McConaughey shows Pell City
why he is a fan favorite
Story by Scottie Vickery
Submitted Photos
Lena Parris went through hail to see Matthew McConaughey. And by the time the time the Ragland woman caught a glimpse of the actor, whose upcoming movie recently called for filming at the Pell City Steak House, she’d also survived five hours in the summer heat, gotten drenched from several rain showers, and acquired a sunburn to boot.
So was it worth it? “Yeah, I’d say it was,” Lena replied. “I’m not planning on going to California anytime soon, so I figured this was the closest I was going to get to seeing a celebrity. It was an experience for sure, and it was true Alabama weather. You ride out the rain and a hailstorm, it gets bright and sunny, and then you get burned.”
She also got some good photos of McConaughey, who has been in the Birmingham area since early June filming scenes for The Rivals of Amziah King, which is written and directed by Andrew Patterson and produced by Black Bear Pictures.
The award-winning actor, who earned a Best Actor Oscar for this role in Dallas Buyer’s Club and has also starred in blockbusters such as The Lincoln Lawyer and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, will star in the movie, a crime thriller set in rural Oklahoma.
Since arriving in Alabama, the actor and crew have been spotted at a variety of places in at least three different counties. In Jefferson County, they’ve eaten at Birmingham restaurants and filmed at J&J Grocery and Deli in Bessemer in addition to a Hoover church and home. Shelby County’s Elvin Hill Elementary School in Columbiana was recently transformed into Bill Waugh Elementary School for filming, and McConaughey’s trip to St. Clair County took him to the Steak House as well as a farm in Cropwell owned by Kathy and Bill Carleton.
All Abuzz
Kathy had no idea just how appropriate the name of their farm – Bin Swindled – would turn out to be. She didn’t find out that McConaughey had spent a morning there until hours after he’d left, and she felt as if she’d, well, “been swindled” out of her chance to meet one of her favorite actors.
“I was so ticked off,” she said with a laugh. “I would have at least enjoyed getting his autograph or getting my picture with him while he was in my pasture. I’d have loved to have taken him a glass of tea.”
The Carletons allow a relative, a beekeeper, to keep his bee colony on their property, and he showed the actor and crew some of the finer points of beekeeping. “I guess Matthew plays a beekeeper in the movie,” Kathy said. “He was showing them how to act and react around bees.”
The fact that McConaughey was long gone by the time she found out he’d been there still stings, Kathy admitted. “How would you feel if he was on your property, and no one told you? My husband still doesn’t get why I was mad,” she said. Now that some time has passed, however, the irritation has faded. “What can you do but laugh? It’s a good story to tell.”
That morning, she noticed several people in their driveway, so she sent Bill, who apparently hasn’t pored over many issues of People magazine, out to check. He came back and said the relative was showing some people the bees. Later, when the crowd had grown, Bill headed down for another look.
He talked with some of the folks and came back and told her a few had gotten stung and added that “one of them looked familiar.” When the beekeeper told them later who the A-list guest had been, “Bill said, ‘I guess if it had been John Wayne or someone like that, I would have recognized him,’” Kathy explained. “Can you imagine?”
Kathy, a concierge travel professional, said she was working from home that morning and not dressed in her finest since she didn’t know company was coming. “What if I had wandered out in the driveway? I would have absolutely flipped,” she said.
The farm, however, looked great. “The grass had just been cut, thank goodness,” she said. “Everything looked really pretty.”
Steaking claim
Bruce Spann, manager of the Pell City Steak House, said the crew started scouting the location a few months before the filming. “They just came in one day out of the blue,” he said. “They came in several times after that, just looking around, and then we sat down to do a contract.”
Although they weren’t told at the time which movie it was and who the star was, “we kind of figured it out since we knew they were shooting in Birmingham,” he said. They got official confirmation on Monday afternoon and learned that filming would be Wednesday, so they announced on Facebook that the restaurant would be closed. Bruce said he and his mother, Janice Spann, were the only employees allowed to be there the day of filming. “They were very strict, but they were very professional, every one of them,” he said. “It was a great experience.”
Tuesday night, “they came in and took everything down from the walls and redecorated,” he said. “It’s supposed to be a restaurant in Oklahoma, so they took down the business license and anything to do with Pell City.”
Bruce said the filming process was fascinating. In addition to the action happening in the main part of the restaurant, “my downstairs was slap full of people watching it on big screens,” he said. “They were looking at every little thing, and I don’t know how many times they would reshoot things. They worked very hard, and I have a whole different respect for what they do. They were busy people.”
