From Trauma to Tequila Nights: Matthew McConaughey, Jamie Lee Curtis and America Ferrera on The Lost Bus - INTERVIEW

Matthew McConaughey returns to the big screen after six years with The Lost Bus, a survival drama rooted in the 2018 Camp Fire, California's deadliest blaze. Alongside America Ferrera, he revisits a story of courage and despair that became even more personal as they lived through the recent Los Angeles wildfires while the film was being finished.

In interviews with The Latin Times, McConaughey, Ferrera, and producer Jamie Lee Curtis confessed that while making the film was inspiring, watching and promoting it has been bittersweet.

Curtis discovered the project after reading Lizzie Johnson's Paradise: One Town's Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire. For her, the focus was never just the flames but the ordinary people caught inside them. "It had less to do with the fire and a lot more to do with the human beings," she explained. The actress and producer revealed that the film is connected to a lasting tribute: Hope Plaza in Paradise, California, a memorial now under construction with support from Apple Original Films, Jason Blum, and the cast. "Forever from now on, this will be a permanent reminder of this harrowing day in November of 2018."

McConaughey's Second Chances

McConaughey plays Kevin McKay, the school bus driver who saved 22 children during the fire. He admitted the role mirrored his character's inner failures. "Kevin was a man who never finished what he started. His marriages came up short, his jobs came up short, he came up short as a father and as a son. Sometimes you think it's too late, but if you're lucky and you do something about it, you can get one more chance."

The film also became a family affair. McConaughey's mother Kay and his 17-year-old son Levi joined the cast after director Paul Greengrass encouraged Levi to audition without revealing his famous last name. "My family is in this movie thanks to Paul," the actor said, adding that the project deepened his sense of urgency about preventing future tragedies.

Ferrera portrays Mary Ludwig, the teacher who guided children through terror as the bus escaped the flames. "She tried to keep them safe physically, but also to protect them emotionally and mitigate the trauma of those hours," Ferrera explained. For her, the story is not just about survival but about how adults step into roles that demand both strength and tenderness

Filming Amid Flames

The cast not only reenact trauma on screen. Production wrapped in 2024 in Ruidoso, New Mexico, with intense sequences filmed inside the bus for over an hour at a time. But the story turned painfully real months later when Los Angeles was engulfed in fire at the start of 2025.

Ferrera and Curtis also faced evacuation orders. Curtis revealed that editors were finalizing the movie while evacuating their own families. "When we see these stories, we think it could happen to anyone, but the reality is it happened to us. It wasn't easy to get here, but these stories are necessary," she said. The actress had only just returned home ten days earlier after months of reconstruction.

Ferrera described the wildfires as a collective wake-up call. "These disasters are a call for personal, community, and even global responsibility. We have to ask ourselves how we're going to face the challenges ahead and unite."

Between Trauma and Tequila

Despite the heaviness of the subject, McConaughey found moments of levity. His tequila brand, Pantalones, became a quiet companion during the shoot. "Not on the bus," he joked, "but on Friday and Saturday nights, away from vehicles, yes, we had some." Ferrera confirmed with a smile that it was "delicious."

A Legacy Beyond Cinema

The Lost Bus, arriving in theaters September 19 before streaming on Apple TV+ October 3, is more than a dramatization of survival. For McConaughey, the urgency onscreen mirrors the urgency of prevention. For Ferrera, it highlights how communities rise together. For Curtis, it ensures memory takes root not only in film but in a permanent memorial.

"Movies come and go," Curtis said. "But Hope Plaza will be forever."

McConaughey, meanwhile, is extending his storytelling beyond film. He is in the middle of a U.S. tour promoting his book Poems and Prayers, joined by musicians Jon Bon Jovi, Jon Batiste, and John Mayer. For him, it is another way of processing fire, loss, and the power of words.

In the end, The Lost Bus is not just a film about a fire in California. It is a film shaped by fires past and present, by tequila-fueled camaraderie, and by three artists who know that trauma, once revisited, demands responsibility and hope.

The movie is now available in select movie theaters and on Apple TV+ starting October 3.