While HBO’s True Detective has till date amassed 4 successful seasons, it was its first iteration, released way back in January 2014, that initially thrust it into the mainstream. Starring Matthew McConaughey as Detective Rustin Cohle and Woody Harrelson as Detective Martin Hart, the dynamics between the two were one of the most obvious things that impressed fans.
Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson in True Detective | HBO

Still, McConaughey’s role, in particular, was the obvious highlight of Season 1, that of a troubled yet astounding detective who cannot help but concern his partner with his philosophical ramblings. The Wolf of Wall Street star in itself was the creator Nic Pizzolatto’s first choice for the role, although he had to jump through a considerable number of hoops in order to make this happen.

This included rejecting a number of actors that the studio suggested, and coming up with a creative strategy to get his man.

Nic Pizzolatto held out for Matthew McConaughey for the role of Rustin Cohle

Things worked out perfectly for Matthew McConaughey. | HBO

Speaking during the Austin Film Festival Pizzolatto had explained in detail exactly the kind of actor he wanted for the iconic role. He claimed that he was looking for a ‘man,’ and ended up vetoing a range of names that HBO suggested. This was because the studio saw the role as that of an intellectual, while McConaughey’s ‘manliness’ meant that they simply did not see him as Rust, according to SlashFilm.

I don’t want to say any names, but they were actors who … I [was] 36, 37, so I guess they’re guys about my age then, but they look like boys to me. They did not look masculine to me … I was like, ‘No, we need men.’ And then I was even thinking like, ‘God, what men do we have left? Do we have to go to Australia?’ Because that’s what it seemed everybody was doing.

While McConaughey had taken up a diverse portfolio of roles in his career already, Pizzolato was impressed with his work in movies such as Frailty, Larger Than Life, and Reign of Fire. In all of those projects, Matthew McConaughey had played stereotypically ‘macho’ roles.

This might not have made him a choice for Rustin Cohle as far as the studio heads were concerned. However, Pizzolato wanted ‘a man’ to play the role:

I caught ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ on TV and I was like, ‘Oh yeah, that guy. He’s a man.’ I had always thought there was something really untapped in Matthew that I mostly got from two performances or three. One was ‘Frailty,’ the Bill Paxton film.

One was a Bill Murray movie called ‘Larger Than Life,’ in which Matthew plays a methamphetamine-addicted, long-distance trucker named Tip Tucker. And then a dragon-fighting movie called ‘Reign of Fire,’ where Matthew plays the most macho dude in the world who jumps into a dragon’s mouth swinging an ax…

This led to him coming up with a creative solution, as he explained that HBO continued to pitch him names that were ‘Ed-Norton’ types.

How did Nic Pizzolatto manage to cast Matthew McConaughey as Rustin Cohle?

Matthew McConaughey in True Detective (2014) | HBO
As it turned out, the True Detective creator had realized HBO was not exactly going to help, as far as his choice for Cohle was concerned. This led to him coming up with an ingenious plan, as the executives thought McConaughey was ideal for Martin Hart instead.

Nic Pizzolatto explained that he was sure if the actor himself read the script, he would simply want to play Cohle instead, which was more in line with his vision:

My belief, which I did not say, because these are the sorts of strategies you must employ when working with others, was, if Matthew reads this, I mean, any actor who reads this is going to want to play Cohle.

They’re not going to say, ‘I really want that Hart role.’ And I thought, If he reads this, he’s going to want to play Cohle, and he’s going to come back and his agent’s going to say he wants to do it, but he wants to be the other guy. And that is exactly what happened.

Hence, things simply worked out because Pizzolatto trusted his instinct, and was sure the actor himself would want to play the role that eventually ended up going to him. It was undoubtedly the right decision, as McConaughey’s character continues to be one of the most iconic ones that have come out of True Detective, as a whole.