Though Matthew McConaughey has increased his earned plenty of respect since he started taking on more substantive movie roles in the last few years (with Dallas Buyers Club even earning him an Oscar for Best Actor), one director that always has been a fan of McConaughey is Richard Linklater. Linklater gave McConaughey his first big break by casting him as the memorable Wooderson in Dazed and Confused (a role that has defined McConaughey’s public persona ever since) and worked with him again in The Newton Boys and Bernie. The latter was a 2012 film that helped jumpstart McConaughey’s career renaissance… but not in a way that McConaughey thought.
In an interview for the documentary 21 Years: Richard Linklater, McConaughey reveals that when he auditioned for Bernie he thought he was auditioning for the lead role of the real-life mild-mannered Texan Bernie Tiede who committed a horrific murder. However, McConaughey instead learned he was slated to play the lawman who brought Bernie to justice, Danny “Buck” Davidson and that Jack Black was cast in the lead role. According to McConaughey, he flew off the handle and demanded to audition against Black.
Despite McConaughey’s disappointment, anyone who has seen the film will tell you that the casting was spot-on, and it’s not like McConaughey didn’t have other excellent roles in the immediate future. Still, it’s worth watching the clip above from Yahoo! to hear McConaughey talk about his disappointment in having to play a supporting role.
