A hard-living Texas electrician and rodeo cowboy becomes an unlikely hero during the early days of the AIDS epidemic in Director Jean-Marc Vallée’s new drama, Dallas Buyers Club.
The film tells the true story of Ron Woodroof (Matthew McConaughey), a racist and homophobic redneck who discovers that he is HIV positive. Given only thirty days to live, Woodroof embarks on a mission to procure experimental drugs like AZT which were not legally distributed in the USA at the time. He forms an alliance with a transgender AIDS patient to establish a “buyers club” where HIV positive people pay monthly dues for access to the lifesaving drugs smuggled across the border in a direct challenge to the FDA.
Vallée spoke about the making of the film the incredible transformations his actors undertook in a conversation with Director Jason Reitman (Young Adult) following the DGA membership screening in Los Angeles on November 9.
In addition to Dallas Buyers Club, Vallée’s other works include the feature films Café de Flore, The Young Victoria, and Loser Love; episodes of the television series The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne and Strangers; and the short films Magical Words and Les fleurs magiques. He joined the DGA in 1996.