In case you weren't aware, Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey's first break on the small screen was in a Trisha Yearwood music video in 1992 and it's everything you think it is. The floppy-haired, baby-faced Texan pretty much looks the same... because of course he does.
The 23-year old McConaughey starred as the boyfriend in the "Walkaway Joe" country music video one year before his big break in Hollywood as the star of Dazed and Confused. While Yearwood and Don Henley sing in the video (in an empty house I might add), McConaughey frolics through a cornfield with his girlfriend. Did I mention he goes skinny dipping? Because he does. And don't even get me started on the bedroom eyes he's dishing out.
Yearwood told People that she never met the actor. "He was cast from local talent in Austin, Texas, where the footage was shot. The performance with Don Henley was shot in Nashville, so I never met Matthew. About 10 years ago, we were both at the Grammys and trying to connect but we kept missing each other."
This "Walkaway Joe" video is just validation that the actor was born a hunk. I love that the future Hollywood superstar started his career in a Trisha Yearwood video because it ties back to his Texas roots. The actor studied at the University of Texas in Austin, so it makes sense that his first big break came in the same city he still loves so much.
Read More: 5 Celebrities Who Are Huge Country Music Fans
During an appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show, Kelly Clarkson performed the song at McConaughey's request.
McConaughey told Clarkson about how he came to be cast in the music video.
"In early 1992, I'm going to college here at the University of Texas — this is before [1993's] Dazed and Confused — and I was trying to get odd jobs in front of the camera when I could. And I got cast in that music video to play Joe," the actor told Clarkson. "Things are going well. And then where we end up at the last stop, she wakes up and Joe, myself, is nowhere to be seen, therefore, aka the title 'Walkaway Joe.'"
Clarkson and McConaughey also bonded over their mutual love of '90s country music videos.
"I love that about country music videos — especially in the '90s," Clarkson said. "There'd be such a story...a plot."
The actor is a serious country music fan. The 1992 video wasn't the last time McConaughey would appear in a country video; the star also appeared in Jamey Johnson's video for "Playing the Part."
Not much has changed between this video and his iconic performances in Dallas Buyers Club and Interstellar. The actor and his family live in the Lone Star state and regularly hit up UT football games. But if you really want to throw it back to the beginning, watch this video and enjoy young McConaughey. He looks like trouble.
[sweeps]
