This week’s opening of Matthew McConaughey’s new movie, director Gary Ross’ Civil War drama Free State of Jones, is the perfect occasion to recall our first encounter with our future Golden Globe winner.

It was exactly 20 years ago, in July of 1996, and McConaughey’s breakthrough movie, director Joel Schumacher’s legal drama A Time to Kill, was weeks away from its premiere. At 26, the rising star from Uvalde, Texas had already made his mark in John Sayles’ sprawling Texas drama Lone Star, and in Golden Globe winner Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused, coining his signature “all right all right all right”; and, of course, fallen victim to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation.

InTime to Kill, in the role of an idealistic lawyer defending Samuel L. Jackson – accused of killing the two men who had raped his 10-year-old daughter – McConaughey dominated the screen with the charm and charisma of a young Paul Newman, standing his ground in the face of stars like Jackson, Kevin Spacey and Sandra Bullock. The industry was abuzz with his performance, but Matthew said he knew how to keep himself grounded – “(with) family, friends, and God, it’s very easy”. And swore to us he had no idea why: “I’m not exactly sure, but I think one thing that is reassuring about what is going on (…) is that a lot of people went to see the film. They liked the film and evidently appreciated the work that I did. It’s not talk after talk after talk.”

No, it wasn’t – and in 2014 we gave him a Best Actor/Drama Golden Globe for his stunning work in Dallas Buyers Club.