Watch Matthew McConaughey Tell The Hilarious Origin Story Behind Alright, Alright, Alright

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Thanks to True Detective, Dallas Buyers Club and a handful of other brilliant projects, Matthew McConaughey has spent the past few years transforming himself into one of Hollywood’s most celebrated leading men. Gone are leading roles in forgettable projects like Fool’s Gold. In are brilliant turns in things like The Wolf Of Wall Street. It’s been a hell of a run, but even so, there are still many who prefer to remember the Texan by his beloved early Dazed And Confused catch phrase "Alright, Alright, Alright." Luckily, that’s okay with McConaughey himself. He belted it out during his Oscar speech, and he’ll probably still be saying it decades from now, which is pretty impressive considering it was originally an ad-libbed screw-up.

Back in 2011, McConaughey told the origin story of the phrase to Canadian television personality and new Hockey Night In Canada host George Stroumboulopoulos. And it’s a doozy. Apparently, McConaughey’s character, David Wooderson, wasn’t even supposed to be in the famous scene at the Top Notch, but after some conversations with director Richard Linklater, they impulsively decided to shoot some footage. Immediately prior to his take, McConaughey was listening to a live Doors album in which Jim Morrison screamed "Alright, Alright, Alright, Alright" between songs. In the actor’s mind, those four alrights became the four things Wooderson was all about: his car, getting high, Rock n Roll and picking up chicks. So, when Linklater yelled cut and he saw the redhead, he muttered, "Alright, Alright, Alright", nervously forgetting the fourth one.

In light of his win at the Oscars, Stroumboulopoulos reposted the interview, and it’s been killing it this week on Reddit. With good reason too. McConaughey has always been a wonderful interview. I don’t think he’s ever given a bad talk show performance, and considering Dazed And Confused is one of the most quoted cult classic films ever, the interest level in something like this is clearly very high.

You can get another look at McConaughey’s iconic line below…

Mack Rawden
Editor In Chief

Mack Rawden is the Editor-In-Chief of CinemaBlend. He first started working at the publication as a writer back in 2007 and has held various jobs at the site in the time since including Managing Editor, Pop Culture Editor and Staff Writer. He now splits his time between working on CinemaBlend’s user experience, helping to plan the site’s editorial direction and writing passionate articles about niche entertainment topics he’s into. He graduated from Indiana University with a degree in English (go Hoosiers!) and has been interviewed and quoted in a variety of publications including Digiday. Enthusiastic about Clue, case-of-the-week mysteries, a great wrestling promo and cookies at Disney World. Less enthusiastic about the pricing structure of cable, loud noises and Tuesdays.