The Academy Award winner referenced his ‘Wedding Planner’ co-star during a “major mess-up in Mexico.”
ByJaelani Turner-Williams
August 15, 2026
Key Takeaways
- Matthew McConaughey says he dodged a “major, major mess-up” during a late-night traffic stop in Mexico by telling officers he starred with Jennifer Lopez in the 2001 rom-com The Wedding Planner.
- After he asked the cops if they knew Jennifer Lopez and mentioned The Wedding Planner, they recognized him, turned the stop into a photo op, and let him go without a citation.
- McConaughey shared the story on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, which also touched on his rom-com run, The Wedding Planner‘s box-office success, and his later career shift beyond romantic comedies.
Matthew McConaughey had revealed that he once needed to name-drop Jennifer Lopez to get out of trouble with the police.
In an episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast shared on Thursday (August 13), the Academy Award-winning actor recalled how name-dropping his Wedding Planner co-star during a late-night Mexican traffic stop helped him walk away without issue.
“Wedding Planner got me out of a major, major mess-up in Mexico one time,” McConaughey told host Josh Horowitz. “I pulled in one late night and [was] crossing the border going way down south, and I get pulled over, and it’s one of those pulled-overs, where they noticed me, gringo in the truck, nice truck. This is that dress down, and I’m like, Aw, jeez, [let me] get the wallet out. Here we go. And it was going down.”
But instead of hesitating in the moment, McConaughey thought to mention one of his celebrity acquaintances that he thought the police would know, along with making a reference to himself.
“And then I brought up, ‘You guys know Jennifer Lopez?’ And I was like, ‘Ever see Wedding Planner?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, yeah, it was me,'” he said.
Officers recognized him and rather than give him a citation, they asked to take photos with the actor before sending him on his way, much to his relief. “And then they let me go,” McConaughey said.
The 2001 romantic comedy, in which Lopez plays a wedding planner, Mary Fiore, who falls for her client’s fiancé, Steve Edison, played by McConaughey, opened at No. 1 on the box office and went on to gross over $94 million worldwide despite lukewarm reviews.
