ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT

A charming oral history of everyone’s favorite stoner film.

When 23-year-old Matthew McConaughey uttered the three words of the title, which weren’t in Richard Linklater’s shooting script, set decorator Deb Pastor knew that history was being made. “The minute he said that ‘alright, alright, alright’ thing,” she recalls for interviewer and archfan Maerz, “I just went, ‘Oh my god, for the rest of time, people are going to be saying everything this motherfucker says.’ ” As it turns out, McConaughey was an accidental addition of sorts, and his role expanded both when Linklater realized how good he was and when Linklater fired a couple of actors from the production, expanding the role of Wooderson. Joey Lauren Adams recalls of the director, “Rick always treated you in a nonsexual way, and for all of us women who had been treated in sexual ways for so long, to have a man who’s not like that? It’s weird.” Linklater’s film, like his debut, Slacker, tanked when it appeared in 1993, but it rode the first wave of commercial DVDs and is now a staple on cable TV. It also caused controversy during and after production: As the interviews make clear, some of the cast were resentful that Linklater didn’t use them in later films and were bitter that their careers didn’t advance further with the film. Meanwhile, three of Linklater’s high school classmates on whom film roles were modeled sued years after the fact, looking for a piece of the action. Some of Maerz’s interview subjects are regretful of behavior that was appropriate to high school but not to professional life, which just shows how far they sank into their roles. Says Linklater, who enshrined his high school years in the cult hit, “Note to actors: Get along with people you’re in an ensemble with. Especially with the director. Don’t forget who edits and controls all this, you know?”

Essential for fans of the film but also for anyone with ambitions to work in film on either side of the camera.