Have you ever wondered how Matthew McConaughey became the king of the romantic-comedy genre in the early 2000s? It turns out it’s all thanks to a fortune teller!
McConaughey already had one rom-com hit under his belt with 2001’s “The Wedding Planner” when the offer to star opposite Kate Hudson in “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days” came along. He was considering whether or not to take it on when a fortune teller guru suddenly appeared out of nowhere and urged him to take the role, saying that it would be one of the biggest regrets of his life if he didn’t. McConaughey accepted the offer the next day and the rest is history.
The film grossed $177 million worldwide on a budget of $50 million, making rom-com icons out of McConaughey and Hudson. McConaughey went on to star in other rom-coms such as “Failure to Launch”, “Fool’s Gold” and “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past”, all of which grossed over $100 million at the worldwide box office.
McConaughey revealed in his 2020 memoir “Greenlights” that rom-coms were the only films he was getting offers for come the turn of the decade. He made a deliberate choice to stop acting in the genre, which is how the “McConaissance” was partly born. Despite a $14.5 million offer to return to the rom-com genre, McConaughey declined and continued to stick with the roles he wanted to do.
Rom-coms have recently won big at the box office, from Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum’s “The Lost City” to George Clooney and Julia Roberts’ “Ticket to Paradise”, but McConaughey still has no announced plans to return to the genre. It turns out it was all thanks to a fortune teller guru that the Oscar winner found himself on the path to becoming the king of the romantic-comedy genre.
Source: variety.com