How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days is 20 years old. Yikes

Looking back, there is no one who could have played that role like Kate Hudson. But she wasn’t the first choice.

In the 20 years since its release, How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days remains one of the most iconic rom-coms of the noughties.

The frothy story of a journalist on a gonzo assignment and an ad executive trying to land a diamond account, Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey’s on-screen chemistry sparked and sparkled.

Their comedic rhythms and playful energy recalled the likes of Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy or Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell.

And it almost wasn’t to be.

Vanity Fair’s oral history of How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days revealed Hudson wasn’t the first choice for the role of Andie Anderson.

Producer Lynda Obst told VF Gwyneth Paltrow was meant for the role, before there was even a script.

Writer Burr Steers said: “Initially Gwyneth was attached to it, and then at some point, she must have had a conflict and had to pull out.”

Gwyneth Paltrow was originally slated to headline the film. Picture: Douglas Gorenstein/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

With Paltrow unable to do it, Obst and then Paramount president Sherry Lansing had another idea.

“[We] were both madly in love with Kate Hudson]. It’s clearly after Almost Famous. I just remember, we turned to each other like, ‘This has to be Kate, she’s hilarious.’ And so Kate got attached.”

Hudson said she fought for McConaughey to play her on-screen love interest.

“We were looking at guys and kept going back and forth about who would be the right guy. The guy for me was really important. Matthew came up in a meeting and I thought that was a great idea. I loved his energy. We immediately just got along.”

But it took some divine intervention for McConaughey to sign up.

“I remember considering whether I was going to do it or not one night while on a walk down Sunset Boulevard when suddenly, this guy comes up out of nowhere to me – he was a fortune teller guru and goes, ‘Can I tell your fortune real quick?’

“I was like, ‘Yeah, man, sure.’ He immediately goes, ‘There’s a movie you’re considering right now, it’s a romantic comedy. You have to do this or it will be one of the biggest regrets of your life. It’s going to be a blast, it’s going to be an incredible experience and it is going to make a bunch of money.’

“I remember thinking, ‘Did the studio hire this guy?’ I laughed at the thought, but I also remember taking a more serious consideration. I think I even accepted the offer the next day.”

How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days would go on to gross $US177 million from a budget of $US50 million.

The film is one of Kate Hudson’s most memorable roles.

The Vanity Fair piece went on to detail the logistics behind Andie’s famous yellow dress, which was worn in the film’s gala scenes and graced the movie’s instantly recognisable poster.

Costume designer Karen Patch chose the colour to complement the diamond necklace, which featured yellow diamonds around a white diamond at the centre.

Hudson said Patch worked with the team at designer Caroline Herrera to create the dress. “I love that dress. I think that colour was one of those statement colours and was great on camera.”

McConaughey added, “[Kate] in that dress was 100 out of 100 knockout. It completely worked.”

He went on to say that he noticed that many rom-coms which came after How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days, including ones he’d been in, imitated the movie’s poster and that pose which featured the two of them back-to-back.

The movie poster for How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days inspired other film posters of the era.

And while the dress was seamless (but not literally), the diamond, called the Isadora, was something of a nightmare.

“Taking care of that diamond was a real pain for production because we needed security people and an armoured car and all of this stuff all the time,” Obst said.

Director Donald Petrie said the security guards you see in the film, who were tailing Andie, were the real security guards from jeweller Harry Winston.

“If I said, ‘OK, cut,’ all the cast had to line up and turn in the jewels. They couldn’t go to the bathroom with the jewels on. If you had to leave the set for any reason, you had to turn in your jewellery.”

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