"Somebody said, 'I'm pretty [peeved],' and everybody else said, 'Me, too,' " Slater recalls.
The guys asked each other: Did Linklater call you? Did you give permission to use your name? Did you get any money out of it? The answer to every question was: No. No. No.
Andy Slater, left, Rick Floyd and Bobby Wooderson say the negative attention they still get irks them.
(Mark Matson For The Washington Post)
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They never mentioned suing Linklater that night, they say, because they figured this low-budget, limited-release movie would just fade away.
"People ask, 'Why did you wait to sue?' " says Wooderson. "Well, I just wanted it to go away. Nobody knew who McConaughey was. Nobody knew who Affleck was. Nobody knew Rick Linklater from Adam. It was a low-budget, low-rent movie and we figured it would just go away."
But "Dazed and Confused" didn't go away. Instead, it became a cult hit. McConaughey and Affleck became big stars and Linklater became a respected director, creator of "School of Rock" among other movies. And "Dazed" became a favorite of high school and college kids, who rent the video for parties, smoking and drinking along with the characters and uttering their favorite lines from memory.
Web sites devoted to the movie multiplied like bunnies, some with "Dazed and Confused" drinking games: "Take one drink every time that the following happens in the movie -- Slater smokes a joint, Pink is handed the pledge sheet, Wooderson says the phrase 'All right.' "
As "Dazed" became a cult classic over the last decade, Slater, Floyd and Wooderson found themselves semi-famous, their names recognized by "Dazed and Confused" fans who want to par-tay!
"I was skiing in Colorado one time," says Wooderson, "and I turned in my skis and said, 'Wooderson,' and the kid goes, 'Wooderson? Like in "Dazed and Confused"?' I didn't say anything, but somebody with me says, 'Yeah! This is him!' And the kid says, 'Dude, you need to come party with us!' "
Floyd has similar stories. "I have a nephew who was getting married in Bangor, Maine, so we went up for the wedding," he says. "My nephew's in his late twenties and he has all these friends and we get out of the car and one of 'em yells, 'Pink Floyd!!' It was good-natured fun on their part, but I'm there with my wife and kids and it was rather embarrassing to me, especially when they go, 'Man! "Dazed and Confused!" Love that movie! Let's go burn one!' "
A couple years ago, Wooderson went to visit his son, who is a student at Harvard, and when the Ivy League scholars heard Wooderson's name, they mobbed him, asking for his autograph.
"It embarrassed me," says Wooderson.
The incident that sparked the lawsuit came last year in Huntsville, when Slater went to a woman's house to pick her up for their first -- and, as it turned out, last -- date.
"She got in the car," he recalls, "and she says, 'My mother gave me a hard time about going out with you. She wants to know if you're still a dope dealer.' "
That did it. Slater called Houston lawyer T. Ernest Freeman and said he wanted to sue Linklater. Freeman agreed to take the case and recruited Santa Fe entertainment lawyer Bill Robins, to help him. Slater persuaded Wooderson and Floyd to join him as plaintiffs.
