Columbia Pictures
- McConaughey was originally to have a small part in the B-movie horror.
- Then he had an audition for the lead villain in which he threatened a secretary with a spoon.
- "I did it until she cried," he said on his YouTube channel.
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Matthew McConaughey recently looked back on the unique way he landed the villain role of Vilmer in the 1997 B-movie, "Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation."
McConaughey said in a recent post on his YouTube channel that he originally was supposed to have a small role in the movie that would've seen him shoot for just a single day. In fact, he had a U-Haul packed as he was going to drive to Los Angeles the day after shooting to pursue a career in acting.
But when the movie's director, Kim Henkel, told him he was looking for someone to play the Vilmer role and if he had any suggestions, he asked if he could audition.
"I said, 'I should try out for that role,'" he said in the YouTube video.
The office secretary agreed to read the scene with McConaughey for his audition.
"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 recalled. "I did it until she cried. And Kim was like, 'That was good,' and [the secretary] was like, 'Yeah, that was really good. You really scared me.'"
Henkel gave McConaughey the role on the spot and birthed one of the Oscar-winner's most bizarre roles.
The movie, a remake of the iconic 1974 horror, has since gone on to become a cult classic because of McConaughey's chilling performance and Renée Zellweger, who was also an unknown then, playing the lead role.
Obviously both went on to do greater things. McConaughey won the best actor Oscar in 2014 for "Dallas Buyers Club" and was nominated for a lead actor Emmy the same year for "True Detective."
Meanwhile, Zellweger won best supporting actress in 2004 for "Cold Mountain" and lead actor in 2020 for "Judy."