Matthew McConaughey refused to play his iconic role in How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days, but fate seemingly had another idea.
The Oscar winning actor revealed that he nearly declined the part of Ben, because he’d already played the romantic lead in The Wedding Planner opposite Jennifer Lopez.
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And it's a good thing he didn't as How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days, which was originally released in 2003, has now become a classic for those who love a good rom-com.
Kate Hudson stars as Andie Anderson who decides to write an article titled 'How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days' after her friend's particularly messy breakup.
Wanting to prove that she can drive a man away by doing everything 'a woman shouldn't do', she then meets McConaughey's Benjamin Barry and, in typical rom-com fashion, hijinxs ensues.
However, the Dallas Buyer's Club star didn't originally want the role, until some divine intervention convinced him otherwise.
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“I remember considering whether I was going to do it or not one night while on a walk down Sunset Boulevard [in the Los Angeles area] when suddenly, this guy comes up out of nowhere to me,” he said.
McConaughey continued that the stranger knew details that he couldn’t possibly have known.
“He immediately goes, ‘There’s a movie you’re considering right now. It’s a romantic comedy. You have to do this or it will be one of the biggest regrets of your life. It is going to be a blast … and it is going to make a bunch of money,’” the Interstellar actor explained.
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Whilst he did consider whether the man had been hired by executive to persuade him, the actor seemingly couldn’t let the moment go.
Thankfully, McConaughey gave the film 'more serious consideration' after that night and went on to accept the role the very next day. Producers even made rewrites to accommodate the actor’s Texan twang and casted Celia Weston, who is from South Carolina, as his mother.
The film would eventually gross $178 million worldwide and sound bites from the film regularly go viral on social media.
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McConaughey credits the film’s success with the fact that audiences are much more aware than Ben.
“It’s really fun as the audience member to be in on the joke with one character while the other one is not,” he said, adding that the film’s plot allows for 'so much fun audience engagement and participation'.
However, Hudson has a different theory and believes it was their on-screen chemistry that created movie magic.
“We had an energy together, I wanted to play with him,” Hudson said. “It felt kinetic. ... We like to push each other,” she said.
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Hudson even fough for McConaughey to get the part, adding that she’d been impressed by his dedication to acting.
She said: “I just love Matthew’s commitment to everything; he’s razor-focused.”
Topics: Celebrity, Film and TV, Matthew McConaughey