Matthew McConaughey may be ready to join Barbie Land. The Oscar-winning actor revealed he would be more than happy to play the “King of the Kens” if a sequel to Greta Gerwig’s 2023 blockbuster ever comes to life.
Appearing on the Sept. 16 episode of Today, McConaughey lit up when shown mockups of himself as a Ken, a role America Ferrera once teased could exist.
“It’s already coming to life,” he said with a smile. “It’d be hard to say no to that, wouldn’t it?”
Margot Robbie, who produced and starred in the original film, seemed thrilled at the idea.
After host Craig Melvin told her they had asked McConaughey about playing Ken, she immediately leaned in, asking, “Did he say he’d do it or?”
When told yes, Robbie couldn’t hide her excitement. “Wonderful,” she replied. “Thank you for doing that.”
Still, despite the enthusiasm, there’s no confirmation a sequel is even in development.
Robbie has previously made it clear that nothing is set in stone.
“We put everything into that movie,” she told E! News in 2023. “I can’t imagine what would be next.”
If Barbie 2 does happen, Robbie says the decision will ultimately rest with Gerwig. “It would be up to Greta,” she explained. “I wouldn’t do it without Greta.”
As for McConaughey, a few days earlier the actor was looking back at a chapter of his life few days that shaped the person he is today.
The Interstellar star revealed that in 1988, he spent a year in Australia as an exchange student with a family in Warnervale, on the Central Coast of New South Wales.
Reflecting on that time, he admitted the experience was full of challenges but ultimately helped him discover more about himself.
“I learnt a lot about myself and who I wanted to be,” McConaughey shared in a new interview with Stellar magazine, calling those lessons “priceless.”
“I wouldn’t change anything because living there made me who I am today, all those years later,” said the 55-year-old, noting that the period gave him exactly what he needed at that stage of his life.
During his stay, McConaughey embraced every opportunity that came his way, even taking jobs as a bank teller and legal assistant to get by. It was a far cry from his life in Texas, where he had been a straight-A student and even voted “most handsome” at school.
Interestingly, in his 2021 memoir Greenlights, McConaughey had described his time in Australia quite differently, calling it “torturous” and recalling that “no one wanted to party and chicks were not even digging me.”
Still, he credited his host family as being “kind-hearted” and “generous.”
