16 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About ‘Dazed And Confused’

The cult classic Dazed and Confused was released on September 24, 1993. It was not until years after the initial release that the film set in a small Texas town on the last day of school in 1976 would find its audience and emerge as one of the most re-watchable and beloved films of the Coming-Of-Age genre.

Somehow in the late 90s I had convinced my parents to let me buy this on VHS. It was either that or my older brother who had a personal connection to the film (more on that below) snuck my a copy, I forget. But I can say with certainty that there is no movie I have ever watched more times in my life than Dazed and Confused, I used to fall asleep to it every night as my ‘white noise.’

There isn’t some big Dazed and Confused anniversary that prompted this. I simply found myself watching the movie on Netflix last night, having not seen it in a few years, and wanted to throw out some trivia from the film that I thought everyone would enjoy.

‘Dazed and Confused’ Trivia And Stuff You Probably Never Knew

There are all sorts of back stories to dive into. This movie was a launching pad for a few huge stars: Ben Affleck, Matthew McConaughey, Milla Jovovich, and Cole Hauser.

Some of the actors have very personal connections to the movie as you’ll soon see. There are also some interesting stories of why things happened they way they did and how it was all part of the director’s master plan. But before I ramble too much, let’s dive into it!

Wooderson Was Based On Matthew McConaughey’s Own Blood

The character of (David) Wooderson which honestly I didn’t know had a first name if it wasn’t for IMDB, I always thought it was just ‘Wooderson,’ is arguably the most iconic character from the movie.

As it turns out, the character was based on Matthew McConaughey’s older brother. He talked about it back in 20202 on the Sibling Rivalry podcast. It wasn’t just based on his older brother but on a specific memory of his older brother from when Matthew was 10 years old and his older brother’s car broke down so his mother and Matthew drove to pick him up at school.

He said “so as we’re slowly driving through campus, I’m in the backseat looking out the back window. I see this image of a guy in shadow, leaning against the wall in the smoking section with one boot heel kicked up on the wall, the light shining through, the bent knee, leaning back, kind of a lazy longhand. I was like, ‘whoa’. He was like nine feet tall, the coolest thing in the world, and it was my brother Pat.”

For the role of Wooderson, Matthew McConaughey was reportedly paid just $300/day but it obviously all worked out for him in the end as it became one of the iconic roles from his career.

The Film’s Most Iconic Song Moment Was Almost Entirely Different

When Randall ‘Pink’ Floyd, Wooderson, and Mitch Kramer walk into The Emporium bar in Austin Bob Dylan’s iconic anthem ‘Hurricane’ kicks in right as the door swings open. Director Richard Linklater wanted another song for that moment.

According to a 1993 article Dazed and Confused, spent about $1 million on the music budget. Linklater wanted ‘Rock and Roll’ by Led Zeppelin and offered $100,000 but Robert Plant rejected the offer. Bob Dylan accepted $80,000 for the use of ‘Hurricane’ and the rest was history.

The $1 million spent on music totaled to approximately 1/6th of the film’s budget. Whoever made that decision knew what they were doing because it was one of the best scores/soundtracks of all time.

The ‘Green’ Smoke In The Film Was Real

So, this one is anecdotal but I have it from a first person source that it is true. My older brother was living in Austin in 1993 when Dazed and Confused was filmed and his roommates are extras in the movie.

During the ‘party at the Moon Tower’ scene as they are walking into the field you can see two guys in a car lighting a bong, those were my brother’s roommates at the time. And the words was that all of the marijuana used in the film was legit and not ‘movie bud’ as is often the case.

An oral history of Dazed and Confused from Vulture back in 2020 also revealed that this movie almost single-handedly caused the city of Austin to face a marijuana shortage because of how much cannabis the cast and crew were smoking.

Box Office Flop Turned Cult Classic

The movie only made $8 million in theaters on a $7 million budget. It wasn’t until later when the movie had become a cult classic that actor Cole Hauser who played ‘Benny’ saw the movie at Blockbuster in a VHS bundle with Fast Times At Ridgemont High that he realized how popular his film had become.

The $8 million box office was dwarfed by the nearly $30 million that was made on home video rentals and sales. It was a slow burn but one that lasted for decades.

Aerosmith Bookends The Movie

The opening credits of the film features Milla Jovovich rolling a joint while Aerosmith plays in the background. Then as the movie ends we see Randall and Co. in the car on the way to purchase Aerosmith concert tickets.

