood pictures at the cineplex that everyone else in film class shat on. For a while I thought maybe you really do need to wear all black and stay out of the sunlight and only see independent films to be an artist. I still have moments with acting where I’m like, I’m getting away with it. Winning the Oscar was validation, the respect of my peers.”

How he felt after filming 2008’s Ghosts of Girlfriends Past: “All of a sudden. I understood, whoa, that’s become my brand.” After that, he made a “conscious decision” to “unbrand.”

[From Esquire]

Yeah, I remember when McConaughey was just the rom-com guy and it wasn’t bad. These days, I get tired of super-serious Actor Matthew McConaughey and I think he would be fine if he found a way to balance his serious dramatic work with some sillier, romantic stuff. Quite honestly, he was a good romantic lead. Some actors seem uncomfortable doing romantic work but Matthew always sold it, even when he was in a particularly stupid rom-com.

As for the “my son made me a man” and “a good woman does this and that” stuff… eh. I understand what he’s trying to say and he’s probably trying to give Camila a compliment, but he sounds kind of douchey there.

Photos courtesy of Esquire.