INTERVIEW: Matthew, Levi, and Kay McConaughey Chart Family and Fire Through ‘The Lost Bus’

In Apple TV+’s The Lost Bus, Matthew McConaughey plays a man looking for the chance to rekindle his family relationships, while surviving a natural disaster—and he’s doing it by acting across from his 93-year-old mother and 17-year-old son.

In 2018, a poorly maintained transmission line sparked what would become the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in Northern California’s history. Over the course of 17 days, the rapidly spreading flames caused USD$16.65 billion worth of damage, 85 deaths, and the erasure of towns Concow, Magalia, Butte Creek Canyon, and Paradise off the map.

It was a tragic incident, but within the flames were stories of heroism and sacrifice. One such story, of bus driver Kevin McKay, who put himself in harm’s way to evacuate a group of school children, went on to pique the interest of Hollywood execs. Seven years later, we have The Lost Bus: a dramatic retelling of McKay’s efforts through the lens of director Paul Greengrass’ penchant for dramatic and revealing storytelling.

Perhaps most interesting, though, is the cast. McKay is played by Matthew McConaughey, while his on-screen mother and son are played by his actual family, son Levi (17) and mother Kay (93). Here, Man of Many sat in with the McConaugheys as part of a panel discussion on heroism, learning to drive The Lost Bus, and second chances.

Before we dive into the Lost Bus, you’ve had such a wild and varied career in Hollywood. I wonder what you’ve learned over this time?

Matt McConaughey: I’ve learned to love the craft. I liked what I was doing when I first started, but I didn’t actually know what I was doing. I just had instincts when I first started, 30-something years ago.

Then after about 8 years, I started to actually learn the craft of acting, and what it was that I had instincts for. When I did that, I started to learn how to love it. I started learning what to do when I got in trouble, if I got in a funk or if I was stuck.

I learned how to break down characters, and that took me 25, 30 years, and I’m still learning how to do that. I’ve got a good basis now, so I’ve learned to love and respect it from many different angles that I didn’t use to.

“Now, I want to have a more personal experience when I’m taking on a role, and I feel that happening now.” 

What did the screenplay teach you about yourself?

Levi McConaughey: The selfless act of Kevin, in real life, which the story is about, is a reminder of being selfless.

Matt McConaughey: Everyone always talks about ‘what’s the definition of a hero’. And there were a lot of heroic acts at this time, during the fires. But I think one consistent thing is that a hero is someone who, in a crisis, whatever that crisis is, runs toward it, not away from it. 

Kay McConaughey: And that’s what Kevin did. 

Matt: And then for me, it was about fatherhood. It’s a good reminder, Paul Greengrass had this great line that was a launch-pad line for me personally for my character, in which ‘I was too late as a son, and too late as a father.’ But sometimes you do get second chances.

Kay: It was sad, I really cried. Because he was trying but it was too late, and I really felt sad in the movie. It moves you. 

About those second chances you were talking about: Kevin has a very beautiful speech about wanting to have a second chance, and the movie is about the bravery in taking it, so I wanted know what you’d tell someone who wants to take a second chance like that?

Matt: Most of the time when we’re looking for a second chance, we’re waiting around for the right time, and I think most people just want to make sure they don’t wait too long before they look back and realise they missed the opportunity. Whether that’s in a relationship or something personal, take the chance to find out quicker and sooner than you think you need to. 

Acting with family members on screen must be both rewarding and challenging. What were some of the difficulties and moments that came with acting alongside each other?

Levi: Obviously, we all have relationships outside of work, and sometimes you bring that into work a bit. That transition can be (a bit funny), and I think it’s pretty impossible to leave it all out when you’re with family, and you’re this close. But I think it’s a good thing, in a way, because we could bring our own personal stuff to it. It was good, and it made it more fun, because afterwards we could look at each other and give each other hugs and kisses and have this for the rest of our lives. 

Matt: Levi, I remember you telling me, because our relationship is a healthy one in real life it made it easier to go somewhere else and play characters with a relationship that’s not healthy.

Levi: I think if our relationship was bad outside of the film, it would have made playing that harder. 

Kay: And more intense. Seriously. 

Can you tell me a bit about working with Paul Greengrass and how integral his direction was in portraying a pretty traumatic event?

Matt: Paul loves claustrophobia. United 93, Captain Philips, he loves it, and the urgency and visceral intensity it brings. He loves compounding the outside world, the dangers, into a smaller and smaller space, with a ticking clock. 

He’s got this great way of creating this huge epic scale with the fires, which is the predator in this movie, and then still balancing that with a personal story within it. That’s not an easy thing to do, and not a lot of directors can pull it off like he does.

“I’ll say this, we probably started out with a 135-page script, and by the time we were shooting, we had a 50-page script. “

He knew the moments, and its not dialogue specific, but its behaviour specific and relationship specific. Paul does not make the hard things hard, and he doesn’t make the easy things hard. 

I thoroughly enjoyed working with him. 

Levi: I loved it. Being my first role, to be able to work with someone like that, where it’s not dialogue specific, but its behaviour and relationship specific, it’s much easier to get in a flow, or a groove, of reacting to the moment, rather than hitting specific notes. 

And I loved that, there’s room for improvisation in the moment. 

Matt: Which is what he loves working with non actors, too, and mixing non-actors with actors. I think he’d tell you that non-actors make actors better, and actors can make non-actors better actors. 

Kay: His enthusiasm was infectious, that’s how he came across to me. He was always around, always there, he was inspiring. 

Matt, we know in the film you play a bus driver, did you actually learn to drive the bus?

Matt: Yeah, I got very good at driving that bus. I drove the bus in all the stunts, and got to know it very well. It was fun how good I got at driving that bus, and doing the stunts, and stops and starts, and having to miss marks by just inches at high speeds. I became a pretty good bus driver. 

Wildfires are such a terrifying reality – what did this teach you about man’s relationship with nature? 

Matt: It’s a delicate balance. As civilisation takes over Mother Nature and the wild, it’s a balance. We overcompensate sometimes, and it gets thrown out of balance, and usually Mother Nature will let us know that we need to move the needle back, because we got it out of whack.

“A lot of times, like in this film, the relationship mankind has with nature is thrown out of whack in dangerous ways.

What was it like working so closely with fire?

Matt: The good thing about working with fire is that, to stay away from it and not get literally burned is a natural instinct. You feel the heat. If you get too close, your body will tell you, you’ll know. 

We didn’t have a lot of wind on set, which is where fire can get unpredictable, if wind is blowing they can start jumping 10, 20 feet, or further. In this one, we didn’t have that, but we had a lot of times where a plume of fire would go from zero to eight feet tall, and that’s another reason why you really don’t want to overrun your mark (and end up on top of it), that’d be really dangerous.

Was it a dangerous set? Sure, but it was really well choreographed, and there were a lot of real pros who put it all together, from the pyrotechnics, to Paul, to the assistant director, to the stunt co-ordinator. Things were choreographed, and we’d rehearse it, and I’d say that it never felt dangerous. We had to make it look like chaos, and that’s what Paul does very well. But I didn’t get injured on this film, and it’s the kind of film you think you might (be hurt) by mistake, but I didn’t, and that’s all thanks to the stunt people, and Paul and the AD. 

There are a lot of moving parts, and just one person has to be just second early or a second late with their cue, when you’re playing with fire, and it can create a real problem, and thankfully, we didn’t run into any problems.