Judy Greer told a funny and humbling story from the early days of filming The Wedding Planner not too long ago. The actress, who played Penny in the 2001 romantic comedy with Jennifer Lopez and Matthew McConaughey, said she was “so broke” that McConaughey had to pay her $20 valet fee during a table read at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City.
Greer talked about how she valeted her car without knowing she didn’t have enough money to get it back. She was so scared that she ran to a pay phone in the lobby to call her friend Sean Gunn for help. McConaughey heard her and kindly gave her the $20. Before the shooting even started, she felt “mortified” but thankful for his kindness.
This Greer had a hard time getting work early on in her career, even though she had been in Hollywood for decades and had hits like 27 Dresses and 13 Going on 30. The Wedding Planner is back in the news because it is the 25th anniversary of the movie in which Lopez plays a wedding planner who falls in love with McConaughey’s charming doctor.
McConaughey was in a number of romantic comedies that made a lot of money at the box office, including The Wedding Planner, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, and Failure to Launch. Many of these movies made more than $100 million around the world. He later moved his family to Texas so he wouldn’t be typecast as “the rom-com dude” and could take on more edgy roles.
