Matthew McConaughey Reacts to Discovering His ‘Interstellar’ Crying Meme

Matthew McConaughey is just now learning the impact of the meme of him crying in his 2014 movie Interstellar.

McConaughey, 56, dished on his experiences filming one of Interstellar’s most impactful scenes and its corresponding meme — the actor bursting into tears as the character Joseph “Coop” Cooper watches years’ worth of videos of his children aging as he travels through space — during a recent appearance on SiriusXM’s How’s Life with host John Mayer.

The Oscar winner at first told Mayer, 48, that he was not aware the moment from Interstellar has turned into “a massive visual milestone” in the years since the movie’s release. “For? Meaning in what context is it used?” McConaughey asked, before he noted that Interstellar has experienced “a resurgence” in popularity over the years.

“I watched it with my son four months ago, Levi,” the actor added. “I got choked up in that scene again. I remember the day. I remember the morning. I remember it was on a Monday.” 

In Interstellar, McConaughey portrays a former NASA test pilot living as a farmer on an Earth where life is increasingly threatened due to global famine in the 2060s. When Cooper learns NASA is still active and searching for a new planet for humanity to colonize, he joins scientist Amelia (Anne Hathaway) on a space mission in hopes of finding habitable planets in other galaxies and leaves his children (Mackenzie Foy and Timothée Chalamet) behind.

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One of the movie’s most memorable scenes features Cooper sobbing as he watches his children age via video message; Casey Affleck portrays Chalamet’s character, Tom, as an adult, while Jessica Chastain portrays Foy’s character, Murph, as a grown woman.

On That’s Life, McConaughey recalled during his conversation with Mayer that filming the crying scene took place directly after a long weekend. “Those emotional scenes like this, I like to do them first up and let’s get the close-up, so I remember sitting down and [Christopher Nolan] was like, ‘Okay, so let’s rehearse and we’ll run the video,’ ” he said, noting that the movie used his very first take of the sequence.

“Why? Because everything after take one is acting, but take one, I don’t know what I’m going to see, so if I can be relaxed enough and I know the scenes where I’m going to see my children who have evidently grown older and I haven’t,” he said. “The idea that how much, if I personalize that, oh my gosh. If I was dead, what if I didn’t see [his three real-life children] Vida and Levi and Livingston for that many, oh, that’s a sick feeling.”

“Now I’m watching it, I’m going, I’m feeling, ‘Oh my God.’ You know what I’m mainly crying about?” McConaughey added. “Here’s what I’m crying about when I’m watching it. I’m so glad I don’t have to feel that way about my children.”