Matthew McConaughey Still Thinks His Controversial Film 'Tiptoes' is Alright Alright Alright

I’ve been thinking about the idea that something can still be morally wrong even if most people approve of it a lot lately. I can’t imagine why! Nope! No idea in the slightest! It is a comforting principle. I’ve certainly thought about it as a father. I will never hit my kids, and I like to think I would have come to that same conclusion were I a father fifty years ago, even though it was pretty much accepted at the time. It was still wrong! Kids have always been kids! Some things have always been wrong!

That brings me to Tiptoes. Matthew McConaughey plays a man who meets a woman (played by Kate Beckinsale) and they fall in love. He gets her pregnant and then must reveal something secret about himself. Pretty intriguing, right?! The secret? McConaughey’s character comes from a family of little people, despite being of average height. Okay. It’s sold like a devastating secret (a theme the film tackles), and that’s a bit of an overreaction. But hey, that’s probably the only thing wrong with the film, right? Incorrect!

Despite having several people in the cast who are little people and fully accomplished actors, one of the leads, who is McConaughey’s character’s brother, is played by Gary Oldman. Sorry, let me clarify, he is played by Gary Oldman who merely … performs the role on his knees. He even had a double who was an actual little person! Let him do it! The film is over twenty years old, and even then, it was seen as in poor taste. But is it so bad if it attracted so many world-class actors? Yes, but Matthew McConaughey doesn’t think so.

The actor recently appeared on the podcast 2 Bears, 1 Cave hosted by comedians Tom Segura and Bert Kreischer. While chatting, Tiptoes came up (cause why not?). Specifically, it was brought to McConaughey’s attention that people see the trailer now and believe it is an SNL sketch. I would argue that, were it a sketch,
it would have been on MADTV not SNL, but you be the judge.

It is absolutely absurd and unintentionally comedic. But I’m not Matthew McConaughey, who viewed the trailer for the first time on the show, and he was down like a clown. “I’ve never seen the trailer. This is so good,” he said. He does admit to it being absurd but doubles down on the strength of the … trailer. “It doesn’t look real, but damn, that’s a good trailer. That goes for it.” Sure, Matthew. I don’t even blame him! When you’ve been working for several decades you’re gonna do some clunkers. McConaughey knows that well! It’s the next part that’s too much.

“Look, it was obviously a wild concept. [But] you see the talent it drew,” McConaughey explains. “It was anarchic; it still had some heart to it, which I think maybe in the script, felt less sentimental than that [trailer] did. We knew it was a soap opera, but it felt so corny. Like, ‘This is wild.’” I admire McConaughey’s attempt at a spin but come on. The minute he got to set and Oldman got down on his knees, concerns should have been raised. Drawing boards needed to be revisited. At least cop to that now!