The “Dazed and Confused” actor opted for a much more emotional celebration instead.

Matthew McConaughey once got so high he missed his own birthday party

The "Dazed and Confused" actor opted for a much more emotional celebration instead.

By Emlyn Travis

Emlyn Travis is a news writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2022. Her work has previously appeared on MTV News, Teen Vogue, and *NME*.

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December 11, 2025 11:16 a.m. ET

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Matthew McConaughey. Credit:

Rick Kern/FilmMagic

All right, all right, all right! Matthew McConaughey is remembering the time he got so high that he missed his own birthday party. **

The *Dazed and Confused* actor, 56, recalled the hilarious incident — and what kept him from the festivities — on Wednesday’s episode of *Jimmy Kimmel Live*. **

“I think it was my 35th birthday,” McConaughey began. “And this was right about the time where the old Mexican dirt weed that you would just pull a toke off a joint, laugh, giggle, get the munchies, then maybe go hook up with somebody turned into a little more, ‘Oh!’ A little hydroponic. A little stronger.”

Matthew McConaughey on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live'.

The Oscar winner explained that he was leaving to go to his party when a friend stopped him and encouraged him to have a hit of his joint before he left. **

“I take a toke and I drive myself to my birthday,” McConaughey said. “I made it to my birthday. I pulled up in front. I did not get out of the truck.”

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Why, exactly? “Because I decided that what was more important than going into my birthday was to sit in my truck and listen to Janet Jackson’s ‘That’s the Way Love Goes’ 34 freaking times in a row,” he said as Jimmy Kimmel silently laughed next to him. “And cry. And think it was the most beautiful, wonderful song.” **

He continued, “And I missed my birthday! I finally went in and they had all left!”

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Which makes sense, because Kimmel noted that it would take roughly “two hours” to listen to the track that many times in a row. **

“Such a good tune,” McConaughey said.

The story is one of many featured in the *True Detective *alum’s newest novel *Poems & Prayers, *which also contains a poem about why McConaughey believes all couples should sleep in a queen-size bed.****“We met a friend who had three kids, and he had put two king-size beds next to each other. And we were like, ‘Oh, that’s great, all the kids sleep in the same bed, it’s all super fun,’” he said. “But when the kids quit sleeping in the bed, if you’re still in that bed, you wake up in the morning or you go to bed and you’re 20 feet away from honey. And it’s a long way over there to go cuddle!” **

And all that space between partners is just “not engineered for cuddling.” He added, “So we said, ‘Get rid of that S.O.B. Get yourself a queen-size bed.’” **

Watch McConaughey talk about his birthday and bed in the clip above.

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