Texan Matthew McConaughey Shilling Booze from… Kentucky?!

There are fewer movie stars more openly, distinctly, definitively Texan than Matthew McConaughey. From his star-making turn in Dazed and Confused, a film as much a part of Austin lore as any, through his Oscar-winning work in Dallas Buyers Club and even TV work in True Detective and those Lincoln commercials, he's a living, breathing symbol of Texas dude-hood. Heck, when Les Miles invited him to hang out with the LSU Tigers on game day in Tiger Stadium, Matthew McConaughey wears UT gear, even though they weren't even part of that game. Yep, that's a Texan for ya.

In Central Texas, however, eyebrows have been raised as of late by his recent gig: spokesman for a Kentucky Whiskey maker. McConaughey has been asked to be the spokesperson and creative force behind Wild Turkey and its new campaign.

Say what?! Well, he is getting paid for it so we can't begrudge him that. Also, he turned them down four years ago because he wanted "to have my hands in the clay of how we tell the story, and I want to be part of the whole story, not just a character in it." That sounds like a guy who would teach film at the University of Texas, which he has also done.

Here's the video released by Wild Turkey yesterday.

I respect the hell out of this guy for this. Anybody can make a commercial, it's takes a real craftsman to tell a story.