A couple of years ago, Matthew McConaughey posted a gnarly post-bee-sting photo that showed his face all swollen. It turns out, he’s allergic to bees, and that became clear the hard way while he was working on The Rivals of Amziah King. So, when I spoke to him about playing a beekeeper in this Western premiering on the 2026 movie schedule, I had to ask how he safely worked with thousands of bees.
After taking a break from acting, McConaughey returned for The Rivals of Amziah King. It turned out to be quite the comeback project too, for a few reasons. One being it’s already critically acclaimed (in fact, I think it’s one of my favorite movies from McConaughey). The other reason isn’t as great, because not only did they have to deal with thousands of bees, they had to deal with one of the lead’s safety around them too. So, how did they pull off the bee-filled sequences without putting the actor in danger or delaying the film? Here’s what the Oscar winner had to say:
I was only stung once before filming, and I'm very allergic, so I swelled up. So we did the stuff with the bee scenes at the very end of the film in case I got stung. They didn't need me on camera anymore.
When I asked the stars and director how many bees were on set with them, McConaughey quipped that it was “all of them,” while writer/director Andrew Patterson noted that the number was in the “tens of thousands.” The True Detective star also clarified that there was no VFX used, so all the bees were real.
With that in mind, I asked about the scenes in the movie where McConaughey and his co-star Angelina LookingGlass hold the queen and get swarmed by tons of bees. I’m not kidding; as you can see in the clip above, they are covered in bees. The How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days actor explained what you have to be thinking about and doing (or, more accurately, not doing) when the bees are piling on to you:
Well, you better stay calm, because if you get tense, they get tense. And they get disturbed, and then get a little bit more than curious, and then that's a good way to get stung. The patience and the breathing is a big deal because you gotta stay in it, and it's orally the sound gets overwhelming, and you know you're beholden to them because there are hundreds, if not 1000s, on you at the same time.
Well, that sounds incredibly stressful. I know Matthew McConaughey has been in some scary situations before, and I know actors get injured while working, so this likely wasn’t the biggest of deals. But his allergy and all those bees had to have made filming this project intense. However, he stayed “alright, alright, alright” as they filmed.
In fact, he didn’t get stung when they shot that sequence. So, this strategy for making it through the scene where the bees swarm him, which you can read more about below, really paid off.
And then it starts to feel kind of cool because it tickles a little bit, all their little feet walking on you and everything. And then you get them in funny places like down your ear and in your eye or up your nose. That becomes a little odd, and you don't want to go [sneeze]. You just kind of go [slowly wipes his nose], kind of slowly move. If you just move slowly and deliberately, they kind of roll with it.
So, that’s how Matthew McConaughey dealt with the thousands of bees and made it through this process with only one sting (which happened during pre-production). And that’s great news too, because he is allergic!
Now, to see McConaughey in action with all those bees, which were really, truly there with him, you can see The Rivals of Amziah King in theaters now.
