"You just gotta keep livin' man. L-I-V-I-N." - Matthew McConaughey: The Origin of an Icon

Dazed and Confused, the sophomore feature from Richard Linklater, is jam packed full of iconic lines. Perhaps no-one delivers more of them than Matthew McConaughey’s Wooderson, who graced us with the classics such as “Alright, Alright, Alright” and the infamous line about high school girls. While these may be the more iconic lines, the one that touched my heart the most is a McConaughey truism improvised on the final day of filming, which ended up capturing the essence of the entire film in a single sentence:

“You just gotta keep livin’ man, L-I-V-I-N.”

The line is powerful in its own right simply within the bounds of the film itself, but, to fully absorb the subtext of this delivery, we need some context of what was going on behind the scenes of this landmark hangout film, and what was happening in McConaughey’s personal life at the time of shooting.

Matthew McConaughey was your average popular middle-class kid from Uvalde, Texas. His mother was an ex-beauty queen turned kindergarten teacher, and his father was an ex-football player turned owner of an oil pipe supply business. Matthew worked for his dad’s company with his older brother, who served as some inspiration for his take on the character of Wooderson.

The entire family was very close, and a strong family value passed down from his parents was that nobody was able to say “can’t,” but rather, “I’m having trouble.” Just because something is difficult, doesn’t mean it’s impossible. This is all but one of many lessons that stuck with Matthew throughout his upbringing.

Originally, Matthew attended university to become a lawyer, and planned to continue working for his father as such. However, before the end of his sophomore year, he came across a paperback “The Greatest Salesman in the World,” which helped him realize what kind of life he wanted to live, and gave him the courage to mark his own path.

At this point, McConaughey realized he wanted to pursue film instead. When he told his father about this desired change, his father responded: “That’s what you want to do? Okay. Well, don’t half-ass it.” He started booking commercials to pay himself through school, and by a stroke of luck, or perhaps destiny, ended up in the right bar at the right time next to the right guy.

At the time, 23-year-old Matthew McConaughey was dating a cocktail waitress at the Hyatt and would routinely hang out, chatting movies with the bartender over free drinks. One day, Don Phillips, casting director for Dazed and Confused, came into the bar because his regular hotel, The Four Seasons, happened to be booked out due to grad week at the university. Don started gabbing about having worked on Fast Times at Ridgemont High, so the bartender called McConaughey to come down and introduce himself, so he did.

The two instantly hit it off, and talked for hours, bonding over their love of golf. They got hammered, got loud, and got rowdy. They ended up playing a mock game of golf inside the bar, knocking things over and making a mess until they were forcibly removed by the staff. They continue the party up in Don’s room to smoke a joint, and part ways early in the morning. This is the point where Don invited McConaughey to read for a small part in the movie later that day he thought McConaughey would be a good fit for. And of course, he was.

Unfortunately, the easy sailing didn’t last long. After only a few days of shooting, McConaughey’s father suddenly passed away. He stated in his biography, Greenlights, “I got a call from my mom. ‘Your dad died. My knees buckled. I couldn’t believe it. He was my dad. Nobody or nothing could kill him. Except for mom. He’d always told me and my brothers, ‘Boys when I go, I’m gonna be makin’ love to your mother.’ And that’s what happened. He had a heart attack when he climaxed.” While admittedly hilarious in retrospect, it was a crushing blow. However, Matthew himself didn’t consider his father’s death a tragedy because he died a happy man, doing what he loved.

Since the word “can’t” had no place in Matthew’s vocabulary, he was back on set the next day. People were shocked to see him, and shocked by how business-as-usual he was. From the outside, you’d never be able to tell what kind of inner turmoil he was going through. That first day back was when he delivered the famously creepy, yet infinitely quotable line: “That’s what I love about these high school girls, man. I get older, they stay the same age.” While processing the loss of his father, he was still able disappear into that character. It was at that moment people began to see McConaughey for what he was destined to be: a movie star.

On paper, Wooderson should be detested, yet McConaughey’s performance makes it nearly impossible to dislike him. His charisma, charm, and skill gained him influence within the film, and he turned what was originally a bit part into the film’s most iconic element. Wooderson even absorbed the roles of other actors in many of the later scenes where he was not originally scripted. This brings us to our titular quote.

Wooderson ended up in the final scene, shot on the final day, in place of Pickford, whose actor just wasn’t meshing well with the rest of the cast. At this point, Linklater still hadn’t cracked the ending of the film, so most of what’s included in the final film ended up being improvisation from the cast. It made sense for Wooderson, the slightly older guy, to drop a bit of wisdom in this moment, which wouldn’t have really worked if Pickford, the rich kid, had been there in his place.

So, inspired by his father moving on, McConaughey carried the scene with the climactic line, “Man, it's the same bullshit they tried to pull in my day. If it ain't that piece of paper, there's some other choice they're gonna try and make for you. You gotta do what Randall “Pink” Floyd wants to do man. Let me tell you this, the older you do get the more rules they're gonna try to get you to follow. You just gotta keep livin' man, L-I-V-I-N.” And at that point everything just clicked. It became his mantra, his answering machine sign-off, and he even carved it into his car with a knife. McConaughey claims that every character he plays is a “J.K. Livin’” character in some way, and hasn’t found a place where it’s not applicable.

Matthew McConaughey is grateful his father could be there for the beginning of what would be his life’s calling. In the last week of shooting, McConaughey decided he would move to L.A. to pursue acting full time, not knowing just how iconic the film, and his performance, would become. One thing is for certain, McConaughey was destined to be a star. When I hear that J.K. Livin’ line, I can’t help but feel a life-affirming warmth fill my soul, because that’s really all we can do, isn’t it? We just gotta keep livin’ man. L-I-V-I-N.