Matthew McConaughey almost got the role of Jack in Titanic, but blew the audition. A new article by journalist Matthew Belloni published an excerpt from producer Jon Landau’s book The Bigger Picture, which tells what happened during McConaughey’s audition for Titanic.
We invited him to shoot a scene with Kate Winslet. It was necessary to check for chemistry between them. It’s not only about how people look on camera, but also how they interact, — Landau writes in his memoirs. — Kate was captivated by Matthew, his charm and charisma. McConaughey played the scene with an incredible drawn-out monologue.
When McConaughey, who is originally from Texas, spoke with a Southern accent, Cameron interrupted the actor.
That’s great. “Now let’s try it another way,” the director asked.
Landau claims McConaughey was rude to Cameron when he asked him to change his accent.
No. It was pretty good. Thank you, Matthew said and left the casting.
Although Leonardo DiCaprio was eventually cast as Jack and Winslet as Rose, Leo also had to work hard on the role. In 2022, the Oscar-winning director told GQ that when he asked DiCaprio to read the script during an impromptu test shoot, he told him he couldn’t read. However, when Cameron made it clear that if he didn’t read the script, he wouldn’t get the part, DiCaprio reluctantly agreed to rehearse the lines.
Kate just glowed… The dark clouds parted, and a ray of sunlight fell and illuminated Jack. I thought, “Well, that’s it, he’s the one,” Cameron recalled of that episode.
