Skip To...
Despite their cushy celebrity status, plenty of stars are no more human than even their most devoted fans and have obviously made mistakes over their lifetimes, with some blunders definitely bigger than others. Some celebrities went so far as to get into legal trouble and end up in jail, such as Will Smith or Robert Downey Jr. However, one notable star’s unexpected crime that many fans might not have known about, or perhaps have forgotten, is Matthew McConaughey‘s birthday suit bongo bash arrest.
Matthew McConaughey was arrested back in 1999 at his home in Austin, Texas, when a neighbor called the police on the The Wolf of Wall Street alum around 3 am. The reason was that the 29-year-old at the time was partying, waking the neighborhood up with all the ruckus he was making. When the authorities arrived, the Interstellar actor was reportedly banging on bongo drums while completely naked, except for a UT bandana on his head. The officer at the scene tried to get McConaughey’s attention from the window but failed. That’s when the policeman noticed one of the doors into the house was open and decided to waltz in. Things only went downhill from there.
McConaughey Was Arrested Without a Warrant But Was Also Very Uncooperative with Police
According to the Austin American-Statesman, the officer didn’t have a warrant to enter the house, yet went in anyway to confront the The Lincoln Lawyer actor directly. Intoxicated and seemingly under the influence of drugs, the unclothed McConaughey refused to cooperate and instead got aggressive with the cops; they were in his house unlawfully, after all. When the star refused to comply, the officers got handsy with the celebrity, wrestling and handcuffing him before dragging him out to the police car. However, the Serenity co-star wasn’t going to take the arrest lying down. He recalled the struggle with the cops in his memoir, courtesy of MovieWeb:
“They escorted me out of my house through the courtyard entry on the way to the street. Still naked and reluctant to submit to the inevitability of my predicament, I got relative, and decided it would be a clever idea to run up the walls left and right of the gated passageway and do a somersault backflip over the Cornhusker cop who was guiding me from behind. My thinking was that in mid-flight, while upside down in the air, I would assume a pike position and then slide my cuffed wrists under my butt and up and over my legs, then stick the landing behind the Cornhusker, now with my fettered hands in front of me.”
Needless to say, the naked ninja flip didn’t work out for McConaughey, and he ended up falling over on the officer walking him out, causing both to fall onto the ground. According to reports, the policeman took this behavior as being violently non-compliant and reacted in turn, sending the whole scene into further chaos. Eventually, the 29-year-old was taken away and charged with noise violation, for which he ended up paying $50. On the other hand, he was also guilty of a misdemeanor charge of resisting transport, which can be punished by up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine. But the charge was eventually dropped; after all, the officers broke into his home more or less without any warrant.
McConaughey Doesn’t Mind Revisiting His Embarrassing Naked Bongo-Banging Crime
Years after his arrest, Matthew McConaughey has been interviewed about his questionable jam session, during which he claimed to have been “banging away in my bliss.” Not many celebrities, let alone ordinary people, are detained for a private naked bongo concert while drunk at 3 am. Yet it would seem he’s come to terms with the fact that it’s an embarrassing but comical mistake that will follow him for the rest of his life. He’s become so comfortable with the story, in fact, that he’s even commemorated his arrest’s anniversary.
“If playing the bongos in my birthday suit gives us an anniversary worth raising a glass to, I’ll pour some Pantalones and cheers to it,” the U-571 actor told Fox News Digital. That said, one thing’s for certain: McConaughey is more than “alright, alright, alright” about revisiting his unexpected crime. If anything, his openness about the whole ordeal definitely adds an extra layer of wholesomeness to his charm that fans already adore so much.
