21 "Dazed And Confused" Facts Hardly Anyone Knows

by N/A, 10 years ago | 4 min read

Alllllllright, alright, alright!

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1. The filmâ€”which is now a HUGE cult favoriteâ€”originally did terribly in the box office. It only barely broke the cost it make to make the film!

Luckily for filmmakers, DVD and VHS sales made up for it, and the DOUBLE PLATINUM soundtrack didn't hurt, either.Â

2. It's been quoted as being among Quentin Tarantino's 12 favorite movies.

3. Slater's suggestion that George Washington grew marijuana seems totally absurd...but it's not quite as absurd as you might think.

Washington DID grow a lot of hemp, and the Declaration of Independence was actually written on paper made of hemp. Whether or not Washington was rollin' one up and gettin' lit every night is another theory entirely, and we can't confirm with Slater on this one.Â

4. Matthew McConaughey is the celebrity most remembered from this film...but it also featured Ben Affleck, RENT's Anthony Rapp and Parker Posey.

Renee Zellweger is actually an extra in the film!Â

5. Wooderson, Slater and Floyd were three of fan favorites from the films, but the names of each were actual names of people Linklater went to high school with, and they tried to sue him on the basis of defamation.

Renee Zellweger is actually an extra in the film!Â

6. McConaughey's part was originally smaller, but another cast member that had been hired had some trouble fitting in with cast members, so his character got more screen time.

One of his famous speeches, the "just keep livin'" speech, was actually inspired by a real life conversation he'd had with Richard Linklater about the death of McConaughey's father.Â

7. And speaking of McConaughey and Linklater and fathers...their dads were actually on the same football team at the University of Houston!

8. A large amount of the movie budget went towards rights needed to use the world famous songs that now make up the illustrious soundtrack.

We're talking 1/6 of the film's budget, which is an ABSURD percentage...but probably worth it given the success of the soundtrack!

9. Yes, the title is based off of the song Dazed and Confused by Led Zeppelin but NO, it's not entirely about drug use. It's about the general confusion of growing up...something it's safe to say we all can relate to.

10. Ashley Judd, Vince Vaughn, Jon Favreau and Claire Danes were all considered but ultimately turned down for roles in the film.

11. The actor who played Mitch Kramer, Wiley Wiggins, actually started his own independent gaming festival (he's worked as a game developer).

12. Linklater wanted the movie to be the anti-John Hughes movie.

John Hughes movies always seemed to feature teenagers having life-changing, earth-shattering existential realizations in a moment shared on screen, and Linklater remembered his teenage years being WAY more laid back than that.Â

13. Linklater felt that given the film's outrageous language and gratuitous drug use, it needed to be rated R, which is what it ended up being. The studio had wanted it to be PG-13.

The studio thought the lower rating would get better box office results, and when the movie was rated R, they complained their should have been more nudity in order to justify that rating.Â

14. Linklater understood the importance of music to a person's personality, and so accordingly, he gave each cast member their very own mixtape to help them get into character...given the soundtrack, we can only assume they were perfect.

15. The movie plot is slightly different than Linklater had planned for right off the bat.

The movie was pretty much just some people listening to "Fandango" by ZZ-Top, apparently. Here's whatÂ Linklater said: "So I wanted the film to startÂ with a close-up shot of Fandango sliding into the eight-track player and then have a whole movie in this car, meeting people who drove up next to you, going through the drive-through, getting out and getting beerâ€”basically always in and around the car."

16. Despite the fact that the movie was released in 1993, it was originally released on Laser Disks.

And if the purpose of the movie is to take you back to life in the '70s, that wasn't a bad move.Â

17. Linklater had a no drugs or drinking policy, but acknowledges that there were several times when the cast ignored this policy.

18. Linklater loves to include pinball in his movies, and this one is no exception. Slater plays in one scene.

19. The music video "Synthesizers" by Butch Walker and the Black Widows actually features a little cameo from McConaughey channelling his Wooderson character.

20. McConaughey was actually brought in for the role after he got wasted and kicked out of a bar with the casting director.

21. Casting director Don Phillips also did the casting for Fast Times at Ridgemont High, proving he has an absolutely incredible eye for spotting future talent.