Saturday Night Live/Season 41

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Matthew McConaughey/Adele [41.6]

Matthew: It has been 14 years since I did this show, and I gotta tell you, I did not remember how much work it is. Seriously, we've been doing 16-hour days the last six days just getting ready. Not that we are actually ready, 'cause I promise you, we are not. But you know what? I'm pretty sure everything tonight is gonna go okay, okay, okay.

That's not what you thought I was gonna say, was it? All right, well, let me tell you the origin story of the phrase you thought I was going to say. This is titled The Right Bar at the Right Time. It's 1992, I'm in Austin, Texas, in college, not even thinking about being an actor at this point. I go to this bar where I get introduced to this producer. This producer and I started talking, and four hours later, we get kicked out of so said bar. On the taxi ride home, he says, "hey, McConaughey, you ever done any acting?" I said, "well, no, not really." He says, "well, I'm doing this movie, and you might be right for this part."

Well, sure enough, I wake up the next morning, I go pick up the script, it's called Dazed and Confused. My character, David Wooderson, he has three lines in the entire film. Alright, but one of those lines is what I like to call a launchpad line. Know what I mean by that? A launchpad line is a line that, if the character really believes it, then I could feel like I could write a whole book on this character, alright? The scene goes like this. Wooderson's hanging out at a pool hall with some buddies, and some girls walk by, he smacks one of 'em on the ass, and his buddy says, "man, you're gonna go to jail for that, Woodman." And Wooderson says, "Naw. That's what I like about these high school girls; I get older, they stay the same age."

So I get called into this wardrobe-makeup test on the set, right? I'm not supposed to work, but I get called in for it. The director comes up to me, Richard Linklater. He says, "oh my God, you look great, man. This is Wooderson, this is exactly who I hoped you'd be." He says, "listen, you know, we're doing this drive-thru scene tonight, and I know you're not supposed to work, but you think Wooderson might be picking up on the red-headed intellectual? You know, he's already been with the cheerleaders and the typically hot girls; what about the red-headed intellectual?" I said, "sure, he would, man. Wooderson loves all kinds of women." He goes, "hey, you wanna shoot it?"

Next thing I know, I'm in a car getting ready to shoot my very first scene in my film acting career, unscripted. Am I nervous? You're damn right, I'm nervous. So I started thinking, I said, who is Wooderson? Who's my man, what's he about? And I tell myself, "Wooderson's about four things: he's about cars, weed, rock and roll, and chicks."

I look around where I am. I say, "well, I'm in my '70 Chevelle, that's one; I got Slater riding shotgun, so I'm definitely getting high, that's two; and we got Ted Nugent playing 'Stranglehold' on the 8-track, well, that's three." At this point, I hear over the intercom, "action!" And I look up across the drive-thru at this red-headed intellectual, and I say to myself, "buddy, you got three out of four. Alright, alright, alright!"