How did you decide on the look for Van Zan in REIGN OF FIRE?
MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY: Actually the idea came to me in a dream. Every other character I played in a movie had some sort of a biography to look at. But playing a dragon slayer in 2025 meant that there was no research I could do. It was all about imagination. And I dreamed about the look. I woke with a picture in my mind of a guy with a bald head who looked like a bullet. Then I grew the beard for eight months. To get in shape I went to my ranch for two months. I ran behind a truck. I worked out with weights. I was running four miles a day and started boxing, which I maintained in Dublin at a gym. I also wrestled with cows at the ranch. It was a blast. We have about 70 cows and I’d throw my shoulder into them. They don’t bite too much. I’d try to get them in headlocks and stuff like that. It was fun and doing it got me in shape. Once you had the shaved head, beard and muscles did it create any kind of reaction when people saw you for the first time? MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY: I had a few interes
