Matthew McConaughey came up as one of the most promising young actors back in the ’90s. And so, just like many others, he, too, wanted to put his mark in what inarguably turned out to be one of the most prominent movies of the entire decade. That is, of course, the Titanic. According to him, he auditioned for the role like many others, and although he was pretty confident about the part, he, unfortunately, ended up losing it to Leonardo DiCaprio.
Thankfully both have moved on from the Titanic era with featuring in some of the most important movies in cinema history after that, such as The Wolf of Wall Street, in which they co-starred. However, at that time, McConaughey was admittedly disappointed. What seemed to make it worse, is his stocks crashing majorly in Hollywood due to his loss of Jack Dawson.
Matthew McConaughey’s Titanic loss
As mentioned above, Leonardo DiCaprio did have some competition for being the face of Jack Dawson in Titanic. Among those, possibly the most notable one was obviously Matthew McConaughey. The main reason behind that seems his determination at the time to portray roles with singular-minded fringe characters, “that didn’t need to pander to a convention or didn’t need to pander to even a plot in some ways.”
Something, he has been building up with his previous roles at that time. According to him, he wanted to shake things up. However, even after the audition went so well that he was confident that he would absolutely get it, he did not in fact get it. The Oscar winner added,
“I auditioned with Kate Winslet. Had a good audition. Walked away from there pretty confident that I had it. I didn’t get it. I never got offered that.”
Kate Winslet too commented on this a few times here and there saying that McConaughey was fantastic as Jack. However, according to her, “It just wouldn’t have been the whole, Jack and Rose, Kate and Leo thing.” So basically the dynamic between Rose and Jack would have been completely shifted, something James Cameron seemingly wanted to avoid.
And so, McConaughey noted, his, “stock went down.” This was a particular shock as he had been making waves in the 90s with Dazed and Confused, Amistad, and A Time to Kill.
Matthew McConaughey’s Oscar win after Titanic‘s steep dive
Fortunately, the steep dive McConaughey’s career took after the Titanic loss is nothing but a thing of the past now. He has not only gained massive critical appraisal for Killing Joe, and Mud, but his portrayal of Ron Woodruff in the 2013 Dallas Buyers Club, won him the most coveted Academy Award in the Best Actor category.
And in an interesting turn of events, he even featured in The Wolf of the Wall Street alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, the next year. Although his screen time was short, he went on to give the audience something that even in otherwise outstanding movies made its prominent mark.
DiCaprio, after featuring in many important projects that would go down in cinema history, earned his Oscar in the 2016 movie The Revenant. As such, both have moved happily on with their lives and continue to flourish their Hollywood legacies as the years go by. One thing, though, fans still seem hopeful to see them share the same screen once again in the future.
Currently, Matthew McConaughey is busy preparing for his upcoming Apple TV+ comedy series with best friend and True Detective co-star Woody Harrelson.
Leonardo DiCaprio, on the other hand, is busy with Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, expected to release later this year. As such, even though a possible collaboration with these two might seem far-fetched for now, people are still hopeful for a reunion someday.
Killers of the Flower Moon is expected to arrive at the theaters in Autumn this year, however, a date has not been disclosed yet.
Source: Showbiz CheatSheet
