Richard Linklater<\/a> was casting for a film called \u201cDazed and Confused.\u201d<\/p>\nArticle continues below this ad<\/p>\n
By the next morning,\u00a0McConaughey found a script waiting for him, with just a couple of scenes marked. One line, in particular, jumped off the page: Wooderson\u2019s now-infamous declaration about high school girls \u2014 \u201cI get older, but they stay the same age.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s what I call a\u00a0launchpad line,\u201d McConaughey said on the podcast. The challenge, he said, was figuring out who that guy actually was.<\/p>\n
The answer came from a memory of when McConaughey was 10 years old, riding through his brother Pat\u2019s high school campus in a wood-paneled station wagon. From a distance, he spotted a shadowy figure leaning against a wall in the smoking section \u2014 cigarette glowing, boot heel propped casually behind him.<\/p>\n
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Matthew McConaughey as Wooderson, flanked by his disciples, in “Dazed and Confused” (Contributed by Universal)<\/p>\n
Austin 360<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my 10-year-old eyes, my 17-year-old brother was cooler than James Dean,\u201d\u00a0McConaughey said. \u201cIn that moment, from 200 yards away, he was nine feet tall. That image became Wooderson.\u201d<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t an accurate portrait of his brother, he clarified, but rather the mythic version formed in a younger sibling\u2019s imagination. That image became the foundation for the character \u2014 relaxed, magnetic,\u00a0unbothered and fully convinced of his place in the world.<\/p>\n
Linklater wasn\u2019t immediately sold. \u201cThis isn\u2019t you,\u201d the director told him during the audition. McConaughey pushed back gently: he knew who the character was. He got the part.<\/p>\n
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What followed was mostly improvisation.\u00a0McConaughey recalled arriving on set for what was supposed to be a wardrobe test, only to be pulled into an unwritten scene. Sitting in his Chevelle, eight-track blasting, he mentally ticked off the things Wooderson loved \u2014 his car, rock and roll, getting high.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when he muttered three words,\u00a0offscreen, without realizing their future weight: \u201cAlright, alright, alright.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Top Notch now has locations in Austin and Hutto.<\/p>\n
Ricardo Brazziell AMERICAN-STATESMAN<\/p>\n
They were the first words\u00a0McConaughey ever spoke on film. They weren\u2019t scripted. They weren\u2019t even filmed directly. And yet they became one of the most recognizable catchphrases in modern movie history.<\/p>\n
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\u201cPeople ask if I get tired of hearing it,\u201d he said. \u201cHell no. That was one night of work in 1992 that turned into a career.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Austin audiences, \u201cDazed and Confused\u201d remains a time capsule of the city\u2019s creative ethos and a reminder of how casually history can be made. As\u00a0McConaughey\u2019s story underscores, sometimes all it takes is a late-night cab ride, a fuzzy memory and the confidence to swing big when the camera unexpectedly starts rolling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It seems everyone on the set of “Dazed and Confused” knew Matthew McConaughey was destined for stardom. CONTRIBUTED…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141432,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2778,59533,132,134,133,1223,15674,2633,2777,1636,18242,7845,1637,27],"class_list":{"0":"post-141431","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-actors","9":"tag-arts-culture-and-entertainment","10":"tag-austin","11":"tag-austin-headlines","12":"tag-austin-news","13":"tag-austin-texas","14":"tag-celebrities-entertainment-news","15":"tag-celebrity","16":"tag-entertainment","17":"tag-film","18":"tag-film-industry","19":"tag-matthew-mcconaughey","20":"tag-movies","21":"tag-texas"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}