VIDEO : Matthew McConaughey Asks Us to Consider America?s Ugly Past

Shutterstock; Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast The Oscar-winning actor opens up about his turn as Confederate defector Newton Knight in ?Free State of Jones,? religion, and why he?s proud to be an American. It might be that easygoing Texan drawl that makes Matthew McConaughey the emblematic all-American movie star of his generation, or the patriotic sizzle cemented by the sight of him swathed in red, white, and blue chasing the American Dream as a male stripper-cum-entrepreneur?the Uncle Sam of Magic Mike.