You probably think of the "McConaissance" as the moment Matthew McConaughey finally got serious. You think of Dallas Buyers Club, or maybe that first season of True Detective where he was all cigarettes and nihilism. But honestly? If you want to see the real origin story, you have to look at a 1994 Disney movie about a kid, some CGI wings, and a very bad baseball team.
In Angels in the Outfield, Matthew McConaughey plays Ben Williams. He’s an outfielder. He’s blonde. He spends a weird amount of time without a shirt on in the dugout. Most importantly, he’s one of the first players to get physically hoisted into the air by an invisible celestial being to catch a fly ball.
It's a trip to watch it now. This was 1994. McConaughey was just a guy who had recently been "David Wooderson" in Dazed and Confused. He wasn't a superstar yet. He was a working actor taking a paycheck to play ball in the Oakland Coliseum (which stood in for Anaheim) for $48,500. To a young actor in the early '90s, that was "rolling in dough" money.
The Stacked Cast We All Forgot
When people talk about Angels in the Outfield, they usually lead with Danny Glover or Tony Danza. Maybe they mention Christopher Lloyd as the head angel, Al. But the roster of this fictional California Angels team is genuinely insane in retrospect.
Besides McConaughey, you’ve got a young Adrien Brody as Danny Hemmerling. You’ve got Neal McDonough—before he was a prestige TV villain—playing the pitcher Whitt Bass. And, of course, the whole movie is anchored by a 12-year-old Joseph Gordon-Levitt. It’s like a "Before They Were Famous" fever dream.
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McConaughey’s character, Ben Williams, isn't exactly deep. He doesn't have the tragic back-story of Tony Danza’s Mel Clark. He’s basically there to provide the "miracle" visuals. In one of the movie's most famous sequences, the angels pick him up and carry him through the air to make a catch at the wall.
- The Actor: Matthew McConaughey
- The Character: Ben Williams
- The Position: Outfield
- The Vibe: Pure 90s sunshine and athleticism
He actually talked about this later, joking about how they had him in harnesses and wires to pull off the stunt. It was "stellar" work for a guy who, two weeks into the shoot, got the call for Boys on the Side. His career was about to explode, but for a few months in late '93, he was just an Angel in the outfield.
Why This Movie Still Hits Different
It’s easy to dismiss this as just another Disney sports flick. But there’s a reason it sticks in the brain of every Millennial. It’s a movie about faith, but it’s also remarkably sad. Roger (Gordon-Levitt) is a foster kid whose dad tells him they’ll be a family again "when the Angels win the pennant."
It’s a cruel joke that the kid takes literally.
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The movie manages to balance that heavy emotional weight with the absurdity of Matthew McConaughey being launched into the sky. It shouldn't work. By all accounts of modern film criticism, it’s a "terrible" movie. The dialogue is clunky. The religious undertones are about as subtle as a fastball to the ribs.
And yet, it works.
Maybe it’s because the cast is so committed. Danny Glover isn't phoning it in; he’s genuinely angry. McConaughey isn't just a background body; he’s giving Ben Williams a specific, albeit simple, energy. He’s the "beautiful" one on the team, the guy who seems to believe in the magic before anyone else does because, well, he’s the one being lifted by it.
The Financial Reality of a 1994 Newbie
McConaughey has gone on record saying he thought he’d made it when he got the $48,500 check for this role. It’s a grounded reminder that even the biggest stars started as blue-collar actors. He was a guy who liked baseball and got paid to play it on camera.
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Spotting McConaughey in the Wild
If you go back and rewatch it today—maybe on Disney+ during a rainy Sunday—look for the dugout scenes. You’ll see him. Usually without a jersey, usually grinning. It’s the same grin he used in Magic Mike, just twenty years younger and with less cynicism.
The "angel flaps" move that the fans do in the movie? That actually became a real-life thing for the Angels' fanbase for a while. The team in the movie is the California Angels, which was their actual name until 1997. Interestingly, Disney actually bought a stake in the real Angels team two years after this movie came out. Life imitating art, or just good corporate synergy?
Actionable Takeaways for Movie Buffs
If you're looking to revisit this era of McConaughey or just want to win a trivia night, keep these points in your back pocket:
- Watch the credits: McConaughey is billed pretty far down. It’s a "blink and you'll miss him" role if you aren't paying attention.
- The Brody Connection: This is one of the rare times you’ll see two future Best Actor Oscar winners (McConaughey and Adrien Brody) playing teammates in a family comedy.
- Filming Secrets: Even though the movie is about the Angels, it was mostly filmed at the Oakland Coliseum because the schedules worked better for the production.
- The Strike Factor: The movie hit theaters in July 1994, just one month before the real-life MLB strike that cancelled the World Series. For a lot of kids, this movie was the 1994 season.
Next time you see a McConaughey Lincoln commercial or a clip of him winning an Oscar, remember Ben Williams. He was the guy who needed wings before he figured out how to fly on his own.
The best way to appreciate the "McConaissance" is to see where the man started: in the outfield, waiting for a miracle, and looking like he was having the time of his life.