<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"Alright, alright, alright! Matthew McConaughey capped his awards season sweep by taking home the Best Actor Oscar for his work in Dallas Buyers Club. The Texas native was beside himself as he made his way to the Dolby Theatre stage in L.A. on Sunday, March 2.\r\n\r\n&amp;quot;Thank you -- all of these performances were impeccable. In my opinion I didn&amp;apos;t see a false note anywhere. I want to thank Jean-Marc Vallee our director. I want to thank Jared Leto and Jennifer Garner who I worked with daily,&amp;quot; the 44-year-old began in his acceptance speech. &amp;quot;There are three things I need each day. One, I need something to look up to, another to look forward to, and another is someone to chase.&amp;quot;\r\n&amp;quot;First off, I want to thank God because that&amp;apos;s who I look up. He&amp;apos;s graced my life with opportunities. He&amp;apos;s shown me that it&amp;apos;s a scientific fact that gratitude reciprocates,&amp;quot; he continued. &amp;quot;To my family is to what I look forward to. To my father [James] who I know is up there right now with a big pot of gumbo, he has a big lemon meringue pie over there. He&amp;apos;s probably in his underwear and has a big can of Miller Lite and he&amp;apos;s dancing right now. To you dad, you taught me how to be a man. To my mother [Kay] who&amp;apos;s here tonight, who taught me and my two older brothers -- demanded -- that we respect ourselves. And in turn we were able to learn how to respect others. Thank you for that mama.&amp;quot;\r\n\r\nThe first-time Oscar winner then got choked up when he acknowledged his model wife Camila Alves and their sons, Levi, 6, Livingston, 2, and daughter Vida, 4. &amp;quot;You are the four people in my life that I want to make the most proud of me. Thank you.&amp;quot;\r\n&amp;quot;And to my hero. That&amp;apos;s who I chase. When I was 15 years old I had a very important person in my life come and ask me &amp;apos;Who&amp;apos;s your hero?&amp;apos;&amp;quot; he continued. &amp;quot;I said, &amp;apos;I thought about it and it&amp;apos;s me in ten years. So I turned 25 ten years later and that same person comes to me and goes, &amp;apos;Are you a hero?&amp;apos; I said, &amp;apos;Not even close!&amp;apos; She said why and I said, &amp;apos;My hero is me at 35.&amp;apos; You see, every day, and every week, and every month, and every year of my life my hero is always ten years away. I&amp;apos;m never going to be my hero. I&amp;apos;m not going to obtain that and that&amp;apos;s fine with me because it keeps me with somebody to keep on chasing.&amp;quot;\r\n\r\n&amp;quot;So to any of us, whatever those things are and whatever it is we look up to, whatever it is we look forward to and whoever it is we&amp;apos;re chasing, to that I say alright, alright, alright. And just keep living. You know? Thank you.&amp;quot;\r\nMcConaughey underwent a dramatic transformation when he dropped 40-plus pounds to play Ron Woodruff in the gritty drama. Leading up to the 86th Academy Awards, the actor also scored wins at the Screen Actors Guild, Independent Spirit, and Golden Globe Awards for his portrayal of an AIDS patient who became an unlikely crusader in the earliest stages of the epidemic.\r\n\r\nMcConaughey beat out American Hustle&amp;apos;s Christian Bale, 12 Years a Slave&amp;apos;s Chiwetel Ejiofor, Nebraska&amp;apos;s Bruce Dern, and Wolf of Wall Street&amp;apos;s Leonardo DiCaprio for the Oscar gold. His costar, Jared Leto, also picked up a win in the Best Supporting Actor category."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/matthew-mcconaughey-wins-best-actor-for-dallas-buyers-club-at-2014-oscars-read-his-touching-speech--201433>