Matthew McConaughey’s comments on Russell Brand’s podcast about the politically left and right meeting “in the middle” stir even more internet debates.
USA TODAY
Two weeks after Matthew McConaughey made headlines for criticizing Hollywood’s “far left,” the actor is talking politics again.
During an interview with “Good Morning Britain,” McConaughey, 51, spoke out against political extremes.
“You need liberals. What I dont think we need is the illiberals, and what I dont think that some liberals see is that theyre often being cannibalized by the illiberals,” he told hosts Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid.
Now, you know, there are extremes on both sides that I think are unfair that I dont think are the right place to be,” he continued. “The extreme left and the extreme right completely illegitimize the other side… or they exaggerate that sides stance into an irrational state that makes no sense.”
McConaughey, who is on a promotional book tour for his memoir “Greenlights,” also touched on cancel culture.
“Where the waterline is going to land on this freedom of speech, and what we allow and what we dont and where this cancel culture goes… is a very interesting place that were engaged in right now as a society of trying to figure out, because we havent found the right spot,” he said.
The “aggressively centrist” McConaughey previously divided fans while talking about “far left” Hollywood political types during a podcast interview with British comedian Russell Brand on Dec. 1.
“There are a lot (of people) on that illiberal left that absolutely condescend, patronize, and are arrogant towards that other 50 percent,” the Oscar-winning actor said.
Brand brought up politics when asking about societal “condemnation and criticism” of “ordinary working people.”
There’s “kind of an offhandedness, of like, Oh, theyre dumb, theyre voting for Brexit, theyre voting for Trump. I dont like it, and I dont like to hear it,” said Brand.
McConaughey, who has expressed a budding interest in politics during the book tour, says the attitude of the “far left” prevents the two opposing political sides from coming together. He listed the Hollywood reaction to Donald Trump’s 2016 surprise presidential election win as an example of this attitude.
“Many people, Im sure you saw it, in our industry, when Trump was voted in four years ago, they were in denial that it was real. Some of them were in absolute denial,” McConaughey said.
Contributing: Bryan Alexander
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Matthew McConaughey talks political extremes: ‘What I don’t think we need is the illiberals’
