Matthew McConaughey is reprising a previous role in the spring: professor. The actor is returning to University of Texas—Austin to teach a course on commercials, where students will study his latest commercial work, according to the description of the class, which is called Script to Screen: Commercials.
McConaughey will co-teach the class with lecturer and director Scott Rice and associate professor Laura Bright. Rice and McConaughey instructed another Script to Screen class together in years past, which taught students about film producing and directing from “guidance on pitching to the ins and outs of founding a production company.”
The Script to Screen: Commercials course, which begins in the Spring 2023 semester, will have students studying “campaign briefs, early concepts, scripts, storyboards and exclusive behind-the-scenes footage,” to learn about the making of ad campaigns.
McConaughey, a Texas native, attended UT Austin, graduating in 1993 with a bachelor’s of science in radio, television and film, according to the school. He and his wife, Camila Alves, decided to move their family to Austin from Los Angeles in 2011.
He started as a visiting professor at the school in 2015 and served as the school’s “Minister of Culture,” CBS Austin reports. In 2019, he officially became a professor of practice at the school’s Moody College of Communication.
McConaughey has helped teach the original Script to Screen course since 2015 and developed the course’s curriculum, according to the school. For the course, which is only available to majors, the students studied the “script drafts, shot lists, storyboards, early edits and even exclusive behind-the-scenes footage” of some of McConaughey’s films.
Some of the films studied in the class include “Free State of Jones,” a 2016 American historical war film, “The Gentleman,” a 2019 action comedy, and “Mud,” a 2012 drama. Several guests have come to speak to the class, including Jeff Nichols, who directed “Mud.”
It is unclear which commercials will be discussed in the new course, but McConaughey has appeared in many, including for Lincoln cars and a Super Bowl ad for Salesforce.
