James Cameron is setting the record straight on an age old rumor that Matthew McConaughey was offered the role of Jack in Cameron’s “Titanic” but turned it down.
Cameron explained on “The Tonight Show” on Thursday that McConaughey did in fact audition for the movie, and they all really liked him. But then they met Leonardo DiCaprio.
“I just need everyone to back up for a second and realize not everything you hear on the internet is true,” Cameron told Jimmy Fallon. “Leo came in for an interview, and I had this weird thing, I looked around the room, and every woman in the building was in the meeting. Normally you meet with an actor and you’re one-on-one in an office. The accountant was there, and the female security guard. Maybe I should cast this guy.”
McConaughey has addressed this rumor several times before as well. In 2012, he said in an interview with Larry King that he had auditioned for “Titanic” but had never been offered the part, not that he turned it down. And he joked that if he really was offered the part, his agent would be in for a world of trouble.
Then just last month, McConaughey stoked that rumor further in an interview with Andy Cohen, saying that when he auditioned, he thought he nailed the part. And in that interview, he claimed James Cameron himself started the rumor that he had turned it down.
“The audition went really well, well enough that when I left, I was being slapped on the back. You got it. This is what we’re looking for. Well enough that you call your agent and go, ‘Oh this is happening. I nailed it, and they’re really happy too.” McConaughey said. “And then there was a rumor, and James Cameron started this rumor somehow, that I got the role, and didn’t do it. This is false.”
Well, Cameron not only denied that aspect of the story, but he hoped to make everything alright alright alright.
“The Matthew thing has become mythic,” Cameron said. “But I just want to say, Matthew, if you’re watching, are we good? It wasn’t me, man. I didn’t spread this rumor.”
Maybe McConaughey can star in one of the four upcoming “Avatar” sequels, which Fallon is apparently only just learning exist. Watch Cameron’s clip above.
A Brief History of James Cameron Dumping on Beloved Movies, From 'Avengers' to 'Star Wars' (Photos)
A lot has happened in the two decades since James Cameron said he was "King of the World." In place of obsessions with terminators, aliens and Na'vi, superhero franchises have taken over the pop culture landscape. And as we await four "Avatar" sequels from Cameron, he's had plenty of time to throw some shade at some of our more recent movie landmarks. He most recently said this past weekend that he hopes we all get "Avengers" fatigue very soon, but he's also had criticisms for "Star Wars," "Wonder Woman," "Iron Man 3" and more.
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3-D Conversions in "Man of Steel" and "Iron Man 3"
The craze to make movies in 3D was real after the wild success of "Avatar." But films like "Man of Steel" and "Iron Man 3" weren't shot in 3D, just converted to it. Cameron took notice. “One thing is shooting in 3D and another is to convert to 3D," he said in 2013. "If you spend $150 million on visual effects, the film is already going to [look] spectacular [and] perfect.”
Marvel
"Star Wars: The Force Awakens"
Maybe he was just sore that "The Force Awakens" took over "Avatar's" throne. But Cameron chided director J.J. Abrams for the film's lack of "visual imagination." “I have to say that I felt that George’s group of six films had more innovative visual imagination, and this film was more a retrenchment to things you had seen before and characters you had seen before,” Cameron said in 2016. He added that Abrams took "baby steps" with new characters but was excited to see where they would go with it.
Disney/Lucasfilm
"Titanic" Fan Theories
Cameron broke a lot of hearts when he debunked a popular fan theory about his film "Titanic" that suggests Leonardo DiCaprio's character Jack might've also been able to fit on the floating door along with Kate Winslet's Rose. “Here’s the answer: it says in the script on page 147, Jack dies,” Cameron said on “The View." “So maybe we made the door a little too big when we made the movie, but Jack’s always going to die, folks! There’s no other version of reality.”
Twentieth Century Fox
"Wonder Woman"
Cameron disputed whether Gal Gadot and her iteration of "Wonder Woman" should be held up as feminist. “All of the self-congratulatory back-patting Hollywood’s been doing over ‘Wonder Woman’ has been so misguided,” Cameron said in August of 2017. “She’s an objectified icon, and it’s just male Hollywood doing the same old thing! I’m not saying I didn’t like the movie, but to me, it’s a step backwards.” He defended his "Terminator" heroine Sarah Conner as not a "beauty icon" in the way he said Gadot is, and he even doubled down on his criticism, earning a sharp response from the original Wonder Woman, Lynda Carter.
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Netflix
Between the Cannes vs. Netflix feud, we know what side Cameron falls on. Cameron took issue with the streaming service's day-and-date release strategy. “I’m not into it -- I think it’s a stupid idea. The sanctity of the theater-going experience is something I never really want to see go away,” he told Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper (via the Toronto Sun) in August 2017. “I actually don’t think it will go away, but people shouldn’t be denied the option of seeing a film on the big screen.”
TheWrap
"Terminator" sequels
Upon announcing a new sequel to "Terminator," Cameron revealed that the film would be an updated continuation of where "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" left off. Well, what of the three "Terminator" sequels since then? “We’re pretending the other films were a bad dream,” Cameron said in September of 2017. “Or an alternate timeline, which is permissible in our multi-verse.” Not a Christian Bale fan are we?
Warner Bros. Pictures
"The Avengers"
Cameron's critique of Marvel's "The Avengers" and the superhero genre more broadly required a dictionary to understand. “I’m hoping we’ll start getting ‘Avenger’ fatigue here pretty soon,” Cameron said this weekend. “Not that I don’t love the movies. It’s just, come on guys, there are other stories to tell besides hyper-gonadal males without families doing death-defying things for two hours and wrecking cities in the process. It’s like, oy!” A "gonad," for those playing at home, is a sex gland such as a testicle.
Marvel
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The ”Avatar“ director has thrown shade at some of our favorite pop culture staples, and even sequels to his own blockbuster
A lot has happened in the two decades since James Cameron said he was "King of the World." In place of obsessions with terminators, aliens and Na'vi, superhero franchises have taken over the pop culture landscape. And as we await four "Avatar" sequels from Cameron, he's had plenty of time to throw some shade at some of our more recent movie landmarks. He most recently said this past weekend that he hopes we all get "Avengers" fatigue very soon, but he's also had criticisms for "Star Wars," "Wonder Woman," "Iron Man 3" and more.
Getty Images
Marvel
