Matthew McConaughey reflects on son Levi joining Hollywood

Matthew McConaughey is opening up about the ongoing “nepo baby” conversation as his son Levi steps into the spotlight. 

The Oscar-winning actor will star alongside his 17-year-old in the upcoming Apple TV+ drama The Lost Bus, and he isn’t shying away from addressing the privilege and challenges that come with a famous last name.

“There’s a line between entitlement and shame,” McConaughey said in a new interview with PEOPLE published September 24. 

“If you can look it right in the eye and deal with it, and if it works out, you’ll see, [acting is] a hell of a roller coaster.”

The Dallas Buyers Club star, who shares Levi, as well as Vida, 15, and Livingston, 12, with wife Camila Alves, admitted that while he has tried to guide his son through the ups and downs of Hollywood, Levi needs space to shape his own career. 

“It’s hard to keep your feet on the ground to sift out the real stuff from the BS. But over time you’ve got to get that sixth sense,” the 55-year-old explained. 

“It’s important that he has his own ownership of who he is and becomes. And [acting] will be a part of that if he continues to do it, part of finding his identity, but it can’t be his full identity.”

As for Levi, he recognizes that having McConaughey as a father comes with both opportunity and expectation. 

The teen admitted he’s only now beginning to feel the weight of that connection, but he made it clear that he’s determined to prove himself on his own terms. 

“As much as people can say, ‘You got this because of your father or your mother,’ they can open the door, but then it’s going to be up to me to do my thing once I get in there,” he said. “That’s on me.”

With his first major project underway, Levi seems ready to embrace the challenges of carving out a career in front of the camera, while his father continues to remind him that success in Hollywood is about more than a recognizable name.