He also learned that filming a movie requires a lot of silence. “You can’t have any noise whatsoever because their mikes are so sensitive,” he said. “I had to cut the ice machine and air conditioner off. We couldn’t cook anything because we couldn’t run the exhaust fans.”
As a result, he and Janice got an inside glimpse of Hollywood magic. Although McConaughey was only having a cup of coffee in the scene, the extras who portrayed the diners at tables around him had full plates. “It was plastic food,” Bruce said. “It looked so real.”
Although they got to see the whole experience unfold, they only had a brief encounter with McConaughey. “He was a super nice guy,” Bruce said. “He came back about 3 o’clock and asked if we wanted a picture with him and said he might not get another chance. He shook my hand and said, ‘Thank you very much,’ and went back to work.”
The next morning, the crew returned and put everything back just like they’d found it. “They had taken pictures of how we had everything, and they took their stuff down and put ours back up. We opened up that morning at 10:30, just like we always do,” Bruce said. “It was a cool experience and we enjoyed it.”
Braving the elements
Although things were nice and dry inside the restaurant, that wasn’t the case outside where a group of fans gathered, hoping to meet – or at least see – McConaughey.
Throughout the day, there was rain, heat, and even a few minutes of hail, but the storms are what led Sundi Hawkins to the Steak House, which is not far from her home. “Our power went out, so I looked at my youngest and said, ‘Hey we need to go get some exercise. Let’s go for a walk.’ He knew exactly where I was going,” she said. “I just couldn’t be this close to him and not try to see him.”
Throughout the day, fellow stargazers came and went as their schedules allowed. “I wasn’t planning on going at all and was just going to let them do their thing,” Lena said. “Turned out I had an hour to kill, so I decided to go by and see what was going on. That hour turned into a five-hour adventure. I almost left, but then I thought, “I’ve invested so much time here I may as well stay.’ ”
She also sacrificed a good bit of comfort – and her pride. “After the rain and hailstorm, I was soaked. And when I say soaked, I mean I was drenched,” Lena said. “I had on slides, and my socks were soaked, so I took them off, wringed them out, and put them in the pocket of my raincoat.”
A crew member later told her that McConaughey happened to look out the restaurant window and saw the whole thing. “He sees me out there wringing out my dadgum socks,” she said and laughed. “Could I have had a more Alabamian moment than that right there?”
Wet feet aside, Lena said she enjoyed watching everything unfold. “It was actually pretty neat to see how films are made,” she said. “The crew was going in and out and they all had walkie talkies. They were all labeled – one said ‘props.’ You could see all the different jobs because of the walkie talkies.”
Although the wait was long, the crowd was finally rewarded with a Matthew sighting and a little interaction. After filming, the actor went to the trailers parked across the street at First Baptist Church at Pell City. He emerged late afternoon and waved to the onlookers before driving off in a Lincoln Aviator and driving away, a chorus of squeals following him.
“When he was filming, he was very focused,” Lena said. “He came outside and went to the trailers, but he never waved or looked up or anything. When he was leaving, he was a little more friendly and talkative, and he interacted a little with the crowd.”
Although he didn’t sign autographs, the actor rolled down his window before leaving. “Can I get a ‘Roll Tide,’ Matthew?” someone shouted. “Not a chance,” the actor said with a grin. McConaughey, a graduate of the University of Texas and a huge Longhorns fan, flashed the “Hook ‘em Horns” sign at the crowd as he drove past.
It was a bittersweet moment for Sundi. “One of my favorite actors of all time is right here. He drove right in front of us, and I got so excited I forgot my camera was on zoom, so I missed the picture,” she said.
Likeability factor
Although the lure of Hollywood is strong, it seems that Matthew Mania was fueled in part because so many people like the man behind the persona. McConaughey was named Philanthropist of the Year by The Hollywood Reporter in 2022 in part for his efforts in organizing the We’re Texas concert that raised $7.7 million for victims of Winter Storm Uri.
He was also recognized for the impact of the just keep livin’ Foundation, which he and his wife, Camila Alves McConaughey, started in 2008 to provide after-school fitness and wellness program in inner city high schools.
“I’m a big fan,” Kathy said. “I just love him, and I love his way. He seems like a kind person.”
Sundi agreed. “He’s always been one of my favorite actors and it’s not just because he’s good-looking,” she said of the star, who was named People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive in 2005. After hearing some podcasts he’s been on and listening to part of his audio books, she’s become a bigger fan. “He’s down to earth and very spiritual. He just seems like a cool guy,” she said.
Lena, who said she was a fan long before McConaughey came to town, said she hoped his experience in Pell City was a good one. “It was an experience I wouldn’t have gotten to have anywhere else,” she said. “Hopefully we didn’t annoy the man too much.”
