The chemistry between How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days co-stars Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson was palpable onscreen, but even before the cameras began to roll, McConaughey said he knew that he and Hudson had a real connection.
“I remember we met on the Paramount lot—I believe it was the time—and those casting sort of meeting couches, especially for rom-coms, you want to see the chemistry between the two leads,” McConaughey said, per The Hollywood Reporter. “You want to see how the jive is. We’re not reading through the script. We’re not reading lines.”
He continued “Immediately, we were comfortable with each other, and we jacked with each other, and we busted each other’s chops, and we laughed a lot,” he said. “There was a bit of rock and roll exchange, like ‘Oh, this could be some heavyweight fun.’ And I think that’s why I was cast, and that’s why, for whatever extent, it worked.”
McConaughey and Hudson played Ben Barry and Andie Anderson in the beloved 2003 film—a rom-com in the golden age of rom-coms. The film follows Andie, a journalist, “who tries to push the boundaries of what she can write at a women’s magazine by convincing her boss that she can get a man to, well, leave her in 10 days,” The Hollywood Reporter rehashed, referencing the movie’s title. “Meanwhile, Ben Barry is so confident in his romantic prowess that he makes a bet with his co-workers that he can make a woman fall in love with him in 10 days. When the two meet, their plans backfire.”
McConaughey also opened up about working with another famous early aughts co-star, Jennifer Lopez, who he starred alongside in 2001’s rom-com The Wedding Planner. He dished on her astounding work ethic, specifically in a scene where their characters Steve and Mary dance together.
“I’ve never seen someone be able to choreograph something so cleanly and clearly and actually hit the coordination of a scene,” he said, adding that Lopez nailed the scene every time. “That woman’s a worker and knows what she wants to do, and she does what she needs to do to pull [it] off.”
As for McConaughey and Hudson, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days wasn’t their only time working together—their chemistry was so solid that they reunited five years later in 2008, this time for the film Fool's Gold.
