Matthew McConaughey Was Nearly Cast in This Legendary Film—Guess Which Iconic Role He Lost

Can you picture a world where Jack Dawson drawled, “Alright, alright, alright” as the Titanic set sail? For a brief moment in cinematic history, that alternate universe nearly existed. Matthew McConaughey—yes, the Texan philosopher king of rom-coms and existential Lincoln ads—almost grabbed the heartthrob lifeboat that launched Leonardo DiCaprio into global superstardom. Wild, right? I’ll admit: something about a cowboy hat on the bow of that doomed ship is both hilarious and oddly fitting. But as Matthew himself would tell you, sometimes the universe tosses you a curveball (or rather, an iceberg), and you just have to keep paddling. So what really kept McConaughey off the world’s most iconic door? Dive in to ponder the what-ifs, the maybes, and the “bless your heart, that was close” moments of Hollywood lore. LEARN MORE

Matthew McConaughey is one of the best-known actors in Hollywood, but if the 55-year-old has any regrets, it might be missing out on a starring role in one of the biggest roles in film history.

The Texan missed out on a huge opportunity early in his career but didn’t let it affect him too much, as he went on to star in films such as How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days and Dallas Buyers Club, for which he won an Oscar in 2014.

McConaughey, whose return to acting was confirmed earlier this year, has said that appearing in Interstellar changed his life, but there’s no doubt that landing a starring role as Jack in Titanic certainly would have changed his life from a financial perspective – given it is one of the highest-grossing movies of all time.

The 1997 classic film would go on to star Leonardo DiCaprio, who had earned his breakthrough role in Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet the year prior, and it’s difficult to imagine anyone else alongside Kate Winslet as Jack.

However, it could have very easily been the charming McConaughey, and he seemed pretty confident that he was going to land the role.

It is strange to imagine anyone else playing Jack (Lionel Hahn/Getty Images)

“I went and read with Kate Winslet, and it was not one of the auditions—they filmed it so it was like on-screen test time,” he told Rob Lowe on his podcast Literally! with Rob Lowe in 2021. “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.”

Unfortunately, much like a student who thinks they have aced the exam, the decision didn’t lie with McConaughey but with the directors, and there was one thing that seemingly put them off.

In Jon Landau’s upcoming posthumous memoir The Bigger Picture, the producer claims that McConaughey was a front-runner for the role and even did a chemistry read with Kate Winslet, who ‘was taken with Matthew, his presence and charm’.

Despite Kate Winslet falling for his charm, the director wasn’t as keen (Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)

“Matthew did the scene with the drawl,” Jon recalled, which left director James Cameron asking him to do it again without his Texas accent, saying, “That’s great. Now let’s try it a different way.”

But according to Landau, the future Oscar winner wasn’t interested in swapping out his twang, politely telling the director, thanks, but no. There’s no doubt that Jack, having a Texas twang, would have made things a lot different in the movie.

Landau added: “Let’s just say, that was it for McConaughey.”

It hasn’t all been doom and gloom for McConaughey in his illustrious career, however, as he’s also managed to literally find a brother in the form of close friend Woody Harrelson.