Matthew McConaughey is looking forward to reprising his A Time to Kill role.
The actor starred in the 1996 movie as Jake Brigance, a man who defends Carl Lee Hailey (Samuel L. Jackson), a Black father who killed the two white men who raped his daughter. This week, Variety reported that McConaughey was attached to star in a series adaptation of John Grisham’s A Time for Mercy. The 2020 book is a followup of the author’s other books, A Time to Kill and Sycamore Row.
“All I can tell you right now is that yeah, it is something that I have been searching for a while now, and if it happens, we would script write everything,” McConaughey, Nischelle Turner on Friday, of reprising his role. “It would be something I would love to reprise and be Jake Brigance. I have often thought…25 years later, what am I doing? What am I doing and also what is the flip side, you know?”
“First it was Time to Kill, and then it was Time for Mercy. Well, that is the two real sides of justice,” he continued. “So then the shoe on the opposite side is also very interesting for me. So that is all I can tell you right now, we are working on it. Hopefully it is something real down the line.”
In the meantime, McConaughey and his wife, Camila Alves McConaughey, have organized a virtual benefit concert titled We’re Texas. The event, to be held on Sunday, will benefit those affected by Winter Storm Uri through the Just Keep Livin Foundation Texas Relief Fund.
Post Malone, Willie Nelson, George Strait, Khalid, Miranda Lambert, Don Henley, Gary Clarke Jr, Leon Bridges, Los Lonely Boys, Lukas Nelson and more are expected to perform.
“I was checking, looking around me and saying, ‘Oh, this is bad,'” And she came to me and said, ‘Look, I think you need to give this more attention. This is worse than we think. It’s really bad for all over Texas, every zip code in Texas.’ So I started looking into it…She goes, ‘We gotta do something,'” he recalled.
“The benefit comes up because we said, look, we have a platform to reach out to certain entertainers. We’ve got a platform to reach out to Texans. I can go host the show, DJ the show,” he explained. “We can make it a fun night with all Texas artists and known people throughout Texas. We can entertain the world. At the same time, funnel it all back into reviving and restoring people in Texas that really, really need it.”
“We’ve seen devastation before here,” the actor expressed. “We’ve seen tornadoes, hurricanes…So one great thing about Texans is that 24/7, we pull up our bootstraps very quickly and say well, let’s get on with it.”
The state saw its worst winter in over seven decades, and its failure to weather-proof many power-generating facilities exacerbated the crisis and led to millions of homes and businesses losing electricity. CBS News reported that boil water advisories were put in place for 12 million people, as the lack of power crippled water plants and also resulted in burst pipes in many homes. Exposure to the bitter cold temperatures and lack of power also led to an increase in 911 calls and hospitalizations. “We didn’t have a playbook,” McConaughey said, adding, “When any sort of disaster becomes a real crisis, you gotta try to stabilize first.”
The Oscar winner, meanwhile, received a slew of support from other artists and companies who wanted to help out and even had to turn people away.
“That lineup filled a show and then some. People reached out from other bands and other people, companies reached out from other places in the U.S., even other places in the world,” he noted. “I’d say, ‘Thank you, but this show is going to be of Texans only and Texan musicians and artists only.’ And I just picked up the phone and started pedaling, I started hustling.”
As for what people can expect from the host of the night? “I got a desk, I’m sitting down, I’m outro-ing acts, I’m intro-ing acts, I’m giving you some spoken words, some of those words may rhyme, some of them may be on time, I’m handing it off,” he teased of his emcee duties. “The show’s going to have a whole lot of soul… There’s a lot of reasons to drop a tear in the world and you’re going to see a lot on Sunday night for a lot of people in Texas.”
“This is more about, hopefully, a celebration of the human spirit,” he continued. “When I say DJ, it’s, like, let’s keep it musical. Let’s keep it swinging, let’s have people that come in be entertained and also be able to give and have a place to donate and help out people in need and at the same time it can be fun.”
