She was Matthew McConaughey's co-star in 1992. Now, she's back to celebrate Trisha Yearwood

In 1992, Larissa Clark, then a 19-year-old former theater student from Reagan High School, showed up for her first big audition at Pease Park.

She tried out for the role of the girlfriend in a music video, "Walkway Joe," as recorded by country star Trisha Yearwood, who was backed up by veteran singer Don Henley.

If they won the parts, Clark and one of the men at the audition — who? — would play young lovers in a whirlwind romance that ends in woe. The narrative part of the video, which looks a bit like Terrence Malick's 1973 movie "Badlands," was slated to be filmed in Austin and the Hill Country.

"I remember sitting at picnic tables, waiting for my name to be called," Clark says. "A few days later, I got a call saying I made the callbacks, and to report to the Radisson Hotel for a second audition. When I arrived, I was ushered up to a room along with Matthew McConaughey. The producer came in and let us know we both got the parts."

This was before Matthew McConaughey was the Matthew McConaughey. For his part, McConaughey talked about his experiences with "Walkaway Joe" on "The Kelly Clarkson Show."

"And it was, I think it was early 1992, I'm going to college here at the University of Texas," McConaughey recalled. "This is before 'Dazed and Confused.' And I was trying to get odd jobs in front of the camera when I could and I got cast in that music video to play Joe. Things are going well and we end up at the last stop, she wakes up and 'Joe,' myself, is nowhere to be seen. Therefore, aka, the title 'Walkaway Joe.'

"Yeah, 'Walkaway Joe' was my first time in front of the camera."

Thirty-one years later on Oct. 26, Clark, now a real estate agent who lives in Lake Worth Beach, Florida, with her husband and son, will attend the "Austin City Limits" Hall of Fame ceremony at ACL Live, where Henley will usher Yearwood into that august company.

More: Don Henley, Ethan Hawke to induct Trisha Yearwood, John Prine into 'ACL' Hall of Fame

Clark won't appear onstage, but the longtime show biz personality will come with special ties to the big stars.

"Mostly, I have always dreamed of meeting Trisha Yearwood," Clarks says. "Trisha even claims that she is the reason for Matthew's fame, since this was his first time ever on film. Funny, but it was mine, too."

Larissa Clark dives into show biz

Clark was born March 21, 1973, in San Angelo to parents Monica Harlow and Dan Sagan. The family moved to Austin when Clark was 5. Her parents now live in Georgetown and Austin.

Clark grew up on Hillcrest Drive in the Windsor Park neighborhood.

"I spent summers swimming at Bartholomew Park, roaming the neighborhood, and buying sugar cereal at Tom Thumb Grocery Store," she says. "My mother still lives in the house I grew up in."

Clark attended Sacred Heart Catholic Elementary, Pearce Middle School and Reagan High School, where she graduated in 1991. A cheerleader as well as theater student, she flipped burgers at Whataburger on Cameron Lane and taught classes at the Joyce Willett School of Dance, now located at 12593 Research Blvd.

Outgoing Clark dove into many other forms of show biz. She owned and operated Princess Parties and More in Austin for 20 years.

"I was a clown for Bobby Bones' daughter's birthday party," she says. "Kendra Scott hired my company for some parties. Since moving to Florida, I have passed the business on to a new owner."  

In another show biz life, Clark danced with the B93 Honey Bees, a group that represented radio station B93. That's where she met her future husband, Garrett Clark, who grew up in the Lost Creek neighborhood near West Lake Hills and played star quarterback on the winning Westlake High School football team.

Clark was crowned Miss Congeniality in the 1992 Miss Austin pageant. She worked as a dancer for Marky Mark & the Funky Bunch when he performed in Austin.

She starred in an Amy's Ice Cream commercial. After moving to Los Angeles, she played Cinderella for Stephen Spielberg's daughter's birthday party, and a cheerleader with Melissa Joan Hart on the sitcom "Just Shoot Me."

Back to that video with McConaughey, plus the 'Austin City Limits' Hall of Fame

"I did get to kiss him," Clark says of McConaughey. "Of course the producers cut out that part. It was the part where he was carrying me in the field and we kind of fell down and kissed. Plus, we practiced kissing in the RV, but there's no photographic proof of that."

Austin watchers will want to identify the locations glimpsed in the video.

"I believe the gas station scene was in Wimberley," Clark says. "Some scenes were at the Radisson Hotel. The motel scene was in actually Oak Hill, near the Y intersection. It sure was a fun few days roaming around in a chauffeured RV."

Austin stage and screen veteran Diane Perella is instantly recognizable as Clark's mother in the video.

Clark took a personal picture of McConaughey which she has never before shared with the public.

"This was before cell phone photos, Facebook and social media," she says. "You know, days when you turned in a roll of film and waited 10 days to see the pictures."

She hopes McConaughey shows up for the Hall of Fame ceremony, but she's mostly glad to be in the audience when Yearwood, one of her idols, is inducted.

"While in Austin I plan on staying downtown with my niece who goes to the University of Texas," Clark says. "I'll chill with college girls and get a feel for the energy and life of what Austin has to offer. OMG! If I get to go backstage at ACL Live, I will faint. Of course that is a dream and something that would be unbelievable if it can happen."

About the 2023 'Austin City Limits' Hall of Fame

Producers of "Austin City Limits," the longest-running music program in television history, created their hall of fame in 2014. Along with Yearwood, the late John Prine is being inducted this year at the Oct. 26 show. Eagles co-founder Don Henley will induct Yearwood, and writer, actor and Austin native Ethan Hawke will induct Prine.

Scheduled to perform at the show are Brandy Clark, Valerie June, Nathaniel Rateliff, Brothers Osborne, Tyler Childers, Ronnie Dunn, Henley, Jo Dee Messina, Tommy Prine, Allison Russell and Kurt Vile.

Lloyd Maines, who was inducted in the first year of the hall of fame along with Willie Nelson and Stevie Ray Vaughan, returns as musical director with a house band that includes guitarist David Grissom, keyboardist Chris Gage, bassist Bill Whitbeck and drummer Tom Van Schaik.

Tickets start at $54 and are on sale at acllive.com.

Highlights from the ceremony will air Jan. 24 on KLRU and other PBS stations as part of "Austin City Limits" 49th season.

The show has received a National Medal of the Arts and its original studio, Austin PBS Studio 6A on the University of Texas campus, is an official Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Landmark. Season 50 will premiere next fall, with tapings still to be announced.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Matthew McConaughey, Larissa Clark starred in Trisha Yearwood' video