The R-Rating Was By Design

Director Richard Linklater had concerns that the studio, Universal, was going to cut all of the drug use scenes from the film in order to seek a PG-13 rating from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).

To ensure all of the drug-use scenes wouldn’t get slashed from the film Linklater did the only logical thing and included as many scenes featuring drug use as possible so that there would be a shell of a movie without them. And with that, he got his R-rating and all of the scenes stayed.

Speaking of editing, the first cut of the film was a whopping 2 hours and 45 minutes long. The final cut was just 95 minutes. So there is a TON of footage out there somewhere.

There Was A Wedding During Filming

The aforementioned Milla Jovovich, who was a model-turned-actress, actually eloped with her on-screen romantic partner at some point during the filming of the movie. She and Shawn Andrews who played Kevin Pickford, the same one whose party got blown up when the keg delivery guy showed up too early, were married but later had the marriage annulled.

Sorry, That Other Movie Wasn’t A Sequel

Richard Linklater’s 2016 Everybody Wants Some is often called out as a sequel-esque film to Dazed and Confused but Linklater set the record straight. Linklater said that Everybody Wants Some with Glen Powell was actually a continuation of his 2014 film Boyhood and not Dazed and Confused.

All In One Place

The entire film was shot in Austin, Texas. There was no need for multiple cities because it was filmed at a time when the city still took the ‘Keep Austin Weird’ motto to heart and it hadn’t turned into the completely transformed techno-startup-oasis it is today.

Matthew McConaughey’s Approach

In addition to basing the character’s aura off of his older brother, Matthew McConaughey would later say that he got everything he needed to know about his character Wooderson off one single line of dialog.

Wooderson’s famous line of “that’s what I love about these high school girls, man — I get older, they stay the same age” gave Matthew McConaughey everything he needed to know about the character and he acted based off that line.

Believable Posers On The Mound

Wiley Wiggins, the actor who played Mitch Kramer, had never even touched a baseball before he landed the role. Of course, we all know that Mitch gets the paddle after a baseball game and he leads the seniors away from his friends by leaving through the outfield gate.

Prior to that, Mitch is on the mound as the pitcher. The director apparently tried to play catch with Wiley Wiggins to prep for those scenes but Wiggins was so god awful tossing a baseball around that they used a stunt double for the baseball scenes. If that isn’t the least American part about this film then I don’t know what is… Needing a stunt double to throw a baseball!

42 Times!

Mitch Kramer touches his face an asinine 42 times during his scenes. It is one of the most enduring aspects of his character, the face touching… He touches his face 29 times, pushes his hair back at least a dozen more, but there are 42 times when he specifically touches his nose on camera.

Common Phrases Throughout

One of the most commonly repeated phrases throughout Dazed and Confused was also one of the most common phrases in the 1970’s: ‘that’s what I’m talking about.’ According to an article on Cracked, the director realized he needed to include the phrase more throughout the film in order to actually reflect how common it was in the 70s.

Off the top of my head, that scene above is the first one that comes to mind right after (Ron) Slater swallows his lunch and says it’s “fixing to be a lot better, man.” He and Pickford then exchange multiple that’s what I’m talking abouts.

Improvisation Was Key

In A GQ interview a few years ago, Ben Affleck said the director “encouraged everyone to write their own stuff, to try their own scenes, which is kind of amazing to me that he gave us all that much freedom.” Affleck also said in the ‘Making Of’ documentary that Director Richard Linklater told him “if the finished product of the movie is ‘as written,’ it will be a massive underachievement.”

Local Representation

I mentioned before how my older brother’s roommates were extras in the film, but earlier on in the scene where the boys are building their wooden paddles for the summer there is a teacher asleep in shop class. That teacher was a real teacher at the high school where it was all filmed.

Matthew McConaughey Auditioned After An Ex-Girlfriend Convinced Him To Go Drinking

summer job 28 years later #dazedandconfused #greenlightsbook pic.twitter.com/P5gIhr7W3z

— Matthew McConaughey (@McConaughey) September 23, 2020

A few years back, Matthew McConaughey shared a video of himself watching his audition tape for the first time. The story goes that his ex-gf convinced him to go out for drinks and meet the casting director, Don Phillips. Initially, the director didn’t think McConaughey was right for the role but eventually saw the magic.