‘Titanic’ Producer Reveals Why Matthew McConaughey Failed Audition for Jack Dawson
According to CinemaDrame News Agency, the producer of Titanic has revealed that Matthew McConaughey’s insistence on keeping his Southern accent led to him losing the role during auditions. Directed by James Cameron and released in 1997, Titanic became the highest-grossing film of its time and launched Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet to international stardom.
Jon Landau, the film’s producer who passed away in July last year, recalls in his posthumously published memoir Puck how McConaughey lost the part of Jack Dawson.
“We brought him in to do a scene with Kate [Winslet],” Landau writes. “It was important to test their chemistry — not just how they looked together but how they connected. Kate was charming with Matthew; he had a presence and charisma. Matthew played the scene with a slow Southern drawl. Jim [Cameron] said, ‘That was great. Now let’s try it another way.’ Matthew replied, ‘No, that was good. Thank you.’ Let’s just say Matthew lost the part right then and there.”
McConaughey, who went on to win an Oscar in 2014 for Dallas Buyers Club, told The Hollywood Reporter in 2018: “I went in and auditioned for it. I wanted that role. I did a screen test with Kate Winslet. It went really well. When I left, I thought I had it. But I didn’t. I was never offered it.”
Cameron previously told GQ that DiCaprio initially refused to audition for Titanic. “I had the camera set up to record. Leo didn’t know it was a screen test — he thought it was another meeting with Kate. I said, ‘Okay, we’ll go to the next room, read some lines, and I’ll record it.’ He said, ‘You mean I’m reading lines?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ He replied, ‘I don’t read.’ So I shook his hand and said, ‘Thanks for coming.’”
Cameron later told People that DiCaprio found the role uninteresting: “He didn’t want to be the leading man. I really had to twist his arm to be in the film. He thought it was boring. When I got him to realize it was actually a tough challenge, he accepted the role.”
Actor Corey Feldman (The Goonies) revealed in March that he had also been among Cameron’s early considerations for the role of Jack Dawson.
