Fame. For movie stars, it is both a blessing and a curse. It brings opportunities and privileges, but also pressures and nearly constant scrutiny. The stars of Contact, Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey, have each learned to cope with it, but in very different ways.
Foster emerged as a major actress at 14 and has been in the public eye ever since. Yet this kind of scrutiny is a new experience for McConaughey, Hollywood's new heartthrob.
In less than a year, he jumped from anonymity to stardom, and his fame was further assured by a made-in-movie-heaven romance with his A Time to Kill co-star, Sandra Bullock. Where Foster has had two decades to adjust to stardom, it's all still new to McConaughey.
'Beginning this last year, I became unhinged a little bit,' he admits, looking sane and sexy over lunch on the Sony Studios back lot.
'I mean, the world got very small very quickly. I'd go out to get the mail and there's someone across the street with a camera.
'It's like, okay, if that's a real true part of it, how do I deal with this?' McConaughey has had the good fortune to be surrounded by people who have been through the same experience.
'I've talked to Jodie probably less than Sandy. Sandy and I still talk about it. The last year, she kind of paved the freeway in front of me.' His life has certainly changed - both for the better and the worse. 'I've lost my anonymity. That would be the biggest thing on the side that I don't like,' he says in his Texas drawl.
