Matthew McConaughey’s career is one that ranges from the rom-com pond scum to unabashed Oscar bait, but he’s arguably still best known for his breakout role in 1993’s “Dazed and Confused.” This week, McConaughey’s original audition tape for the Richard Linklater film was unearthed and, no surprises, it would appear that the actor wandered into a room full of cameras and just acted like himself.
The footage was released as part of the film’s Criterion Collection release. While it’s no shock that the actor nails the audition, props to McConaughey for miming the hell out of a steering wheel and rocking a set of blonde highlights with the best of the early 1990s pretty-boy grunge crowd (sick “Headbanger’s Ball” tee).
According to an interview with Newsweek in spring 2013, the actor landed his seminal role of high school graduate and teen luster Wooderson after a drunken night out with the casting director of “Dazed and Confused” in Texas. The incident got him a meeting with Linklater and began a career that was great, then not so great, then great again.
The lesson to be learned here? You can’t script McConaughey…unless you want him to win an Oscar, then you might want to consider it.
[h/t Daily Beast]
