What The Cast Of Dazed And Confused Looks Like Today
Writer-director Richard Linklater's third feature film, 1993's Dazed and Confused quickly became a cult classic. The ultimate ensemble film, this Lone Star State high school comedy featured a host of up-and-coming actors, and in the two-plus decades since it arrived in theaters, some of those kids have grown up to become A-list celebrities while others have faded into obscurity. If you're interested in finding out what happened to the likes of Mitch, Sabrina, and Slater, just keep r-e-a-d-i-n to find out what the cast of Dazed and Confused looks like today.
Clint Bruno - Nicky Katt
In a movie filled with cool and lovable characters, Clint Bruno stands apart as one who's downright scary. A mustachioed bully who only cares about two things, Bruno is the guy who puts a beating on poor Mike Newhouse (Adam Goldberg). And thanks to his intimidating turn as the angry alpha male, actor Nicky Katt has faced some typecasting over the years. "I mean, everyone...says that the bad guys are the most fun," Katt told IGN, "but I've definitely gone through streaks where that's all people wanted me to play, the bad guy, especially after Dazed and Confused."
Nevertheless, Katt has managed to carve out a pretty impressive career. He played homicide detectives in Insomnia and The Brave One, a dreadlocked assassin in Steven Soderbergh's The Limey, and a snarky geology teacher in the Fox TV show Boston Public. In addition to appearing in movies like Boiler Room, One True Thing, and Planet Terror, Katt occasionally hosts movies for the Austin Film Society.
It also seems he's kept in touch with some of his Dazed and Confused comrades over the years. He played a racist rapist in the Matthew McConaughey movie A Time to Kill, joined up with Richard Linklater for SubUrbia and School of Rock, and even starred in Adam Goldberg's 1998 indie film Scotch and Milk. Apparently, he's forgiven the guy for slugging him in the nose.
Randall "Pink" Floyd - Jason London
Dazed and Confused is the very definition of an ensemble movie, but if you had to pick a main character, it'd be Randall "Pink" Floyd. A high school football star, Pink is the charismatic kid who takes a young freshman under his wing, pals around with a 20-something slacker, and sticks it to the man by refusing to sign an anti-drug pledge. This rebellious quarterback was played by Jason London, a young Texas actor who got the Linklater gig after playing in TV movies and feature films like Blood Ties and The Man in the Moon.
At first, it seemed like London was poised for stardom, but the A-list life has eluded the actor so far. After Dazed and Confused, London showed up in a series of little-seen features, made-for-TV movies, and TV shows like Tales from the Crypt and NCIS. As far as big roles go, he was the titular hero in Hallmark's Jason and the Argonauts and the leading man in The Rage: Carrie 2, the critically derided sequel to Brian De Palma's horror classic.
Unfortunately, these days London is probably best known for his personal problems. In 2009, he convinced his drug-using brother, 7th Heaven star Jeremy London, to enter a detox program. But a year later, Jeremy tried to file a restraining order against his sibling, after Jason publicly criticized Jeremy's wild kidnapping claims (which turned out to be true). Sadly, things got worse in 2013, when Jason was arrested for fighting and disorderly conduct at an Arizona bar. Still, despite the setbacks, London is still acting away. In fact, he currently has 113 credits to his name, so you've got to give him props for keeping busy.
Tony Olson - Anthony Rapp
One of the smartest guys in school, Tony Olson is the poker-playing intellectual with really weird dreams about Abraham Lincoln. Sure, he isn't in the mood to party, but by the end of the night, he's made that love connection with freshman Sabrina Davis (Christin Hinojosa). But while the part of Tony is one of his most memorable movie roles, actor Anthony Rapp got his start in the Elisabeth Shue comedy Adventures in Babysitting. Later on, he'd play in Six Degrees of Separation, appear in TV shows like The Knick and The X-Files, and reunite with Dazed and Confused co-star Adam Goldberg as one of Russell Crowe's buddies in A Beautiful Mind.
However, Rapp is best known for his work on Broadway. The Illinois-born actor starred with Idina Menzel in the 2014 show If/Then and toured the country in Little Shop of Horrors. Of course, when Rapp finally kicks the bucket, every single obituary will remember how he was one of the original actors in the Tony-award winning musical Rent. As Mark Cohen, Rapp played a documentary filmmaker who narrated the whole show, and when the off-Broadway play made its way to the big time, Rapp stuck along for the ride, even appearing in the 2005 movie.
