Did Matthew McConoughey improvise in True Detective?

Matthew McConaughey as Rust Cohle in True Detective

Ok, I know he didn't improvise. But having just finished True Detective, and remembering Matthew McConaughey's Academy Award, SAG and Golden Globe acceptance speeches, I'm now wondering if he improvised all his dialogue in the show as Rust Cohle. Think about it--long meandering, philosophical rants. Who knew he'd be so close to his character, Rust! (Amazing acting, by the way--I am blown away!).


 Pop quiz--was the following from True Detective or one of his acceptance speeches this year?


"And to my hero, that's who I chase. When I was 15 years old I had a very important person in my life ask me who was my hero, and I said 'I don't know. I gotta think about that, give me a few weeks.' And I come back two weeks later, and they said 'Who's your hero?' and I said, 'You know, I thought about it. It's me in 10 years. So I turn 25 ten years later, and that same person asked me 'Are you your hero?' and I was like, 'Not even close.' And she said 'Why not?' and I said, 'My hero is me at 35.' So every day, every week, every month, every year of my life, my hero is always 10 years away. I'm never going to attain that, I know I'm not. That keeps me the somebody to keep on chasing."

Rust Cohle or MM acceptance speech?

"There's a man I met 20 years ago. He escaped Russia. He was not even a carpenter, built a 17-foot boat and sailed across the Atlantic for decades he held the world record for smallest vessel single-man sailed across the Atlantic. He told me this, he said, 'A genius can be anybody he wants to, but a genius is always one person at a time.' So to that I say, that's what we get to do, isn't it? One man, one woman, one human. At a time. When we do it well. Just keep doing that. Just keep living."

Rust Cohle or MM acceptance speech?

"it feels like they could put a blindfold on you and put you on a spaceship and take you to Neptune and you could hop off on the planet and they better have the sprock control and you get off that spaceship because you are going to behave as your man."






The answer? 
























All from his acceptance speeches.