Watch Matthew McConaughey’s ‘Dazed and Confused’ Audition
Out of all the character’s Matthew McConaughey has played over the years, few are as beloved as David Wooderson, his smooth operator from Richard Linklater’s 1993 stoner classic, Dazed and Confused. Now, McConaughey’s original audition tape for the role has surfaced, courtesy of Criterion Collection, further perpetuating the hazy, ageless legend of everyone’s favorite mustachioed burnout.
Donning a “Headbangers Ball” T-shirt — because of course he is — McConaughey breezes through what would become two of Wooderson’s classic scenes: When he asks Wiley Wiggins’ Mitch Kramer if he’s got a joint on him, and later, his infamous rumination on high school girls.
McConaughey’s blazed demeanor during his audition is a bit giddier than the “wizened” Wooderson he plays in the film, but it’s still clear why Linklater gave him the part. How could anyone say no that smile? Especially when it’s saying, “I keep getting older, but they stay the same age.”
In 2013, as Dazed and Confused was celebrating its 20th anniversary, Linklater said he was getting ready to start filming what he called “a spiritual sequel” to Dazed and Confused. The movie, That’s What I’m Talking About, is reportedly set in the Eighties and centers around a handful of college freshman who are also baseball players. Linklater spoke about the film in a recent interview with Creative Screenwriting, saying it also overlapped a bit with his last film, Boyhood.
“It’s a party film,” Linklater said. “It’s really about the beginning of school, not the end of the school year. I guess personally or autobiographically it’s kind of in that realm, but it’s also a continuation of Boyhood, believe it or not. I don’t know if one film can be a sequel to two different movies, but it begins right where Boyhood ends with a guy showing up at college and meeting his new roommates and a girl. It overlaps with the end of Boyhood.”