10 Real Reasons These Actors Were Cast In Major Movie Roles

4. Matthew McConaughey's Mustache-Growing Ability - Dazed & Confused

Surely the most memorable performance in Richard Linklater's 1993 coming-of-age comedy Dazed and Confused is that of Matthew McConaughey as 20-something drifter David Wooderson.

And impossible though it is to imagine anyone but McConaughey in the part, Richard Linklater wasn't originally convinced by the actor's look. However, he was eventually persuaded by one thing: his ability to grow a sleazy-ass mustache. Linklater said:

"You know, when I first met Matthew, he came in and he's, like, this really good-looking, clean-cut guy, and that threw me off, cause I never saw Wooderson like that. I was, like, 'No, you're not right for this part.'...And then he did his audition and he kind of, like, fell into this character, his eyes turned into little quarter slots, he's like, 'Hey, man, you got a joint?' And I was, like, 'Holy s**t!' He became that guy. Holy moley.

He was too good looking for the part, but we were long enough away from shooting that I said, 'Okay, don't cut your hair, don't shave, can you grow a mustache?' 'Well, kind of…' 'That'll be good, a sleazy kind of mustache, we're gonna add tattoos.' You know, we had to, kinda, grodey him up for that character. But nobody can ever say Matthew got cast because he was a pretty boy, 'cause that's not what I was looking for, for that particular part."

Had a 23-year-old McConaughey been incapable of growing that now-iconic 'stache, Linklater presumably would've passed him up for another actor.