For every career-altering role an actor lands, others narrowly slip away—and some opportunities unravel before a role is even discussed. Matthew McConaughey experienced both while emerging as one of Hollywood’s biggest stars in the late 1990s: he auditioned for “Titanic,” and later became so intimidated during dinner with Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, and John Malkovich that he left convinced he had blown his chance to work with the filmmaking brothers.
Speaking on Happy Sad Confused this week to promote his new indie film, “The Rivals of Amziah King,” McConaughey first corrected the persistent claim that he was offered the role of Jack Dawson in “Titanic” but turned it down.
“I’ve been told many times, ‘Hey, I can’t believe you turned down ‘Titanic.’ I’m like, ‘I didn’t turn down ‘Titanic.’” McConaughey said. “The truth is, I never got offered that. I did have a great—what I thought was a great—audition. The producers were there. I had it with Kate. I walked out of there feeling like, ‘I think I got that role.’ And did not.”
Leonardo DiCaprio ultimately starred opposite Kate Winslet in James Cameron’s 1997 blockbuster. McConaughey said that watching the movie become a global phenomenon did not torment him because he felt he had given his all in the audition.
“What’s tough is if I had gone in, had a shitty audition, and left going, ‘Ah, damn it, I could have…’ and then not gotten it,” he explained. “Then I’d have been wondering. But I went in, we had a good audition, and did all I could.”
His encounter with the Coens proved much more painful. McConaughey said he had long wanted to work with the directors, but his reverence for them left him nearly speechless during an intimate dinner with the brothers and Malkovich.
“I had such a reverence and was so impressed that I was not involved in the conversation,” he recalled. “You know that time when you’re nervous, and you’re hearing stories going on, but then you kind of quit listening because you start thinking about, like, ‘I need to get a word in here somewhere. Maybe say something witty, say something clever when I find the gap.’ So you’re not quite listening, and you’re not quite present because you’re anticipating ahead.”
When McConaughey finally found his opening, the moment only deteriorated further.
“Then you get that gap, and you’re trying to hit it,” he said. “But then you’re so happy that you got the gap, and now all the eyes are on you, and all of a sudden you start to stutter, and you go like, ‘Oh, I lost my train of thought. I forgot.’”
McConaughey said he even tried a joke but forgot the punchline, leaving the table and awkwardly returning to the previous conversation. He walked away convinced he had failed an audition that had never been formally identified as such.
“I left that meeting going, ‘Damn it, I blew it,’” he admitted, adding that he has since wondered why the Coens never approached him about certain roles.
McConaughey then used the conversation to make another public appeal. He said he sent the brothers his memoir, “Greenlights,” and suggested that its Australian story could become their long-overdue collaboration.
“You would love the Australian story, which we ought to make together,” he said before addressing the camera directly. “I’m not talking to you. I’m talking to you, Joel and Ethan.”
McConaughey currently stars in writer-director Andrew Patterson’s “The Rivals of Amziah King,” now playing in limited release before expanding nationwide on August 21. Watch his entire Happy Sad Confused conversation below.
