Matthew McConaughey has compared meeting Pope Leo XIV to writing an acceptance speech for the Oscars.

The actor, 56, and his wife Camila Alves met the pontiff earlier this month during a service at St Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City.

The pair shook hands and chatted for a moment after the mass.

Speaking on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, McConaughey said: “This is a man who sits in a seat to represent the moral compass of the world.

“Different popes in the past had maybe more political power and stuff, but to meet him, I had some things I wanted to talk to him about.

“If you prepare things to talk to the pope about, it’s kind of like preparing a speech for the Oscars.

“You don’t know if you’re going to win, so if you win and you pull out a speech, it’s kind of arrogant, right? But I got to talk to him about some nice things.”

Fallon asked the actor if he made the pope laugh, to which he said: “He made me laugh, which is one of the things I think is consistent about the holiest and most spiritual people in the world, they’ve all got a great sense of humour.”

McConaughey was raised in a Baptist household and now attends a non-denominational Christian church.

Elsewhere during the interview, McConaughey spoke about having a cinema named after him in Austin, Texas.

The actor said it meant a lot to him because it was in Austin where he landed his big break in Richard Linklater’s coming-of-age film Dazed And Confused.

He said: “It’s really cool that’s in Austin because that’s the place in 1992 where I walked into the right bar, met the right man, (casting director) Don Phillips, got a script called Dazed And Confused, read for Richard Linkletter.

“Three lines turned into three weeks and I got my start of what I thought was maybe going to be a hobby that I did one summer, acting, that turned into a career of 34 years.”