Matthew McConaughey? Heavens, no, that's "Mateo" from Peru

When fame wasn't feeling alright, alright, alright, Matthew McConaughey fled to Peru, where he assumed a pseudonym and met honest people who liked him for him. 

By Matt Schimkowitz  |  May 15, 2026 | 1:39pm
Screenshot: YouTube
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Matthew McConaughey? Heavens, no, that's

In the world of the rich and famous, a pseudonym is key to getting your head straight. Whether it’s Paul McCartney booking hotels under “Paul Ramon” or Mitt Romney fearlessly tweeting as “Pierre Delecto,” sometimes it pays to get away from the lights, cameras, and action and be someone else for a while. Take Matthew McConaughey, for example. Guesting on the No Magic Pill podcast, per People, hosted by slipper magnate Blake Mycoskie, the founder of Toms Shoes, McConaughey recalled the time, early in his career, when he fled Hollywood for Peru, when fame grew too intense. After starring in Joel Schumacher’s 1996 legal drama, A Time To Kill, McConaughey says, “I needed to get my feet back on the ground, so I clicked out. Boom. Go to Peru.” The trip, the Oscar winner explains in his own Lincoln Navigator-inspired charming way, was an attempt to shed himself of “all this affiliation for this and that and the other” and to “decipher which part’s real, which part’s bullshit.” He started with his name, but his impact remained the same: 

“I needed to meet people who knew me as ‘Mateo,'” McConaughey said. “At the end of 22 days, the tears in their eyes and the tears in my eyes and the hugs we had on the sadness and happiness of saying goodbye were all based on the man they met named ‘Mateo,'” who had nothing to do with the celebrity. It reaffirmed my own identity that, ‘Oh, I still got it. This is based on me.'” 

This wouldn’t be the last time McConaughey went Mateo on society’s ass. Elsewhere in the conversation, the modern-day Thoreau explains that he followed a similar process to write his book of poetry, Poems & Prayers. “I packed all my diaries away along with my steaks, water, and tequila, and went to a place that had no electricity in the middle of the desert where I was locked in with nothing but me and who I’ve been in my past diaries.” 

Decades later, the battle between Mateo and Matthew continues. Who is the real Matthew McConaughey? It’s a question he isn’t leaving to AI. Recently, the movie star became a pioneer in trademark law by trademarking his likeness, voice, and catchphrase to prevent the use of all three in AI.

 
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