Rick Kern/Getty Images(LOS ANGELES) — Once upon a time, Matthew McConaughey was in consideration to play Titanic‘s heartthrob character, Jack Dawson.  As we all know, Leonardo DiCaprio scored the leading role in the Oscar-winning film — but McConaughey claims he almost nabbed it.

Speaking with Rob Lowe Thursday on the Literally with Rob Lowe podcast, the Dallas Buyers Club star shut down the rumors that he actually turned down the opportunity.

“So I went and read with Kate Winslet and it was not one of the auditions.  It was like they filmed it, so it was like into screen test time,” the 51-year old actor recalled, saying that the producers and Winslet followed him outside when it was over and made him believe he smashed it out of the park.

Said McConaughey, “They were like, ‘That went great!’ I mean, kind of like hugs. I really thought it was going to happen.”

“It did not,” he sighed, which led to years of rumors speculating why McConaughey lost out to DiCaprio.

He eventually confronted director James Cameron about the scuttlebutt to ask if any of it was true.

“I asked Cameron about this because the, sort of, gossip over the years that I had heard and would see written about me was that I had the role of Titanic and turned it down,” said McConaughey, adding that he partially believed the rumor and thought an agent of his was responsible for passing on a role of a lifetime.

“Not factual,” he found out,  “I did not get offered that role… Someone took something he said and that ran.”

“I never got offered that as far as I know, I’m telling you,” stressed the Oscar winner. “I did go have a good screen test, thought I had the role… but did not get the role.”

By Megan Stone
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