Taking his love for musicals offstage, Cohen recently founded BroadwayCon, a convention for lovers of all things theater. The actor also made headlines in late 2016 when it was announced he'd be playing Lt. Stamets in Star Trek: Discovery. Not only is Stamets an expert on space fungi, but he's the first character in the long-running franchise originally created to be gay. It seems Rapp is making sci-fi history by helping Star Trek boldly go where the show has never gone before.
Ron Slater - Rory Cochrane
Everybody's favorite stoner, Ron Slater has got to be one of the most iconic characters in Richard Linklater's entire filmography. Whether he's waxing poetic about American history or constantly calling dibs on shotgun, this long-haired pothead stole the show every time he stepped in front of a camera. And that's 100 percent thanks to the inimitable Rory Cochrane, the only guy who could ever convince you that George Washington was involved in an alien cult.
Interestingly, this wasn't the last time Cochrane would play a spaced-out hippie for Linklater. In 2006, the actor showed up as a junkie in the director's rotoscoped adaptation of A Scanner Darkly, sharing the screen with Keanu Reeves, Woody Harrelson, and Robert Downey, Jr. He also played a Doors-quoting biker alongside his future wife Renee Zellweger in Empire Records (who also had a brief appearance in Dazed and Confused), and he later joined up with CSI: Miami, playing the part of Tim Speedle, a trace evidence and impressions expert who wasn't too big on proper gun maintenance.
More recently, he's popped up in a smattering of high-profile movies like Public Enemies, Oculus, and Black Mass. Cochrane even played one of the unlucky Americans hiding from Iranian revolutionaries in the Oscar-winning Argo. And the man continues to stay busy, working with some pretty classy company. At the moment, he's currently starring in films with big-name stars like Matthew McConaughey, Rosamund Pike, and Jared Leto.
You cool, Rory Cochrane? Yeah, very cool.
Cynthia Dunn - Marissa Ribisi
The brains behind the "every other decade" theory, Cynthia Dunn spends most of her time hanging out with fellow nerds Mike and Tony. She's a lot more laidback than the rest of her trio, and by the end of the film, she's got plans to check out an Aerosmith concert with Mr. All Right, All Right, All Right himself. According to Wired, Cynthia is "the most open-minded, open-hearted character in the whole movie," and that's largely due to Marissa Ribisi, the actress who brought the clever redhead to life.
The twin sister of actor Giovanni Ribisi, Marissa did a bit of TV work before hanging out with Anthony Rapp and Adam Goldberg. Following Dazed and Confused, she continued popping up in TV shows like Friends, Grown Ups, and Grace Under Fire. She also played in films like Pleasantville, The Brady Bunch Movie, and Noah Baumbach's Kicking and Screaming. She hasn't done a lot of acting since 2003, but that doesn't mean she's been sitting around twiddling her thumbs.
In 2008, Ribisi teamed up with Sophia Banks to form Whitley Kros, a fashion line that showed up in the likes of Vogue and ELLE. She's also a busy mom, having two kids with the musician Beck. (Oddly enough, Beck's mom delivered both Marissa and Giovanni when they were born.) Similar to her husband, Ribisi is a practicing Scientologist and allegedly got actor Jason Lee involved in the organization—though he's since left the group behind.
Mike Newhouse - Adam Goldberg
The snarkiest character in Richard Linklater's 1993 masterpiece, Mike Newhouse is the wisecracking senior who punches a bully in the face...but really, he just wants to dance. Played by Adam Goldberg, Mike is the most uptight member of the intellectual trio (rounded out by Mike and Cynthia), and while he might eventually wind up in law school someday, Goldberg went on to have one of the most successful careers of anyone involved with Dazed and Confused.
For example, Goldberg was Russell Crowe's sidekick in A Beautiful Mind, the unlucky Private Mellish in Saving Private Ryan, and a neurotic American involved with Julie Delpy in 2 Days in Paris. Zodiac, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, and Waking Life are just a couple more of the films rounding out his resume, but Goldberg is equally comfortable appearing on TV. In addition to shows like Entourage and ABC's short-lived cop comedy The Unusuals, Goldberg played Chandler's nutty roommate in Friends (the one with a Goldfish cracker as a pet) and learned American Sign Language for the part of a sarcastic assassin in season one of Noah Hawley's Fargo.
