Saturday, October 13, 2012

I Sort Of Ain't Kidding

Let me tell you something I'm really worried about. I mean, REALLY, REALLY worried about.

Matthew McConaughey.

I woke up at the beach the other morning just worried sick about the man. Have you seen pictures of him lately? He's preparing for a movie role in which he's going to be playing a man with AIDS and he's dropping weight on purpose in order to play the part most convincingly and I get that. I do. But Lord God Almighty, I think he's pushing it.

It wasn't but a few months ago that a group of ladies and I went to see Magic Mike which is a movie about uh, male, uh, strippers and he played the old dude, the guy who used to be the star of the show who is now the club manager but who is still incredibly in shape who could, if need be, step in and do a little dancin' himself. And he was glorious. There are lots of cute young guys in the movie but it was when Matthew came on that our row of ladies (front row, if you please- the movie was sold out) sighed deeply and perhaps had a moment or two of the vapors which is a very Southern Lady thing to have, by the way.

Oh yes. Matthew gave us more than one vapor. He looked like this.



Yes, yes, okay, sure, I think I've posted a similar picture before.

WHATEVER, Y'ALL. Just doing my civic duty for those of you who find the male form to be a work of art if properly presented. Like Greek statues. Right? Or like Michelangelo's David,



which, when I saw in Florence at the age of eighteen caused me to burst into tears at the beauty of, so don't give me any shit about thinking that Matthew's body in Magic Mike was anything less than a work of art. A living, breathing, glorious, hot....
Sorry.
A work of ART, people. Which all kidding aside, he had obviously worked on like a demon to achieve. Or an angel. Take your pick. Both.

And now he's lost a shit-ton of weight to look unhealthy and as if he's dying and I'm disturbed. It cannot be good to lose so much weight in such a way as to make the body eat its own muscle which is exactly what he's doing. He looks like this now:



And what I'm really concerned about is that he has a wife who is about to have their third child and I just really, really hope that a real, honest-to-god doctor is involved in this, supervising this whole thing so that he doesn't get to the point where his body is eating his heart muscle. I applaud his dedication to his art but I worry. 

There is art and there is life. I want him to keep on living.

And you know me- I am a tongue-in-cheek woman when it comes to celebrity but I do actually and seriously worry that this man is doing harm to himself. I surely do hope this movie is going to be worth it.

I can't even really imagine why I've written this. What is Matthew McConaughey to me? Nothing but an image on a screen, a photo made up of pixels.

Or maybe, a work of art.

And maybe, even the most beef-cakey of men, the most glamorous of women, really and truly, in their hearts, yearn to be viewed as authentic actors. As artists.

Isn't that something?

So okay, Matthew. Go ahead and suffer for your art. Just don't die from it, okay? Because honestly, that is no more noble than dying for love or for country or for  some perceived ideal of beauty. Which happens every day and which is heart-breaking and to my mind, so very sad and mostly wrong.

These are just my thoughts tonight.

Yours truly...Ms. Moon








13 comments:

  1. your concerns are just....and as an actor, he could just "act" skinny. it brings to mind the extraordinary changes in body mass that Christian Bale is known for.....compare images of him from Batman with images of him from The Machinist. it's actually kind of frightening.

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  2. charmingbilly- Whoa! I have a dear friend whom I think of as Charming Billy but you are not him. Hello! Welcome.

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  3. Ew. He's always given me the willies, to tell you the truth. And I saw him once on the street, years ago -- the hugest head on a very buff, short body. Just Ew.

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  4. Tom Hanks did the same thing for Philadephia I think. Maybe Matthew is chasing an Oscar as well! It is frightening though, I agree.

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  5. Eek. Well I guess the only thing I can say here is that this is probably better than DeNiro gaining sixty pounds for Raging Bull. He does look pretty creepy. And I do agree that his Magic Mike body does make me drum my hands on the table and yell, "Hot damn!"

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  6. I wonder if you've ever seen Matt Damon's impersonation of Matthew M. Pretty funny.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6niC0hlgX0

    As for his thinness,I see what you mean. I bet he's paying somebody a lot of money to help make this strange transformation happen.

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  7. Yeah, he's looking pretty scary. Charming Billy already mentioned "The Machinist" -- have you seen that? Christian Bale did exactly the same thing, and he looked like death. Very creepy. (But he survived, so there is hope.)

    I wonder HOW he's dropping so much weight? Is he just not eating? Is he exercising like crazy? That must be a miserable task. If I were him, I think I'd get the producers to fire me so I could have my life back.

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  8. I adore Ralph Fiennes and he beefed it up for his role in Schindler's List ( he was truly disgusting and horrid with his beautiful face and overstuffed body.) Renee Zegweiler in Bridget Jones Diary-and then Chicago she was thin as a toothpick.

    Nah, can't be good for a person. And I do agree about Matthew. He surely is a fine specimen and he looks bad, very bad.

    Change is a bitch, ain't it?

    XXBeth

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  9. He is a fine hunk of man that's for sure. Surely he has some supervision on this.

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  10. Elizabeth- Wasn't there some study or something that showed that most Hollywood actors have exceptionally large heads? How big is Russell Brand's head?
    Is it big?

    Agnes- He did. Also for Castaway. There just wasn't the amazingly weird comparison with a formerly work-of-art body.

    gradydoctor- I don't know. If he gets to the point where his body is eating muscle, it might end up being more harmful than gaining weight. But you're the doctor. So, I assume you are correct. It's just so scary looking.

    Andrea- That was an excellent clip! I laughed. Yes, I would totally assume that there is someone in Hollywood whose job it is to starve actors for roles.

    See Kate Run- That's his whole point. But. Yikes!

    Steve Reed- Yep. Liquid diet AND exercise. Your last sentence made me laugh.

    Beth- Change is a bitch, baby. Let's bite change in the ass. I'll hold it and you bite and then we'll switch.

    Ellen Abbott- I'm assuming he does.

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  11. He is so in love with his body and is ALWAYS without his shirt on, so he'll be back to that work of art form in no time. I think losing and gaining once or twice in a lifetime doesn't cause real damage, unlike those of us who yo-yo weight all the time.

    Now, maybe I'm flip because I'm at best "meh" about MM. But if Shemar Moore were about to become a skinny-minnie, I would pitch a royal fit. The world is just a prettier place because of him. Oh yes, I think I need to go watch me some Criminal Minds.

    One of my fave New Orleans stories - my friend who teaches autistic kids had them at the park across the street one day. A guy bicycles up and asks what's up and she talks about her school and such. "That's cool, and a cool park. I'll have to bring my kids here too. I'm Matt by the way."

    So there you go. He's friendly folk. Though he never did return.

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  12. He looks about ten years older and just plain weird. I suppose that there is often suffering for art. But some of it seems to tax the physical and mental health.

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