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American actor Matthew McConaughey paid a visit to his hometown of Uvalde, Texas, after this week’s mass shooting at the town’s Robb Elementary school that left 19 children and two adults dead.

On May 24, 18-year-old shooter named Salvador Ramos opened fire at Uvalde’s Robb Elementary School. Ramos allegedly entered the school with a pistol and a rifle.

On May 27, the 52-year-old actor went to his birthplace to comfort the community where he spent the first 12 years of his life.

McConaughey, whose mother Kay McCabe taught at St. Philip’s Episcopal School in Uvalde, paid a visit to the city’s school district and was pictured with them inside their facility.

Although the True Detective actor did not speak to the press during his visit, he was escorted by Republican Representative Tony Gonzalez, who hailed McConaughey for his visit.

Post his visit, Gonzalez tweeted:

“Thank you Matthew for helping to heal our community. Your visit brought so many smiling faces to Uvalde. See you soon my friend.”

Following the tragedy, a 2021 tweet in which Gonzales boasted about voting against laws intended at tightening weapons reviews and background checks was extensively shared on social media.

At the time, he wrote:

“I am a proud supporter of the Second Amendment and will do everything I can to oppose gun grabs from the far Left.”

Matthew McConaughey expressed his thoughts on social media after the recent mass shooting

Taking to his Twitter handle following the tragedy, McConaughey stated that Americans must find “common ground” in “an epidemic we can control.”

“As Americans, Texans, mother and fathers, it’s time we re-evaluate, and renegotiate our wants from our needs. We have to rearrange our values and find a common ground above this devastating American reality that has tragically become our children’s issue.”

The Interstellar star then urged Americans to “renegotiate our wants from our needs.”

Born on November 4, 1969, Matthew McConaughey started his acting career in 1991. He once met casting director and producer Don Phillips at an Austin hotel bar, who recommended him to filmmaker Richard Linklater for his next movie. Linklater first believed Matthew was too attractive to play a boy seeking high school ladies in his coming-of-age film Dazed and Confused (1993), but cast him once Matthew grew out his hair and beard.

His character was initially in three sequences, but Linklater pushed him to make some improvisations, and the role extended to more than 300 lines. In 1995, he appeared in The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1994), opposite Renée Zellweger, as a frenzied cruel murderer.

After relocating to Los Angeles, Matthew McConaughey became a sensation with his performances in high-profile films such as Lone Star (1996), Contact (1997), and Amistad (1997). In 1998, he collaborated once more with Richard Linklater as one of the bank-robbing brothers for The Newton Boys (1998), which was set in Matthew’s hometown of Uvalde, Texas.

Matthew McConaughey rose to prominence in the 2000s for his roles in romantic comedies such as The Wedding Planner (2001), How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003), Failure to Launch (2006), Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, and others. McConaughey took a two-year break from acting to pursue new chances.

In his first film following that hiatus, he played criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller in The Lincoln Lawyer (2011), who works largely from the back seat of his Lincoln car.

Following this performance, regarded as one of his best up to that point, Matthew McConaughey went on to play other iconic characters such as district attorney Danny Buck Davidson in Bernie (2011), the wild private detective “Killer” Joe Cooper in Killer Joe (2011), reporter Ward Jensen in The Paperboy (2012), and male stripper club owner Dallas in Magic Mike (2012), starring Channing Tatum.

McConaughey’s career peaked in 2013 when he played AIDS patient Ron Woodroof in the historical drama Dallas Buyers Club, which was shot in less than a month. Matthew McConaughey received Best Actor at the 86th Academy Awards for his depiction of Ron, as well as the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor, among other honours and nominations.

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He also starred in Martin Scorsese‘s The Wolf of Wall Street the same year. In 2014, he featured in HBO’s True Detective (2014) as Detective Rustin Cohle, whose duty it is to investigate a grisly murder in his small town in Louisiana alongside his colleague Martin Hart, played by Woody Harrelson.

The series received critical praise, winning four of the seven categories for which it was nominated at the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards. He also received a Critics’ Choice Award for the part.