Actors and politics have always had a connection, whether it be the myriad of dramas and thrillers set in the halls of power that arrive on an annual basis, or the stars of the stage and screen themselves making the jump into running for office. Former Western stalwart Ronald Reagan ended up becoming President of the United States, while action megastar Arnold Schwarzenegger spent over seven years as the Governor of California.
On top of that, Predator star Jesse Ventura was the Governor of Minnesota between 1999 and 2003, veteran character actor Fred Thompson became a Senator, Clint Eastwood had a brief stint as Mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea over 30 years ago, and Dwayne Johnson has constantly refused to rule himself out of potentially running as a presidential candidate somewhere down the line.
The latest name from Hollywood to throw their hat into the ring is Matthew McConaughey, after he admitted that he’s thought about the idea of becoming Governor of Texas. Having already reinvented himself from the shirtless mainstay of frothy rom-coms to become one of the most critically acclaimed actors of his generation, the 50 year-old said that he might seek yet another new challenge in the future.
“I don’t know. I mean, that wouldn’t be up to me. It would be up to the people more than it would me. I would say this. Look, politics seems to be a broken business to me right now. And when politics redefines its purpose, I could be a hell of a lot more interested. I want to get behind personal values to rebind our social contracts with each other as Americans, as people again.”
The notion of Matthew McConaughey running for Governor of Texas may sound patently ludicrous when you hear it, but Back to the Future famously has a joke where Doc Brown scoffs at the idea of an actor being president, while nobody could have predicted watching The Terminator in 1984 that two decades later Arnold Schwarzenegger would be in control of one of the world’s largest economies. So, at this point, we know much better than to completely rule anything out in the equally crazy worlds of Hollywood and Washington.
