Besides Hulk, Matthew McConaughey Has Also Wanted to Play Evel Knievel

For more than two decades, Matthew McConaughey has starred in a variety of projects in a number of different genres, but the one role that he still hasn’t found a way to play is real-life daredevil Evel Knievel. The actor recently shared with SiriusXM that taking on the role is something he’s been circling for years, but that he’s never been able to get the right script up and running, with his interest in the figure even leading to the pair becoming friends later in Knievel’s life before the stuntman passed away in 2007. Knievel was the subject of a film starring George Hamilton back in 1971 and a made-for-TV movie in 2004.

“I’ve dabbled and been around Evel Knievel story for a while,” McConaughey shared with SiriusXM. “We haven’t ever been able to get the script right. But that was the original daredevil. Everything X Games goes back to that guy and the stuff that he was doing. The interesting thing about him, people thought he was wanting to die. No, he was the opposite. He wanted to live so hard … talk about creating resistance, that guy created resistance in his life, just to feel.”

He continued, “He was actually happier when he was on a bike about to make a jump that he 95% probably wasn’t going to make, he was happier then, than in the times in between jumps. It was, like, the only place he felt actually alive was before he was actually going to make the jump. I don’t know if I’ll ever do that one, but that’s something I’ve been circling for 20 years and I became good friends with him when he was alive.”

Over the course of his career, Knievel attempted more than 75 ramp-to-ramp motorcycle jumps, most of which were successful.

This is only the most recent time that McConaughey has expressed his interest in a character that eluded him, having revealed last month that he had also been interested in playing the Hulk.

When speaking about the character with the Happy Sad Confused podcast, McConaughey confirmed he has expressed interest in playing the character, but was met with a “no, thank you.” In the years since McConaughey has been active, three different performers have played the Hulk, with Eric Bana playing the character in 2003’s Hulk, Edward Norton playing the character in 2008’s The Incredible Hulk, and Mark Ruffalo debuting as the character in 2012’s Marvel’s The Avengers and in all subsequent Marvel Cinematic Universe appearances.

Stay tuned for details on a possible Evel Knievel movie.

Would you like to see McConaughey as the figure? Let us know in the comments below!

Header photo courtesy of Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images