Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew McConaughey romance their gay fan base with Failure to Launch.
By Brandon Voss
Okay, so there are no travelin’ trans people, nelly novelists, or crying cowboys in Failure to Launch, a big studio romp about a woman hired to lure a 35-year-old bachelor out of his parents’ house. Even so, it might just be the gayest date movie of 2006, thanks to the indisputable queer-appeal of its stars, Sex and the City style-setter Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew McConaughey, People’s reigning “Sexiest Man Alive.” I recently sat down with the pair — Parker chewing gum in a simple black dress, McConaughey showing off a suntan he got “relaxing” in Mexico — to discuss their sexual chemistry, sexiness, and life after Sex.
“I love romantic comedies,” says Parker, 40, who counts A New Leaf, The Heartbreak Kid, and Woody Allen films among her favorites. Not surprisingly, Failure appealed to her even before there was a script. “Just to do a big, lush romantic comedy with a decadent schedule and big-time actors. You’d be surprised how few there are — especially for people my age and Matthew’s age.”
The 36-year-old actor admits to passing on his fair share of shiny crap, but McConaughey claims that he’s also “learned to enjoy” the genre. “I want to have fun doing what I’m doing,” he says, flashing that swoon-worthy smile. “Sometimes fun is incredibly hard work. The most fun I have on a film is at the end of the day going, Okay, you hit that one. That was a good day.”
Though fun-loving Parker spent seven good years starring in one of the most successful romantic comedy series of all time, she doesn’t let Carrie Bradshaw make her career decisions. “I’m always nervous before a job; I always think I’m going to be fired, I’m going to disappoint somebody — myself included — but I don’t think of it in terms of Sex and the City,” she says. “But I certainly don’t look to repeat what that particular story was. While it’s often the easiest, most lucrative choice to do what’s familiar, that’s not what I want to do anymore.”
Good thing those Sex-y rip-off scripts are easy to reject. “When that familiar one comes along, it’s never as good as what Michael Patrick King did,” she says. Speaking of the series’ executive producer, frequent director, and episode writer, will we ever see the Sex and the City movie that he penned? “Incredibly unlikely,” Parker says with confidence. “Three of us really wanted to do it, the crew was waiting, HBO was lined up and it was a pretty big budget movie. And, you know, it didn’t happen. The sets were literally thrown away in a Dumpster. I don’t think the momentum is there to revisit it. That was critical timing.”
While she appears somewhat regretful that Sex co-star Kim Cattrall’s lack of cooperation put the brakes on the film, Parker agrees it might be better that the series went out on a high note and never looked back. “Perhaps it was fortuitous,” she says. “It’s hard to know. But I’ll tell you this: The script was incredible. Michael Patrick wrote a lush, big, whimsical romantic comedy. I mean, big shots, Fifth Avenue, wedding gowns, tension, conflict — everything you want to see. There are two weddings in it, that’s all I’m going to say.”
Even with King’s winning plot lines and zingers, there was a definite downside to having seven years’ worth of love interests: an occasional lack of onscreen chemistry. “There were plenty of times on Sex and the City where I felt like I was pulling this man behind me,” Parker admits. “They would say, ‘I know, but you’ve got to pull him along, you’ve got to make it work.’”
Luckily, Parker had no such problems with her Failure co-star. “I don’t mean to minimize how much effort he puts into the work, but he has a very natural quality in front of the camera,” she says of McConaughey. “It just makes you feel easy-breezy. He’s a very attractive person — and I don’t mean in the obvious way. Now it’s like a public proclamation; he’s been officially anointed.”
Despite rumors of the contrary, due in part to his calling Parker “peculiar” on Oprah, McConaughey is quick to return the love. “We got along wonderfully,” he says. “Fortunately, I’ve gotten along with almost everybody that I’ve worked with. I don’t think you necessarily have to, but it sure is nice.” As for that illustrious “Sexiest Man Alive” label to which Parker refers, McConaughey doesn’t mind a little razzing. “I tell ya, I think it’s kinda cool,” he admits. “It’s a nice honor. If you get it, you might as well enjoy it.”
Though Parker’s sittin’ pretty alongside the title-holding hunk, don’t expect to see her onscreen with the other Matthew in her life: her husband, Mr. Broderick. “We haven’t desired to work together,” says Parker, who last appeared with him on Broadway in 1995’s How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. “It’s very nice having separate careers, to come home and have different experiences. It’s served us well this way.”
Parker, who, like McConaughey, left the nest in her late teens, believes that unlike the mama’s boys her character liberates in Failure to Launch, her 3-year-old son James will have moved out by the time he’s 35. “I just can’t imagine that we’ve raised a child who’s that tied to the apron strings,” she says, laughing. “You know, unless we’re ailing; we’ll need him! I’ve already told him that he’s going to come home on Fridays, no matter what his wife says, and bring me dinner and carry me up the stairs.”
But if James is ever busy, SJP knows she’s had us homos wrapped around her well-manicured finger from the start. “The gay community has always been first to the party,” she explains. “Europe and the gay community were the first people to really embrace Sex and the City. They don’t need to hold their finger to the wind. They like the new, the inventive, the risky, and often the failures. But they’re willing to take a chance.”
We’ll certainly take a chance on this Failure, plus the upcoming Spinning Into Butter, theater director Mark Brokaw’s first film, in which she’ll star as a questionably racist dean on a college campus in Vermont. (“She says some pretty vulgar, grizzly things,” says Parker of the character.) We’ll also keep our gaydars set for the six shows her Pretty Matches Productions has in development for HBO (including one based on nightclub doyenne Amy Sacco), as well as McConaughey’s next film, the football drama We Are Marshall. Because when it comes to these two sex symbols, we’d never be late for the party.
HX, March 2006.