Richie Merritt didn’t even know who Matthew McConaughey was when a casting pro waltzed into his high school in the 2010s, intent on finding a teen to co-star with the actor in a film. Then a freshman, Merritt wasn’t a movie fan and wasn’t considering acting as a career. That is, until the scout told him he bore an uncanny similarity to the character she was casting, a young FBI informant turned drug dealer from Detroit based on the real-life Richard Wershe Jr.
Before he knew it, Merritt was traveling from his native Baltimore County to L.A. to meet the Dazed and Confused star himself. “They wanted somebody who wasn’t polished,” Merritt says now of the filmmakers behind the 2018 film White Boy Rick, which marked his film debut. “They wanted the real deal, they wanted somebody that comes from that type of environment.”
Related Stories
...Keep reading this article on Hollywood Reporter.
