How a drunken night landed Matthew McConaughey his first major role
Through his 2010s ‘McConnaissance’, actor Matthew McConaughey established himself as one of the greatest actors of his generation, leaving behind his previous 2000s reputation as a leading man in a romantic comedy. McConaughey reinvented himself as a performer and delivered some of the best cinematic moments of the last decade.
The period began with 2011’s The Lincoln Lawyer, which quickly ran into Mud and Magic Mike. The big performances really started to flow from 2013 onwards, though, with efforts in the likes of Dallas Buyers Club, The Wolf of Wall Street, Interstellar and HBO’s True Detective proving that McConaughey is a serious talent.
However, even with all the legendary performances now under his belt, we ought to remember how it all began for McConaughey. He famously featured in Richard Linklater’s 1993 coming-of-age comedy Dazed and Confused as David Wooderson, a young man who had long graduated from high school but still just wanted to hang out with his friends.
When appearing on The Howard Stern Show, McConaughey once discussed how he got the role that would alter the course of the rest of his life. It sounds like it was a moment of overt confidence that nearly went horribly wrong but actually led to great success. McConaughey had been hanging out at a bar one night.
“The bartender says, ‘There are some guys at the end of the bar producing some film.’ So I go and introduce myself,” McConaughey told Stern. “His name is Don Phillips. I introduced myself. I said, ‘Are you in town working on a film?’ He goes, ‘Yeah, yeah, I’m working on this film; I’m producing and casting. It’s called Dazed and Confused. What do you want?”
McConaughey admitted that Phillips was coming across in an “offputting manner”, most likely wanting to get rid of him. “We start shooting the shit, we both play golf, we play at a similar course,” the actor continued. “Cut to three hours later; we get kicked out; we’re a little rambunctious.”
Things might have gone badly from that point on, but McConaughey had actually already impressed Phillips. He continued: “On the ride home in a taxi, he says, ‘Hey Matthew, you ever done any acting? Come to this address in the morning; you might be just right for this part.’”
The following morning McConaughey went down and collected the script for Dazed and Confused. He didn’t have the biggest part in the movie, but somehow he turned the Wooderson character into one of the most memorable with iconic lines like “Alright, alright, alright”. Suddenly, we knew we had a star on our hands.
