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'Dazed' trio join in suit against filmmaker they say defamed them

Huntsville, TX Dec 14, 2004 -- - When we last saw them, Wooderson and Slater and "Pink" Floyd were stoned out of their gourds, driving into the east Texas sunrise in Wooderson's souped-up Chevy Chevelle, off on a sacred quest for Aerosmith tickets and smoking a breakfast joint as the end credits of "Dazed and Confused" began to roll.

But that was a long time ago, man, and it was just a movie anyway - a made-up story with actors. Right now - 11 years after the movie came out - the real Wooderson, Slater and Floyd are here, in a Huntsville law office, looking older and less hairy and a bit peeved. They're explaining why they recently sued their old high school acquaintance Richard Linklater, who made "Dazed and Confused" in 1993, for "defamation" and "negligent infliction of emotional distress."

"Like, for example, the scene that shows me showing somebody how to make a bong in shop class," says Andy Slater, now 45. "I never did that. But they used my name and they show me making a bong in shop class."

Slater pauses, then smiles. "I don't sit around the house making bongs."

He laughs. So does Bobby Wooderson, 47. And Richard "Pink" Floyd, 46.

But their lawyers aren't laughing. The lawyers are trying to keep this whole thing very serious.

And it is extremely serious. There are important legal principles at stake here - such as the right to privacy, specifically as it relates to the right to avoid having everybody know what a knucklehead you were back in high school. That's why the lawyers get frustrated when all anybody wants to know is: Did you guys really smoke that much dope back in high school in 1976?

Slater smiles slyly. "Well, I wouldn't say it didn't happen," he says. "But I don't think there was any more here than anywhere else."

"Certainly those things happened at that time," interrupts attorney T. Ernest Freeman, "but that aspect of the movie was really exaggerated, particularly with respect to our clients."

Well, of course. Making bongs in shop class - that is a tad far-fetched.

"Oh, no, they did that," says Slater. "But it wasn't me."

To fully comprehend the subtle legal issues of the case of Wooderson et al. v. Universal Studios Inc. et al., it helps to have seen "Dazed and Confused" six or eight times. Which is no problem because the movie is, like, awesome. It's an "American Graffiti" of the '70s, man.

Written and directed by Linklater, who grew up in Huntsville, it was made on a tiny budget with a cast of unknowns, including future stars Matthew McConaughey and Ben Affleck.

Set in an unnamed Texas town on the last day of school in 1976, "Dazed" is a delightfully comic anthropological study of adolescent behavior. These kids smoke dope. They drink beer. They drive around. They hang out. They make out. And the seniors haze the freshmen.

Critics raved. "The ultimate party movie, socially irresponsible and totally irresistible," said Rolling Stone. "The most slyly funny and dead-on portrait of American teenage life ever made," said Entertainment Weekly.

Floyd was eager to see it. He had known Linklater a bit in school - in fact, he remembers paddling Linklater in that hazing ritual - and had heard the movie was about the local high school. So Floyd went to Huntsville's Cinema 10 with his wife, brother, sister and cousin, Bobby Wooderson.

"I watched the movie, and I felt like they'd kicked me in the stomach," says Wooderson, now a computer systems engineer and a divorced father of two.

He was stunned to see a character named David Wooderson (played by McConaughey), a heavy-lidded Lothario in a Ted Nugent T-shirt who graduated years ago but is still hanging around, smoking weed and chasing high school girls.

Floyd says he was shocked to see a character called Randall "Pink" Floyd, the star quarterback, who wonders if he would rather party than play football. Floyd had been a second-string offensive lineman on the school team, but the cinematic promotion to quarterback didn't make him feel any better about all the dope the Pink character smokes in the movie.

"My wife said, 'Oh, my God! What are we gonna tell people?'" recalls Floyd, now the service manager at a Huntsville Dodge dealership and the father of two sons. "Huntsville is a small town, so you know the majority of people are gonna see this movie, and I'm portrayed as a dope-smoking fiend."

When Slater saw it, he was peeved about the character named Ron Slater, a stoner in a pot-leaf T-shirt who launches into a stoned rap about how George Washington used to toke up.

"Who knows? I might have said that," says Slater, a bachelor and a building contractor. "I was quite outspoken back then. That's probably why Rick Linklater might have chosen me as a character - because I disagreed with marijuana laws and I was vocal about that even in high school. But I was never walking around with a marijuana leaf on my shirt or handing out joints. I was not that character in that movie."

Slater says he had only a nodding acquaintance with Linklater: "He never hung out. I never saw him at any of the beer busts. . . . Maybe he was hiding in the bushes taking notes."

After the movie came out, Slater happened to meet Floyd and Wooderson in a Huntsville steakhouse. "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.

They never mentioned suing Linklater that night, they say, because they figured this low-budget, limited-release movie would fade away.

"People ask, 'Why did you wait to sue?'" Wooderson said. "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."

Instead, it became a cult hit, McConaughey and Affleck became stars, and Linklater became a respected director, creator of "School of Rock," among other movies. "Dazed" became a favorite of students who rent it for parties. Web sites devoted to it multiplied like bunnies. Slater, Floyd and Wooderson found themselves semi-famous.

"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!'"

The incident that sparked the lawsuit came last year when Slater picked up a woman for their first - and 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 Freeman, who recruited Santa Fe entertainment lawyer Bill Robins to help him. Slater persuaded Wooderson and Floyd to join him as plaintiffs.

Robins filed the suit Oct. 8 in state court in Santa Fe because New Mexico has a longer statute of limitations than Texas. The suit accuses Linklater and Universal Studios of defaming Slater, Floyd and Wooderson, violating their privacy and causing them "severe emotional distress" and "mental anguish."

The defendants filed papers requesting that the case be transferred to federal court. Linklater declined interview requests.

The Dazed Three did not specify how much money they think Linklater and Universal should pony up.

"I don't even think about it, really," says Slater.

"It's the principle of the thing," says Wooderson.