There are certainly plenty of confusing moments to be found in the 2014 epic sci-fi blockbuster “Interstellar.” It is a Christopher Nolan movie, after all. But even if you struggle to keep up with the time-hopping, galaxy spanning story, it probably won’t affect how you feel about the movie’s most powerful scene. In it, we see Joseph “Coop” Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) watch over 20 years of messages his children recorded as they grew up without him while he was lost in space. While initially happy to see his kids, Coop quickly falls apart as he gradually realizes all that he missed out on.
It’s a tour de force performance from McConaughey, one that leaves no doubt of his top level talent when presented with the right material. The images of him crying became the enduring legacy of the otherwise uneven and lukewarmly received “Interstellar,” including becoming an oft used meme. It seems like McConaughey would’ve rehearsed and labored over for hours, if not days, to deliver the heartbreaking performance seen on screen. But in reality, it is almost exactly the opposite of that, being in the pantheon of difficult movie scenes actors nailed on the first take.
McConaughey had no trouble convincing Nolan how to approach the scene
Among the most surprising facts about “Interstellar” was that Christopher Nolan was surprisingly more open to creative input from his actors than Matthew McConaughey had anticipated. And that included the way the movie’s heartbreaking tape scene — as it is frequently called — was handled. In a feature for Vanity Fair where he broke down some of his most iconic scenes, McConaughey revealed that he did the tape scene in one take without rehearsing, or even watching the videos of Coop’s kids, in advance.
“It was a Monday morning, and it was the first scene up,” McConaughey recalled. “I remember we got in, and Nolan was gonna set up some wides. They were about to play the tape.” However, before Nolan could review the footage with McConaughey, the actor insisted on reacting to the videos in character seeing them for the first time. “All of a sudden things came over, and cameras were there and we played the tape. And again, this is that first take. That’s the one we use,” McConaughey shared.
When asked what he had to do to elicit such a gut wrenching reaction, McConaughey explained that it came from a deep, personal place, stating, “The gap, the dread of having to miss that in my own life with my own kids, I just reacted, which is what I’ve learned I like to do if you’ve got scenes like that.”