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When McConaughey was approached to play Lopez's leading man, he said he envisioned his character being named Steve. So, they named him Steve. (You can really picture him saying that, too, can't you?)
But he also told E! News back in 2001 that it was after spending five minutes with Lopez that he really knew he wanted to do the film. After meeting with Shankman at a Bennigan's in Tucson, Ariz.,, he drove to Las Vegas, where the singer-actress was, to meet her for the first time.
"There's a pace to romantic comedy. In five minutes, we already had nicknames, [we're] punching each other," he said, smiling. "I can't imagine doing a film like this and not liking my co-star, you know? That would really suck, to have to manufacture an attraction and a kindness." ("All of my relationships [on set] have been different but good, and positive," he assured when asked if there was, in fact, anyone he hadn't liked over the years.)
He had just finished a more intense project, in his case the "heavy duty responsibility, weight of the world on your shoulders, life and death" World War II-era action film U-571, and wanted something less weighty.
"This is affairs of the heart," he said. "A nice change."