Six words reportedly cost Matthew McConaughey the lead role in Titanic: “No. That was pretty good. Thanks.” Producer Jon Landau, who worked on the ma
Six words reportedly cost Matthew McConaughey the lead role in Titanic: “No. That was pretty good. Thanks.” Producer Jon Landau, who worked on the majority of director James Cameron’s feature films, revealed as much in his memoir, which has not yet been published. According to reporter Matt Belloni, in The Bigger Picture—the delayed producer’s unpublished manuscript—Landau explains that the Interstellar actor was a favorite to play the leading role in Titanic. McConaughey even did a reading with Kate Winslet, who, according to Landau, “was taken with Matthew, his presence and charm.”
The actor, born in Texas, did the test without changing his accent—even though the character, Jack Dawson, was from Wisconsin. And though the director liked the interpretation, Cameron also asked him to repeat the scene “a different way.” It was then that McConaughey said those fateful words: “No. That was pretty good. Thanks.” And that’s how he lost the role. “Let’s just say, that was it for McConaughey,” writes Landau. McConaughey has not replied to a request for comment.
Four years ago, McConaughey said on the podcast Literally! With Rob Lowe that he thought the role would be his, due to the excitement he felt during his audition. “I went and read with Kate Winslet, and it was not one of the auditions—they filmed it, so it was like into screen test time,” McConaughey said. “After we left, you know, it was one of those ones where they, like, followed me, and when we got outside, they were like, ‘That went great.’ I mean, kind of, like, hugs.”
Then he clarified that rumors that he had been offered the part of Jack were not true. He had even talked about the matter with the best source of all: “I asked Cameron about this, because the gossip over the years that I heard and would see written about me was that I had the role in Titanic and turned it down,” McConaughey said. “Not factual. I did not get offered that role.”
Though perhaps he would have loved to give life to the character eventually played by Leonardo DiCaprio, the actor has always been proud of his roots—maybe so proud that he doesn’t regret not wanting to shed his accent. “We’re good storytellers,” he told Southern Living this year. “I like the poetry down here. I like the sense of time. I like how 60 minutes feels like an hour. We’re in a rush for the right reasons.”
Original story in VF España.
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