[ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪

-♪ Breakin' rocks in the hot sun ♪

♪ I fought the law, and the law won ♪

♪ Needed money 'cause I got none ♪

♪ I fought the law, and the law won ♪

♪ I fought the law, and the law won ♪

♪ Breakin' rocks in the hot sun ♪

♪ I fought the law, and the law won ♪

♪ I needed money 'cause I got none ♪

♪ I fought the law, and the law won ♪

♪ I fought the law, and the law won ♪

♪ Breakin' rocks in the hot sun ♪

♪ I fought the law, and the law won ♪

♪ I needed money 'cause I got none ♪

♪ I fought the law, and the law won ♪

♪ I fought the law, and the law won ♪

[ Cheers and applause ]

-Matthew McConaughey.

Matthew McConaughey, welcome to "The Tonight Show" here

in Austin, Texas, at U.T.

[ Cheers and applause ]

I have to ask you a few questions while you're here.

Thank you for being here.

You could live anywhere in the world if you wanted to.

Why do you choose to live in Austin?

-Well, first off, I am a proud Texan.

[ Cheers and applause ] I was born in South Texas.

I was raised in East Texas and, yes,

now I hang my hat right here in Austin, Texas.

[ Cheers and applause ]

One of the great things about Austin is to make it here,

all you really got to do is be yourself.

You can be a cowboy, you can be a hippie,

you can be an American Indian, an Asian, lesbian,

white, black, brown, yellow, a blue-haired dwarf,

and you are welcome in Austin.

-You are, yeah.

-You really are.

-That's the thing -- [ Cheers and applause ]

-We got a very lyrical city.

But what I think unites all that diversity

I was talking about is -- we have a cowboy code

and we have a sense of common values that we all rally behind.

In Austin, nobody's too good, but everybody's good enough.

We don't lie, cheat, and steal. We're an optimistic people.

We're resilient. We're friendly. We're fair.

We respect and value ourselves

and we respect and value each other.

We do not chase lawsuits. No, we do not chase lawsuits.

We do break a sweat because we pay the duty to live here

and we know that living here and what we have here --

it's not free.

No, no. That is how we're living here.

And guess what. It's a lot cooler because we do.

[ Cheers and applause ]

And y'all know what I'm talking about.

To all newcomers -- and we got 125 a day coming here --

alright, if you don't want to come here

and respect our values and our tradition

and our core soul, please keep on flyin'.

Drive on by. [ Cheers and applause ]

-That's right.

Everyone has been so awesome to us.

Not just me, but my whole crew and everybody.

I mean, people can recognize me, but everybody, top to bottom,

have been talking about it, how nice everyone's been to me.

Like, "Jimmy, you should go to this place.

You should go to this place.

Oh, do you want a beer? Do you want this?

Do you want --" I was like, "Yeah, I do want a beer

and I do want that."

But they're like, "You want me to give you a ride home?"

I go, "No, I'm good, man. I'm good, I'm good. Thank you."

-Yeah.

-But you walked out here through a sign that said, "M.O.C."

-Yes. -"Minister of Culture."

-Yes, sir. -What does that mean to you?

-So, alright, as Minister of Culture,

I want to champion certain guiding principles that we have.

Some of them I just spoke of, you know?

-Yeah.

-Principles that are the soul of Austin,

that are the soul of the University of Texas.

We've earned our stripes. -Yeah.

-And now we're growing. We want to grow our heritage.

We need to maintain and share those same values

as we were growing and embracing progress.

-Do you like like "Keep Austin weird"?

Is that -- -"Keep Austin weird" is great.

It's been around for decades. It started --

[ Cheers and applause ]

It started to preserve small businesses in Austin.

And it's great, and I don't think

it should go anywhere.

I do think, though, that now that Austin is coming into

a 2.0 stage, that there's something that encapsulates

"Keep Austin weird," plus a little bit more.

And I think we should remind ourselves daily

that we need to keep Austin Austin, as well.

[ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪

Now, Jimmy, this city --

the values that I'm talking about.

This city and this university -- I get these values

because this city and this university

has shown me those values

for the last 30 years of my life here.

-And now you're a full-on -- You're a professor here...

-Yes, sir. -...at the school.

And you will be teaching "Script to Screen."

-Yes, sir.

-What it is like to be in a class with

Matthew McConaughey as a teacher?

-I think it's fun to be in my class.

It sure is fun to teach it. -It is, yeah?

-Yeah, it's the class I wish I would've had

when I was here at film school.

I noticed, about 15 years ago, how different

the final film was from the original script that I read.

So what I've done is created a class that we

chronologically track the original script

all the way through the first assembly,

all the way through the final picture in a semester.

So it's putting the science behind

the magic of movie-making for storytellers of tomorrow.

-I want to say happy belated birthday

to you, my friend.

You turned 50 years old. Happy birthday.

-Yes, sir. Thank you. [ Cheers and applause ]

-You look pretty good. You look real good, buddy.

-It's the company I'm keeping.

-What I want to talk to you about is how you celebrated,

-'cause I think that was -- It meant a lot to me.

I read about it. But explain to everybody.

How did you celebrate your 50th? Did you have a big party?

-I spent time with my family.

We also -- Myself and Wild Turkey partnering up

with Operation BBQ Relief

and went out to Los Angeles and served barbecue and food.

Prepared it and served it to 20 different firehouses.

So as they're fighting the fires out there,

there's a lot of people in the front line.

They needed food.

They needed to put food in the freezer.

So we went out and said -- gave them a "howdy"

and helped them out.

-I love that you do that.

I love that you give back.

You don't forget where you came from.

And now you're teaching here and you're doing that.

But one of the other big milestones in your life is --

you joined Instagram a couple days ago.

-Yes, on my birthday. [ Cheers and applause ]

-Would you be kind enough to take a selfie

with me and this great crowd right now?

-Come on. [ Cheers and applause ]

-Yeah, I'll do it. -Go Down there.

Down there, Matt. -♪ I'll follow you ♪

[ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪

-Alright, here we go.

Alright, here we go.

Alright, we got to look this way.

-Alright, alright. -You're facing the wrong way.

Alright?

Alright, this is controlled chaos is what we call this.

All right, ready? Oh, wait.

We got to be -- One, two, three.

[ Cheers and applause ]