Matthew McConaughey credits his landing the lead in Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation in part to a utensil.
In a recent video on his YouTube page, the Oscar-winning actor revisited one of his earliest roles, Vilmer in the 1995 horror franchise installment.
McConaughey sets the stage by explaining that he originally had a bit, single-day-of-shooting role in the picture, which would film in his native Texas. Then he planned to immediately move to Los Angeles. His U-Haul was packed, he noted.
“I got to the production office, and I am talking to the director Kim Henkel, and he says, ‘Matthew, do you have anyone in mind who could play the lead killer, Vilmer?'” McConaughey said. After naming a few Texas actors, McConaughey left the building. But in the parking lot, he had an epiphany.
“I said, ‘I should try out for that role,'” he recalled. So, he went back in and asked to read, which Henkel thought was a great idea. The production office secretary offered to read the scene with him. McConaughey was nearly ready, but needed one more thing, he said.
“I ran to the kitchen … grabbed a big tablespoon, came back in and just pinned her in a corner and acted like it was a weapon,” he explained. “I did it until she cried. And Kim was like, ‘That was good,’ and she was like, ‘Yeah, that was really good. You really scared me.'”
McConaughey was offered and accepted the part on the spot. Thirty days later, after production wrapped, McConaughey moved to Los Angeles.
Watch the story below.
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