After he went on exchange to Australia, but before he dated Janet Jackson, Matthew McConaughey was a film student at the University of Texas just trying to break his way into the biz.
In the spring of ’92, the 23-year-old aspiring actor was parked in the hotel bar of the Austin Hyatt Regency with his then-girlfriend. “It was, like, a Thursday night that summer, man, and I wanted to stay in and watch some flick, but my girlfriend talked me into going out to have some drinks,” he told Texas Monthly in 2003. “There was this bartender I knew from film school who worked at the Hyatt and would give us a discount, so we went there. And when we walk in, he’s there, and he goes, ‘Hey, man, the guy down at the end of the bar is in town producing a film.’ So I went down and introduced myself.”