The Film That Launched a Thousand Faces

By Kimberley Jones, Fri., May 30, 2003

We exaggerate, but not by much. Scads of young actors made their first impression in Dazed and Confused -- Matthew McConaughey, Ben Affleck, Parker Posey, Adam Goldberg, Cole Hauser, Milla Jovovich. Squint hard and you'll even see Renée Zellweger briefly as one of the senior tormentors. Here are some of our favorites from the Class of '93.

MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY

Played: Wooderson

Graduated to: A Time to Kill, Thirteen Conversations About One Thing, wrestling dragons in Reign of Fire

Signature Line: "That's what I love about these high school girls. I get older, they stay the same age."

BEN AFFLECK

Played: bully O'Bannion

Graduated to: Good Will Hunting, two franchises, one half of Benifer

Signature Line: "Y'all ready to bust some ass?"

JASON LONDON

Played: star quarterback Randall "Pink" Floyd

Graduated to: I'll Fly Away, Dracula II: Ascension

Signature Line: "If I ever start referring to these as the best years of my life, remind me to kill myself."

JOEY LAUREN ADAMS

Played: Pink's girlfriend Simone

Graduated to: Chasing Amy, Big Daddy

Signature Line: "Fry, you little freshman piggies, fry!"

NICKY KATT

Played: greaser Clint Bruno

Graduated to: Boston Public, Full Frontal, The Way of the Gun

Signature Line: "I only came here to do two things tonight: kick some ass and drink some beer. Looks like we're almost out of beer."

PARKER POSEY

Played: Darla

Graduated to: Party Girl, Waiting for Guffman

Signature Line: "Lick me, all of you."

RORY COCHRANE

Played: stoner Slater

Graduated to: Empire Records, C.S.I.: Miami

Signature Line: "George Washington, man, he was in a cult, and that cult was into aliens, man. You didn't know that?"

ADAM GOLDBERG

Played: Mike Newhouse

Graduated to: Scotch and Milk, A Beautiful Mind

Signature Line: "I'm just trying to be honest about being a misanthrope."

MARISSA RIBISI

Played: Cynthia Dunn

Graduated to: Kicking and Screaming, Don's Plum

Signature Line: "I'd like to quit thinking of the present -- like, right now -- as some minor, insignificant preamble to something else."

RENÉE ZELLWEGER

Played: Nesi White

Graduated to: Down With Love, Chicago, Bridget Jones's Diary

Signature Line: Her lips are sealed: Zellweger landed her first big speaking role a year later with McConaughey in Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Most Likely to Endure

With the exception of the era-specific music, what the kids like in Dazed and Confused is pretty much the same thing kids like now, which goes a long way in explaining why, 10 years later, the video's a staple in college dorms, owned by kids who weren't conceived yet in the Seventies and couldn't buy a ticket to the R-rated movie when it came out in the Nineties.