‘The Rivals of Amziah King’ Interview: Matthew McConaughey

‘The Rivals of Amziah King’, which was written and directed by Andrew Patterson (‘The Vast of Night’), opens in theaters on August 14th.

“Ain’t no one all bad or all good.”

Release Date: Aug 21, 2026

Run Time: 2 hr 10 min

The film stars Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey (‘Dallas Buyers Club’), Kurt Russell (‘Tombstone’), Rob Morgan (‘Stranger Things’), Tony Revolori (‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’), Cole Sprouse (‘Lisa Frankenstein’), Owen Teague (‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’), and newcomer Angelina LookingGlass.

(L to R) Matthew McConaughey, Angelina LookingGlass, and ‘The Rivals of Amziah King’ director Andrew Patterson.

Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Matthew McConaughey, Angelina LookingGlass and director Andrew Patterson about their work on ‘The Rivals of Amziah King’, LookingGlass’ experience working with McConaughey, his charismatic character, developing the screenplay, and the themes Patterson wanted to explore.

Related Article: Movie Review: ‘The Rivals of Amziah King’

Matthew McConaughey stars in ‘The Rivals of Amziah King’. Photo: Black Bear Pictures.

Moviefone: To begin with, Matthew, I thought this was a great character for you to play. Did you recognize that right away and what were some of the aspects of the character you were excited to explore on screen?

Matthew McConaughey: Yeah, I did recognize that pretty quickly, that I wanted to go inhabit the heart and soul and shoes of Amziah. The fact that he’s a shepherd, a father figure, a mentor, a mythological character, and the leader of these misfits. A duct tape profit, that he treats everything in life, as it is, quite religious. Forget what your denomination is. Life is a religious experience, he does know that. The way he deals with hardships, the way humor and music are ways of dealing and keeping the rhythm of life going when things suck and you feel stuck. The way he is a giver of light, and gives Kateri a belonging, and brings anybody who’s on the outskirts into the center of the circle, and shines a light on them. It makes them the center of attention without asking their permission. He really lifts people up and celebrates them. There’s a lot of joy and mischief and I was happy to step into the shoes of Amziah.

(L to R) Matthew McConaughey and Angelina LookingGlass star in ‘The Rivals of Amziah King’. Photo: Black Bear Pictures.

MF: Angelina, can you talk about Kateri and Amziah’s relationship and what it was like creating that on set with Matthew?

Angelina LookingGlass: I feel like it was natural. It just naturally came together. I remember our first chemistry read. The dynamic was already there, and so it was easy to go into the scenes with him, and be Kateri and Amziah, and have his father and daughter relationship. I love how in the first act of the film, it’s this really warm relationship. Then, in the second act, she’s on her own, and she has to step into these circumstances and find her grounding. She is so strong in in both acts, and you can see how much she grows from beginning to end.

Matthew McConaughey stars in ‘The Rivals of Amziah King’. Photo: Black Bear Pictures.

MF: Finally, Andrew, can you talk about the challenges of developing the screenplay and what were some of the themes you wanted to explore as a director?

Andrew Patterson: That’s an interesting question because I don’t write from theme. I write from plot and I write from story. People like to act like plot is a bad word in cinema and in movies, but it’s not. If you’ve done your job right, you’re building a story that is managing people’s attention spans. It’s drawing them in. It is building a place where they want to spend time and hopefully repeatedly come back, because it creates a beginning, middle, and an end, and at the end, you have a release or a catharsis. When you’ve done that, the themes will emerge. You will find out things you didn’t even realize. I didn’t realize until I was editing that this was a movie about protection, believe it or not. It’s all in the script, and it was always there. I wrote the words. But I didn’t understand that it was a movie about protection. I didn’t understand what I wrote, which is when you get the right collaborators, like Matthew, or my editor Patrick Smith, and even a first timer like Angelina. They will help you define and refine those things. If you’ve done your job right, they’re in there because you understand story. You understand the primal storytelling. You understand things that have been passed along for tens of thousands of years. We redress them with modern sensibilities or put them in this decade or this century. But often the thing under the hood is much older. I don’t ever start a movie by thinking, “I’m making a movie about loyalty. I’m making a movie about community”. It emerges, and when it emerges, it has an honesty there. So, I do my best to make movies that have depth, but I never start them from a place of theme.

‘The Rivals of Amziah King’ opens in theaters in limited release on August 8th, before opening wide on August 21st.

What is the plot of ‘The Rivals of Amziah King’?

Kateri’s (Angelina LookingGlass) life takes a tragic turn as she loses her mother and leaves foster care. Reuniting with her former foster parent, Amziah (Matthew McConaughey), changes everything: he becomes her mentor, revealing hidden skills when a devastating situation arises. Kateri relies on her newfound strength to seek Angelina LookingGlass is the true find here, giving a star making performance