Matthew McConaughey is a man of many acting talents. He can lead space epics and dramas, but he can also voice a singing koala every once in a while. McConaughey’s most celebrated role might be his award-winning performance in True Detective, but true fans know that the Texas native is the original 2000s shirtless golden boy of romcoms.
Obviously, it takes work to be cast in various movies like The Wedding Planner and your mom’s favorite comedy, Failure To Launch, but McConaughey isn’t taking all of the credit. In a new interview with Vanity Fair, the actor said that it was a chance encounter with a fortune teller that inspired him to achieve his romcom king status that so many others dream about.
When McConaughey was being considered for the lead opposite Kate Hudson in 2003’s How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days, he was on the fence until he was convinced by a psychic to do it. As he recalled, a man come up to him on the street and offered to give him a reading. “I remember considering whether I was going to do it or not one night while on a walk down Sunset Boulevard,” the actor recalled. “Suddenly, this guy comes up out of nowhere to me — he was a fortune teller guru [and] goes, ‘Can I tell you your fortune real quick?” Not the thing that you want to hear from a stranger in Hollywood, but McConaughey humored him.
“I was like, ‘Yeah, man. Sure.’ He immediately goes, ‘There’s a movie you’re considering right now. It’s a romantic comedy. You have to do this or it will be one of the biggest regrets of your life. It is going to be a blast, it is going to be an incredible experience and it is going to make a bunch of money,” the actor was told. He laughed it off but accepted the part the next day, and the rest was history. Until he starred in Fool’s Gold, of course.
Lately, McConaughey has been shifting his focus from movies to gun reform after the Uvalde shooting in his hometown. He spent most of last year advocating for families and victims of gun violence and seems to be taking a hiatus from his acting duties.
