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Matthew McConaughey didn’t come out of his Dazed and Confused days as an immediate leading man.

Though an established actor, it took a while for many to consider McConaughey a star. But a Sandra Bullock feature helped establish McConaughey as a headliner.

Matthew McConaughey was laughed at for wanting to be the lead in ‘A Time to Kill’ with Sandra Bullock

Matthew McConaughey at the premiere of 'The Beach Bum.'
Matthew McConaughey | Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images

McConaughey may have had two breakthroughs in his career. His first breakthrough came when he scored a memorable role in the Richard Linklater project Dazed and Confused. The film would help launch his film career, but his second breakthrough would officially launch him into movie star status.

A Time to Kill was a 1996 drama that starred McConaughey as a fresh-faced lawyer attempting to successfully defend a client accused of murder. It featured an ensemble cast that included Samuel L. Jackson and Sandra Bullock. But originally, the film could’ve looked a lot different. A Time to Kill filmmaker Joel Schumacher was cast McConaughey for a minor role in the film as a Klansman. The veteran director would then ask McConaughey who he thought the lead of the film should be, and McConaughey didn’t mince words.

“I think I should,” McConaughey once told Cigar Aficionado he remembered saying. “I totally straight-faced him. He laughed and said, ‘That’s a great idea but it will never happen. I think you’d be great and it won’t happen.’ But I left feeling good that I’d at least gotten the Klan part.”

But McConaughey would later get a chance to screen for the lead role. John Grisham, the author who wrote the book A Time to Kill was based on, would have a hand in the casting. But Schumacher still warned McConaughey getting the role was a long shot.

“He told me, ‘The stduio will never go for this.’ They were after Kevin Costner, actors like that, for the role and John Grisham had approval,” McConaughey recalled.

How Sandra Bullock felt about Matthew McConaughey being cast in ‘A Time to Kill’

According to a 1996 interview with Rolling Stone, Costner wasn’t brought on the project because he wanted too much money. Woody Harrelson was also considered for the part, but Grisham refused to have him cast in the movie. McConaughey left enough of a strong enough impression on Schumacher and Grisham to clinch his star-making role in the feature.

Meanwhile, Bullock had already been cast. Seeing as she was already the bigger name at the time, Schumacher asked Bullock how she felt about casting McConaughey as her co-lead.

“I said, ‘If it’s a strong, honest actor, it’s my privilege to be opposite him,’” she recalled.

But Bullock wasn’t only impressed by McConaughey’s talent, but also his grounded personality and work ethic. Even back then she saw something unique about the actor.

“He’s a character actor in a leading-man’s body, and he’s going to change the face of what we demand from male actors,” Bullock said. “We’ll demand for them to push themselves more. He’s not just another beautiful face.”

Matthew McConaughey is looking forward to possibly reprising his role in ‘A Time to Kill’

There were reports that McConaughey would be returning to the role that made him a big name. Entertainment Tonight revealed not too long ago that HBO was planning a television adaptation of Grisham’s A Time to Kill world. McConaughey himself asserted that this was a project he’d been entertaining for quite some time.

“All I can tell you right now is that yeah, it is something that I have been searching for a while now, and if it happens, we would script write everything,” McConaughey said. “It would be something I would love to reprise and be Jake Brigance. I have often thought…25 years later, what am I doing? What am I doing and also what is the flip side, you know?”

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