In addition to acting, Goldberg has directed four of his own movies, and he's even released three albums. It seems this guy is something of a Renaissance man, but oddly enough, Goldberg isn't all that enamored with the role of Mike Newhouse. While he admits the fight scene with Nicky Katt was something of a "cathartic" experience, he told Uproxx that he considers his performance in Dazed and Confused as "some of my worst acting ever." Considering Dazed and Confused is only his third feature film, we think he's being a bit hard on himself.
Mitch Kramer - Wiley Wiggins
When most people think about Dazed and Confused, they remember characters like Slater or Wooderson, but really, freshman Mitch Kramer is the guy we're rooting for. Whether he's trying to escape from a gang of paddle-wielding seniors or get it on with an older girl, Mitch is the kid we're all cheering on.
But who's the actor playing the hair-flipping pitcher? That's Austin resident Wiley Wiggins, a cool cat who's made an interesting life for himself in the years since Dazed and Confused. He's shown up in a couple of films like The Faculty and Love and a .45, but his biggest role post-Mitch Kramer came when he signed up for another Richard Linklater flick. In the rotoscoped world of Waking Life, Wiggins plays another long-haired protagonist, but instead of making his way through school, this guy is trying to escape a never-ending dream.
Wiggins hasn't done any professional acting since 2013. Instead, he makes his living in the tech world. He's also big into the indie gaming scene, helping to found a video game collective known as Juegos Rancheros. Created in 2011, the group hosts an annual Austin festival called Fantastic Arcade and operates an arcade known as the Museum of Human Amusement.
On top of all that, Wiggins is currently studying to get an Associate degree in animation. As for his relationship with Dazed and Confused, he doesn't really watch the film all that much, and he's kind of surprised it has such a diehard following. Talking to The AV Club, Wiggins admitted, "I like the movie, but if I was getting high, I'd watch Fantastic Planet or 2001 or something. I wouldn't watch a depressing movie about Huntsville teens driving around in circles in a car."
Darla Marks - Parker Posey
Time magazine named her the "Queen of the Indies," and The New Yorker has described her as "the greatest character actress of the last few decades." But before Parker Posey became a darling of the indie scene, she terrified freshmen students as Darla Marks, the meanest girl in school. The senior in charge of hazing all the new girls, Darla takes particular glee in tormenting poor Sabrina Davis. Posey is delightfully over-the-top in the part, and after the credits rolled, she went on to work with some of the most respected names in cinema.
Of course, before she landed the role in Dazed and Confused, Posey was already well-known in certain circles as a regular on the soap opera As the World Turns. Later on, she appeared in the cult classic Party Girl, Noah Baumbach's Kicking and Screaming (alongside Marissa Ribisi), and Richard Linklater's SubUrbia. She's worked with Woody Allen twice in Irrational Man and Café Society, but while she's had a few mainstream roles here and there—like Lex Luthor's moll in Superman Returns and the not-so-lucky Jennifer Jolie in Scream 3—she's probably best known for her collaborations with improv extraordinaire, Christopher Guest.
In fact, Posey has starred in a whopping four of the comedian's films—Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, For Your Consideration, and Mascots. Posey fans should keep an eye out for Netflix's upcoming Lost in Space series, in which the actress will play Dr. Smith, a gender-bending take on the character originally played by actor Jonathan Harris.
Sabrina Davis - Christin Hinojosa
After being publicly humiliated and slathered with condiments, Sabrina Davis spends the rest of her evening chilling with the seniors, proving she's more mature than her 14 years might otherwise indicate. Her real-life counterpart, Christin Hinojosa, has a similarly impressive attitude, only instead of hanging out with the cool kids, she spends her time helping those who are far less fortunate.
When Dazed and Confused wrapped up, Hinojosa appeared in a few more projects, like the TV show Clueless or the made-for-television movie The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, starring Kirk Cameron. However, Hinojosa quickly grew "bored" with acting. As she explained to the Third Coast Press in 2005, "I was doing silly TV movies and sitcom work....With the type of work I was doing, I knew I wasn't that great at it, and I wasn't being of any use to this planet I love."
Inspired to do something more important than star in Disney Channel programs, she became involved with anti-war group called the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), coordinating a multimedia exhibit called Eyes Wide Open: Beyond Fear. The installation displayed a pair of boots for every American soldier killed in Iraq, but this was far from being the only time she'd sign up for a worthy cause.
