By Michaela Gordoni
Matthew McConaughey and his wife Camila Alves like to keep things simple at their Texas ranch.
“Whether that’s gathering for dinner and sitting down and sharing about our day at the end of the day, or cooking a meal together or taking trips together, we do a lot together,” the father of three told PEOPLE.
“We always had chores. We started off with an allowance,” said McConaughey’s oldest, 17-year-old Levi. “Then, as we got older, it was still chores, but the allowance slowly—”
“Turned into more, ‘This is how you pay your way,'” added McConaughey.
“Exactly,” Levi nodded. “This is how you get Christmas presents…”
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The family travels together when McConaughey has to be away for any longer than a week.
“So I’m not going to work on my own returning three months later and having to play catch-up with [Camila] or with the kids,” the actor explained. “Camila drew that line in the sand before we even had kids. Is it getting more difficult now to continue to do that” now that his kids are older.
“Growing up, there was a lot of ‘Because I said so,’” said McConaughey. “Camila and I try to listen longer, more, try to understand. If I get to where I have to raise my voice, I feel I’m already going, ‘Let me backtrack and see, what did I miss on the way to letting it get to this point?'”
McConaughey’s mom, Kay, once asked him and Camila if they ever fight. They told her they do, but not around their kids.
“As soon as Camila and I decided to have children, I wanted them to be raised here in my home and around their family,” he said. “I wanted them to be raised with, what maybe you could say is a little more common sense values that I feel is around here. Where a mile feels like a mile and 60 minutes feels like an hour. It was a natural coming home for me.”
“In Texas, we’re going to the church that we like to attend every Sunday. Sports became a stronger tradition for the kids,” Camila said previously.
Levi recently starred with his dad in the Apple TV+ movie, THE LOST BUS, and McConaughey has given him a few pointers, but mostly Levi relies on his own skills in his roles.
“I’ve tried to give him some tips that I’ve learned along the way, tried to give him some of those tips earlier than I understood them,” McConaughey said. “It’s hard to keep your feet on the ground to sift out the real stuff from the BS.”
“But over time, you got to get that sixth sense,” he said. “It’s important that he has his own ownership of who he is and becomes. And [acting] will be a part of that if he continues to do it, part of finding his identity, but it can’t be his full identity.”
Levi and McConaughey’s movie, THE LOST BUS, came out Sept. 5 and is available to stream on AppleTV+.
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