Matthew McConaughey’s King Of The Hill Role, Explained
The animated TV series King of the Hill has featured the voices of many celebrated actors, including Matthew McConaughey, who played a character six years after his breakthrough movie role in Dazed and Confused. The actor achieved romantic lead status for 2000s comedies such as How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Failure to Launch, and The Wedding Planner before moving on to prestige dramas like Mud and Dallas Buyers Club. Over the course of its 13 seasons, King of the Hill had voices from such actors as Betty White, Brad Pitt, Chris Rock, and Laura Dern, and McConaughey’s role stands out as it has a weighty message.
While Matthew McConaughey is known for his movie roles, he has also had an acclaimed TV career, particularly for playing Rust Cohle in season 1 of the HBO crime drama True Detective and Roy McDaniel in a few episodes of Eastbound & Down. A few years before Matthew McConaughey’s King of the Hill role, he played Larry Dickens on Unsolved Mysteries. One year later, in 2000, he played a version of himself in an episode of Sex and the City, which shows his ability to be funny. However, McConaughey’s King of the Hill character teaches Luanne Platter (Brittany Murphy) and Bobby Hill (Pamela Adlon) a helpful lesson about trusting people.
Matthew McConaughey Voiced Rad Thibodeaux
Matthew McConaughey voiced Rad Thibodeaux in King of the Hill season 3, episode 14, « The Wedding of Bobby Hill. » Luanne meets Rad when she cuts his hair and learns that he’s a concert promoter. It makes sense that given Luanne’s naive King of the Hill personality, she would fall for Rad and believe everything he says, although it’s pretty clear he’s lying. Rad shows himself to be a self-centered character in this short-lived appearance. He is more focused on hosting gatherings with people he claims are part of the music industry than getting to know Luanne or becoming invested in her life.
Bobby And Luanne Think Rad Is Cooler Than He Really Is
Matthew McConaughey’s King of the Hill character helps Bobby and Luanne see that they shouldn’t feel insecure or think that other people are cooler and more exciting than they are. Luanne knows she needs to be with a smarter and more caring person, and Luanne and Lucky Kleinschmidt (Tom Petty) get married later on, which is one of the best King of the Hill relationships. Both Luanne and Bobby are drawn to Rad’s confident personality and the easy way that he talks about music, but when Rad has a party at Boomhauer’s (Mike Judge) house without telling him, Luanne dislikes Rad’s poor behavior and sees the real him.
Because Luanne and Bobby are still young and figuring out who is worth dating or becoming friends with, Rad is an important person in their lives. Matthew McConaughey’s small part on King of the Hill also allows the characters to mend their relationship as they realize they were wrong and that pranking each other was immature. They end the episode on good terms, proving they are growing up a little.
