You could say he woke up… Dazed and confused…
…Alright, alright, alright.
*Shows self the door*
But seriously. In August, 2012, Rory Curtis, 25 at the time, was in a car accident near his home in Redditch, Great Britain. The accident caused some very serious brain damage. Via The Daily Mail:
Rory Curtis, 25, suffered a serious brain injury and a broken pelvis after his van flipped over on the M42 near Tamworth, Staffordshire, and five vehicles ploughed into it in August 2012.
He was placed in an induced coma for six days and when he finally came round he started chatting to nurses in fluent French even though he had not spoken the language in 12 years.
The former semi-professional footballer for Stourport Swifts FC also said he did not recognise himself in the mirror as he was convinced he was Oscar-winning actor Matthew McConaughey.
‘I cannot remember much but I know in my head I thought I was Matthew McConaughey,’ he said.
‘When I went to the toilet I went to look in the mirror and I was shocked because I didn’t look like him, I didn’t know what I was looking at.‘Then slowly over time it eventually clicked and I thought ‘he is an actor, what am I on about?
‘But at times I was in hospital thinking I can’t wait to get out of here and back to filming movies.
‘I was convinced I was him and that I had his good looks as well – I know it was hopeful thinking really.’
Doctors at Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital found he had suffered a multifocal intracranial brain haemorrhage, which meant his blood vessels had burst and blood was leaking into his brain.He left the hospital in November 2012 no longer believing he was McConaughey, but still able to speak in fluent French – a skill he still retains two years on.
It’s not really a funny story and, obviously, I’m glad he survived the injuries. Even crazier that he was able to speak fluent French from them. I wish the Daily Mail had some examples of what his behavior was like when he thought he was Matthew McConaughey, though. Was he dropping lines from Ghosts of Girlfriends Past or How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days? Maybe Sahara? Or are we thinking something a little more deep, like Lincoln Lawyer or Mud? If this had happened in 2014, I wonder if he’d be talking about the M-brane theory and such? The musings of Rust Cohle had a pretty profound impact on my psyche of the past year.