How Jim Morrison Inspired Matthew McConaughey’s ‘All Right’ Quote
During his Best Actor acceptance speech at this year’s Oscars, Matthew McConaughey slipped in a subtle allusion to David Wooderson, the eternal slacker he played in Richard Linklater’s 1993 classic Dazed and Confused: After reflecting on the power of being one’s own hero, the actor concluded his speech with a triumphant “All right, all right, all right,” referencing a classic Wooderson scene (the one where he flirts with red-head Marissa Ribisi in a drive-thru).
Now, thanks to Canadian talk show host George Stroumboulopoulos, McConaughey fans know the true inspiration behind the line: It’s a nod to Doors frontman Jim Morrison.
100 Greatest Artists: The Doors
Stroumboulopoulos uploaded the above interview with McConaughey from a 2011 episode of his show, George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight. In the clip, McConaughey gives some hilarious background on the now-iconic phrase and its stoned origins.
Before shooting his “first scene ever on film,” he was cranking a “live Doors album” and found himself taken aback by an epic, between-song rant in which Morrison rattled off four consecutive “all right”s. Inspired by the frontman’s conviction, McConaughey started thinking more carefully about Wooderson’s motivations, which he broke down into four main categories: “his car, gettin’ high, rock & roll and pickin’ up chicks.”
The actor then made a baked connection between those four motivations, Morrison’s four “all right”s and the scene at hand: “I’m in my car; I’m high as a kite; I’m listening to rock & roll,” he says. “Action! And there’s the chick – ‘All right, all right, all right!’ Three out of four!”
While the logic of this story is a bit cryptic, all that matters is that it led to time capsule moments in both TV and film.
Listen to Jim Morrison’s McConaughey-Inspiring Yell