Matthew McConaughey Reveals What It Was Like Working With Jennifer Lopez in ‘The Wedding Planner’

Matthew McConaughey took a trip down memory lane and dished on his most beloved roles in a recent interview. When the A-lister talked about The Wedding Planner circa his blonde hair days, Matthew couldn’t sing higher praises for costar Jennifer Lopez.

“Look, I don't know what a five-threat is, but it's more than a four-threat, a quad-threat. Whatever a five-threat is is what she is,” the Texas native, 54, said during a video interview with People published on April 10. “I've never seen someone be able to choreograph something so cleanly and clearly and actually hit the coordination of that scene. [It would be] a two-minute scene. Take one's two minutes. Take two is 2:01. Take three is 1:59. Take four, it's 2:01. She had it down.”

Matthew ended his thought by saying, “That woman's a worker ... and she knows what she wants to do and she does what she needs to do to pull off what she wants to do.”

Early in his career, Matthew was the rom-com cutie of the early 2000s. The Wedding Planner was released in theaters in 2001, where Matthew portrayed groom-to-be Steve Edison and J. Lo, 54, was his party planner-turned-love interest Mary Fiore. It’s been more than two decades since the movie premiered and it continues to be a go-to feel-good film for millennials and new viewers.

“I love that movie,” the “Jenny From the Block” singer said during a 2021 virtual The Wedding Planner cast reunion. “I can’t tell you how many people come up to me and tell me, you know, ‘The Wedding Planner was my favorite movie.’ After you’ve done so many films, that they bring that one up [is special].”

The film’s director Adam Shankman also shared behind-the-scenes bits and even revealed that both J. Lo and Matthew weren’t supposed to be the leads.

“I didn’t perceive [Jennifer] as a romantic comedy person; she seemed too tough to me, frankly. But my agency said, ‘You have to meet with her: She read the script and she really wants to do this,’” Adam, 59, admitted to Yahoo! Entertainment in January 2021. At the time, J. Lo’s recent resume was filled with action movies like U Turn and Anaconda.

“She was ambitious and understood everything that was girly and feminine about the movie, but at the same time recognized the engine inside of it,” Adam continued. “There were many factors about the real-life Jennifer that really spoke to what the character was.”