As recently as 2013, Hinojosa worked as a director of philanthropy for Solidarity Bridge, a group that provides medical equipment for people in Bolivia and Paraguay. Part of her job involved coordinating trips to South America, and in 2010, she was part of a mission trip to Bolivia, helping to deliver pacemakers and provide heart surgeries to those in need and using her "gifts and talents" to leave a "greater impact" on the world.
Michelle Burroughs - Milla Jovovich
One of the biggest stars to come out of Dazed and Confused, Milla Jovovich was only onscreen for a handful of moments, but she left a lasting impression as Michelle, the guitar-strumming stoner. After all, when she wasn't singing about aliens, she was busy giving glam rock makeovers to bicentennial soldiers. Perhaps more than anyone else, Dazed and Confused had a direct impact on Jovovich's life, as the 16-year-old married her 20-year-old costar, Shawn Andrews, and the couple remained hitched for a grand total of two months.
Before eloping with Andrews, Jovovich was already a big deal in the world of fashion. The young model appeared on a magazine cover at age 11, and from then on, the sky was the limit. Before Dazed and Confused, she scandalized audiences in Return to the Blue Lagoon, and she stole the spotlight as Leeloo, the super-powered being in Luc Besson's The Fifth Element. But if you're at all familiar with zombie flicks, then you're well aware that Jovovich is best known for her role as the tough-as-nails Alice from the Resident Evil franchise.
In addition to appearing in films like He Got Game, The Three Musketeers, and the Zoolander movies, Jovovich has worked as an official spokesmodel for L'Oréal, started her own fashion line, and even made something of a name for herself in the music industry. But as for her acting career, she recently revealed to The Independent that someday, she'd like to try her hand at a costume drama, proving to the world that she "can do a good British accent."
Fred O'Bannion - Ben Affleck
Maybe he's a good guy to have blocking for you, but Fred O'Bannion is not the kind of person you want to spend a lot of time with. A sadistic senior who takes way too much pleasure in paddling freshmen, O'Bannion is the most unlikable character in Dazed and Confused, so whenever somebody dumps paint on his head or pulls a shotgun on the guy, we can't help but give a little cheer. Basically, O'Bannion is a character we love to hate, and that's all thanks to Batman himself, Ben Affleck.
The California-born actor got his show business start appearing in Burger King commercials and playing in an educational kids series called The Voyage of Mimi. After beating up on poor Wiley Wiggins, Affleck continued struggling in the film industry until finally winning an Oscar (along with buddy Matt Damon) for writing Good Will Hunting. With that statuette in hand, the actor went on to star in Michael Bay blockbusters Armageddon and Pearl Harbor before hitting a rough patch of movies like Daredevil, Gigli, and Surviving Christmas.
Fortunately Affleck turned his career around by stepping behind the camera, directing movies such as Gone Baby Gone, The Town, and the Oscar-winning Argo. In addition to acting for big talents like David Fincher (Gone Girl) and Terrence Malick (To the Wonder), Affleck has returned to the world of blockbusters, donning Bruce Wayne's cape and cowl and mercilessly beating anyone unlucky enough to get in his way.
Hey, that sounds kind of like Fred O'Bannion.
David Wooderson - Matthew McConaughey
Matthew McConaughey keeps getting older, but David Wooderson stays the same age. Really, neither of these guys needs much of an introduction. After all, McConaughey is one of the biggest stars working today, and Wooderson is still his most memorable character. In one of those crazy twists of fate, the A-lister owes his career to an old girlfriend who convinced him to visit an Austin bar one summer night, where he befriended a casting director looking for someone to play the smooth-but-sleazy 20-something Texan. After a couple of hours of drinking and chatting, McConaughey was invited to audition, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Since then, McConaughey has become a major Hollywood player, starting off in interesting little films—Lone Star, Contact, A Time to Kill—before charming it up in a series of rom-coms a la The Wedding Planner and Failure to Launch. More recently, the actor entered into his McConaissance phase, wowing critics and audiences alike in movies and TV shows like Interstellar, Mud, Magic Mike, and True Detective. He even won an Oscar for Best Actor after shedding an insane amount of weight for Dallas Buyers Club. In other words, it seems the man is doing (ahem) all right, all right, all right.