A Fortune Teller Convinced Matthew McConaughey to Do ‘How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days’

Matthew McConaughey believes that magic is guiding his career — and not just the male stripper kind.

In a Vanity Fair article commemorating the 20-year anniversary of How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, the sweet-talking Texan revealed that he believes a supernatural power steered him toward the successful rom-com about a magazine writer and an advertising executive who unknowingly manipulate each other into a relationship. According to McConaughey, his decision to accept a part in the film was influenced by a mysterious psychic who approached the actor with an omen of good fortune.

In 2002, this clearly clairvoyant fortune teller predicted that McConaughey was about to act in a successful romantic comedy, a prophecy as bold for its time as if a psychic in 2023 told Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson that he will soon appear in a movie where he punches bad guys in the jungle while wearing a tan shirt.

In the retrospective, McConaughey recalled how he was offered the part in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, but couldn’t make up his mind about whether he would do the movie. “I remember considering whether I was going to do it or not one night while on a walk down Sunset Boulevard, when suddenly, this guy comes up out of nowhere to me,” McConaughey began. “He was a fortune teller guru (and he) goes, ‘Can I tell you your fortune real quick?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, man. Sure.’” 

According to the Interstellar star, the magic man told him, “There’s a movie you’re considering right now. It’s a romantic comedy. You have to do this, or it will be one of the biggest regrets of your life. It is going to be a blast, it is going to be an incredible experience and it is going to make a bunch of money.” To provide some important context, McConaughey had already acted in his first critically-panned-but-commercially-successful romantic comedy the year prior with the J.Lo-led The Wedding Planner, which is not to be confused with romantic comedies The Wedding Singer, The Wedding Banquet, The Wedding Date, The Wedding Year, The Wedding Ringer, The Wedding Trip or The Wedding.

Said McConaughey of his hilariously obvious fortune reading, “I remember thinking, ‘Did the studio hire this guy?’ I laughed at the thought, but I also remember taking a more serious consideration. I think I even accepted the offer the next day.” Thus, McConaughey accepted his part opposite Kate Hudson and made his second of roughly 8,000 successful romantic comedies in that decade. 

Little did McConaughey know that his fortune teller friend was a fraud — the psychic was actually telling him to take the role in Tiptoes.