Matthew McConaughey Says ‘Wedding Planner’ Saved Him at Mexico Border

Matthew McConaughey revealed on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast that acting alongside Jennifer Lopez in 2001’s “The Wedding Planner” ended up getting him out of a “major mess-up” at the U.S.-Mexico border.

“I pull in one late night crossing the border going way down south,” the actor recalled. “I get pulled over, and it’s one of those pull overs. They noticed me and I’m the gringo in the truck. I’m like, ‘Oh jeez. Get the wallet out. Here we go.’ It was going down and then I brought up, ‘Do you guys know Jennifer Lopez? Ever see ‘The Wedding Planner’? Yeah, that was me.’ They all went off… we ended up taking pictures together and they let me go.”

“The Wedding Planner” marked the first rom-com success off McConaughey’s career with $94 million at the global box office. He went on to become a titan of the genre in the 2000s with hits like “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,” “Failure To Launch,” “Fool’s Gold” and “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past” all surpassing or coming close to the $100 million mark. McConaughey said on the podcast that “How to Lose a Guy” was the peak of his rom-com tenure.

“I think it’s, probably, my favorite rom-com I’ve done and a lot of people love that rom-com,” the Oscar winner said. “And it still pays the best mailbox money of any film I’ve ever done. By far. By lengths.”

“When it used to be just DVDs or cable, every March I’d get a big check because Valentine’s Day,” McConaughey added. “But, I mean, look: the movie for me, for that genre, let me just own that genre. ‘How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days’ is real anchor in the in the rom-com genre through time.”

McConaughey revealed on the “Good Trouble” podcast in 2024 that he abandoned Hollywood and moved his family to Texas when the industry refused to let him branch out of the rom-com genre. The actor made a conscious decision at the time to stop acting in rom-coms and to take a break from Hollywood until he started getting more dramatic roles.

“When I was rolling with the rom-coms, and I was the ‘rom-com dude,’ that was my lane and I liked that lane. That lane paid well, and it was working,” McConaughey said at the time. “I was so strong in that lane that anything outside that lane – dramas and stuff that I want[ed] to do – were like, ‘No, no, no. No, McConaughey.’ Hollywood said, ’No, no, no. You should stay there.’ So, since I couldn’t do what I wanted to do, I stopped doing what I was doing, and I moved down to the ranch in Texas.”

McConaughey said in an Interview magazine discussion around the same time that “it was scary” to leave Hollywood while his career was so successful. He even infamously turned down a $14.5 million offer to make another rom-com. Fortunately, Hollywood ended up listening and offers for roles in movies such as “Mud,” “Dallas Buyers Club,” “Interstellar” and “True Detective” ultimately came in and altered the course of his career. McConaughey won the best actor Oscar for “Dallas Buyers Club.”

Watch McConaughey’s full interview on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast.