If you ever wondered what the likes of Aubrey Plaza, Oscar Isaac, Kate Mara, Max Minghella, and Justin Long were doing during their pre-fame in-between phase, the answer is: forming a bowling squad named after a classic catchphrase made famous by Matthew McConaughey.
In an Instagram post on Wednesday, May 6, the 47-year-old Long pulled the curtain back on a long-buried sliver of celebrity lore — a tongue-in-cheek “professional” bowling outfit the five of them cooked up around 2011, christened The Alright Alright Alrights. (Named after the trademark quote McConaughey first drawled out as Dave Wooderson in “Dazed and Confused”). Actress Ari Graynor was also on the celebrity-filled bowling squad.
Long played up the whole thing as a moment when the five of them collectively walked away from acting to chase pin-toppling destiny. McConaughey himself got tagged in the caption and crowned as the team’s spiritual mentor — a title that probably wouldn’t survive contract negotiations but absolutely tracks with the vibe.
Justin Long Set Instagram Afire With His Hilarious Celebrity Bowling Team Pic
The group that was gathered together in the 2011 photo Long shared featured several cast members of the indie ensemble “10 Years,” a Channing Tatum-led high school reunion comedy that marked Jamie Linden’s directorial debut. Linden, in a bit of a full circle moment, had previously written the McConaughey-led football drama “We Are Marshall.”
Long, Plaza, Isaac, Graynor, Mara, and Minghella all turned up in the film, and they clearly had fun when off-set. Whether the bowling team ever rolled a real frame or just lived as a hotel-bar inside joke, the group assembled is quite legendary, indeed.
Per Long’s Insta post, the bowling team dream died the second Oscar’s Hollywood star caught fire — Isaac booking a galaxy far, far away as Poe Dameron in 2015’s “The Force Awakens” effectively scattered the lineup. Long ended the post by joking that Isaac’s current Netflix series “Beef” feels appropriately titled given their unresolved tension.
Others in the pic, of course, did absurdly well for themselves, too.
Plaza, then mid-“Parks and Recreation” deadpan ascendancy, has since graduated to “The White Lotus” and Hollywood power-producer status; Mara fronted “House of Cards” two years later.
Justin Long’s Recent Run: ‘Weapons’ ‘Coyotes’ & Life With Kate Bosworth
GettyLong, for his part, isn’t exactly sitting idly with nothing to do. He’s coming off another high-profile horror swing in 2025’s “Weapons,” the latest entry in a run that’s reframed him as a full-blown scream king ever since 2022’s “Barbarian” knocked the genre sideways.
Up next is “Coyotes,” a horror-comedy he stars in alongside wife Kate Bosworth, which is slated to hit theaters October 3. The pair, who first linked up in 2022 after working together on “House of Darkness” and tied the knot in an impromptu June 2023 ceremony, welcomed their first child, a daughter, via surrogate in July of 2025.
So while The Alright Alright Alrights may be no more, Long is doing just fine. Even if he’s still nursing a (totally fictional) grudge against a “Star Wars” pilot.
