Actor Matthew McConaughey’s son and mum auditioned for his film The Lost Bus

LOS ANGELES – Debuting on Apple TV+ on Oct 3, the thriller film The Lost Bus stars Matthew McConaughey as a school bus driver who battles to save 22 children from a fast-moving wildfire.

And in a first for the 55-year-old American actor, his on-screen son and mother are played by his real son and mother: Levi McConaughey, 17, and Kay McCabe McConaughey, 93.

But the star – who won a Best Actor Oscar for playing an Aids patient in the biopic Dallas Buyers Club (2013) – never intended for this to become a family affair.

He was surprised when his son, who had never acted before, asked to audition for the role – and insisted their surname be removed from the boy’s audition video so the film’s English director, Paul Greengrass, had no idea who he was initially.

It all began when Matthew McConaughey first told his family about the screenplay for the movie, which is inspired by a real-life survival story from the 2018 Camp Fire, a blaze in northern California that killed 85 people.

Based on the 2021 non-fiction book Paradise: One Town’s Struggle To Survive An American Wildfire, The Lost Bus follows down-on-his-luck driver Kevin McKay (McConaughey) as the smoke and flames close in on him and a school bus full of children as well as their teacher, Mary Ludwig (America Ferrera).

McConaughey’s eldest child was intrigued when his father described the screenplay.

“Whatever film I’m doing, I always pitch the script to my family,” explains the performer in a Zoom interview from Toronto, Canada, where the movie had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in early September.

“I tell the story, and also mention that the character I play has a son.

“And my son, Levi, comes to me and says: ‘Well, how old is he?’” recalls McConaughey, who also has two younger children, aged 15 and 12, with his Brazilian-American model wife Camila Alves, 42.

“I say: ‘13 or 14’. He goes: ‘Can I read for (the part)?’

“I didn’t say anything – I wanted to see how much he wanted it,” says the star, whose more recent mainstream movies include Guy Ritchie’s action-comedy The Gentlemen (2019) and mystery thriller Serenity (2019), co-starring Anne Hathaway.

“A couple of days later, he comes back and says: ‘Can I read for it?’ He came back four times, and after the fourth time, I said yes.”

McConaughey asked The Lost Bus’ casting director if Levi could send in an iPhone video of himself reading the part of Shaun McKay, who has a strained relationship with his father Kevin.

She said yes, and the actor was pleased with the video.

“I could tell he could hold a frame and was comfortable and honest with who he was,” he says.

The casting director, too, felt the audition video was good enough to send to Greengrass, but McConaughey asked her to remove Levi’s last name so the film-maker would not know who the boy was.

“And Paul looked at it and goes: ‘This is the kid.’”

Then, during production, Greengrass – who helmed three movies in the Bourne spy thriller film franchise (2002 to 2016) – decided to recast the part of Kevin McKay’s elderly mother. “And he goes: ‘What about your mum?’”

McConaughey’s mother had acted before, doing a small part in the comedy-drama film Bernie (2011).

And even though Kay McCabe McConaughey was then in a wheelchair from a tailbone injury after a fall, Greengrass felt that could be written into the script, and worked well for the role.

But the actor still wanted her to pass an audition of sorts.

“I called her and said: ‘Mum, send me a minute of you on camera talking about why you love being a mother.’

“So, she sent about an eight-minute tape, I show it to Paul, and Paul’s like: ‘Yes, she’s great.’

“So, it was Paul who picked them both.”

The actor has several emotionally charged moments with both family members, and it was a memorable day on set when all three McConaugheys shared a scene.

“To be in a scene with those two, I’d have never thought that was something that we would do,” he says.

The Lost Bus premieres on Apple TV+ on Oct 3.