Matthew McConaughey reveals bizarre method he used to read criticism

Matthew McConaughey says critics fall into two groups: those who dislike you no matter what, and those who give useful feedback.

The 56-year-old actor shared his candid view on the Oct. 13 episode of the Build or Breakpodcast with Kind founder Daniel Lubetzky.

He then described an unusual exercise. He collected 20 years of his bad reviews in one thick book and took it to the desert.

“I read every one. All the negative reviews,” he admitted. “And I sat, and it’s all I [did], I spent two days with them. It was hard."

He went on, "Some of the reviews, what I learned, is that from the very first sentence, ‘Oh, this person has it out for me.’ It didn’t matter whether they saw the movie or not. They just don’t like me. They were going to write a negative review.”

Others came from fans who had a fair point. “Other reviews I saw, I was like, ‘This person’s got a point. They’re actually a fan of mine, and they didn’t get from my performance what I was actually hoping they would have got."

"Where did I fail in the choice?’" he asked himself. "Because this is constructive criticism,” he added.

“This person is a good critic. They were looking at the work and objectively criticizing it. Applauding some things, but also applauded some things that shined a light on where I came up short. Okay. What can I learn from that?”

He said the exercise taught him to tell the difference between what was “fake and what was real,” which he said can blur in Hollywood.

Before fame, he said, praise and criticism both came from how well he did his job. Then a successful weekend brought a flood of people saying “I love you.”

“I’ve only said ‘I love you’ to four people in my life and all of a sudden everyone is saying it,” he said.

McConaughey has acted on screen since 1993’s Dazed and Confused. After several romantic comedies, he moved to dramas in the late 2000s after a 20-month break from acting.

His latest film, The Rivals of Amziah King, came out in August. He also stars with Woody Harrelson in the Apple TV series Brothers.