Bernie

A Film Where Real Town Gossips Did the Talking

Richard Linklater's darkest comedy is also one of his most purely Texan. Bernie is a true-crime story told in the key of small-town gossip, built from real interviews with Carthage residents who loved a man who confessed to murder. The locations that stood in for East Texas are scattered across Bastrop County.

Details: Millennium Entertainment / Rated PG-13 / 99 minutes
Director: Richard Linklater
Cast: Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine and Matthew McConaughey
Stream it: Bernie

About the Film

Linklater spent years circling the Bernie Tiede story before committing to it. The source material was Skip Hollandsworth's 1998 Texas Monthly feature (a piece that crackled with local voices and dry moral ambiguity) and Linklater co-wrote the screenplay with Hollandsworth, preserving that same story-telling quality. Rather than dramatize the story conventionally, Linklater structured the film as a mockumentary, interweaving staged scenes with actual interviews from Carthage residents, many of whom appear as themselves. Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine, and Matthew McConaughey filmed alongside non-actors from the real town, giving the finished film a texture that no production designer could have manufactured.

The decision to shoot not in Carthage but in Bastrop County was partly practical, partly aesthetic. The small-town courthouse squares, the pine-shaded main streets, the Texas-institution BBQ joints — Bastrop County supplied all of it with an easy commute from Austin. What the locations gave the film is what they can still give a visitor: a physical sense of how this story could only have happened in a specific corner of Texas, where civic identity is built around exactly the kind of community bonds Bernie exploited so expertly. The real Bernie Tiede, now 66, is currently incarcerated at the Estelle Unit in Huntsville, Texas, serving a 99-year sentence. He is not eligible for parole until 2029, a postscript the movie's warm, winking ending quietly omits.

Beloved by the community, mortician Bernie Tiede (Jack Black) becomes the only friend of the wealthy widow Marjorie Nugent (Shirley MacLaine). The townsfolk consider her cold and unpleasant, but the 80-year-old Marjorie and her 39-year-old companion Bernie are inseparable. In 1996, Bernie murders 81-year-old Marjorie after snapping due to her emotional abuse. For months, Bernie excuses her absence, using Marjorie's money to support local businesses until her family discovers her corpse in a freezer chest. Bernie is then put on trial for murder by prosecutor Danny Buck Davidson (Matthew McConaughey).

Filming Locations

Multiple scenes

El Monarca (fomerly Zimmerhanzel's BBQ)

Linklater used this space for several scenes that capture the texture of small-town Texas life, including the standout sequence where character actor Sonny Carl Davis delivers a deadpan taxonomy of Texas regional identities. The orange bucket chairs and mounted deer heads behind the counter are visible throughout; those orange chairs in particular read as almost absurdist set dressing.

Today: Zimmerhanzel's BBQ permanently closed in 2022 after 42 years, when the Bunte family retired. The same building at the Colorado River bridge is now home to El Monarca, a Mexican restaurant. The tin building exterior is largely unchanged and the space is still the same footprint Linklater filmed in — the orange chairs and deer heads are gone, but the bones are recognizable.
Address: 307 Royston St, Smithville, TX 78957 · ~40 min from Austin

Trial Scenes

Bastrop County Courthouse

The climactic trial sequences — including McConaughey's slippery DA Danny Buck Davidson working a courtroom packed with Bernie's supporters — were filmed inside the Bastrop County Courthouse's second-floor district courtroom. The exterior gazebo on the courthouse lawn is where scenes with Kay McCabe (played by Matthew McConaughey's real mother, Kay McConaughey) were shot, adding a layer of meta-Texas casting that Linklater clearly enjoyed.

The Bastrop County Courthouse serves as the San Augustine County courtroom during the trial scenes where District Attorney Danny Buck (McConaughey) tries Bernie (Black) for the murder of Marjorie Nugent. The scenes with town gossip Kay McCabe (played by Matthew McConaughey's mother, Kay McConaughey) were filmed in the gazebo outside the courthouse lawn. This location was also featured in multiple episodes of the CW series "Walker."

Today: The Bastrop County Courthouse is a working government building and one of the best-preserved 1880s Victorian courthouses in Central Texas. Grounds and the exterior are freely accessible any time. Interior public areas are generally open Monday–Friday, 9 a.m.–4 p.m., though courtrooms on the second floor are active court spaces — confirm access before visiting if you want to see the trial location specifically. The gazebo on the lawn is accessible and makes for an easy photo stop. The courthouse also appeared prominently in the CW series Walker. Downtown Bastrop's antique shops, restaurants, and Colorado River waterfront are all within a short walk.
Location: 804 Pecan St, Bastrop, TX 78602 · ~30 min from Austin

Mrs. Senior Carthage Contest

Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort and Spa

The pageant sequence where Bernie hosts the Mrs. Senior Carthage Contest was filmed in one of the resort's event ballrooms. Linklater cast an actual Austin-area senior dance troupe, Class Act, as the contestants — they perform in matching sashes while Bernie works the microphone with his signature cheerful efficiency.

Today: The Hyatt Regency Lost Pines is fully open and operating as a full-service resort on 405 acres along the Lower Colorado River between Austin and Bastrop. Non-guests can access the resort's restaurants and common areas; the ballroom event spaces used in filming are available only for guests and private events. The resort features a water park, spa, golf course, horseback riding, and access to the adjacent McKinney Roughs Nature Park with 18 miles of trails. It's a legitimate destination in its own right — worth building a half-day around if you're combining it with the Bastrop courthouse stop on a Bernie tour. 
Address: 575 Hyatt Lost Pines Rd, Cedar Creek, TX 78612 · ~35 min from Austin

Iconic Filming Locations Map

Production & Legacy

The Shoot

Linklater and Hollandsworth spent years developing the script before production began in 2010. The decision to cast actual Carthage residents alongside the lead actors was central from the start. Linklater conducted the interviews himself, and those real voices give the film its documentary credibility. The production base was Austin and Bastrop County, keeping costs manageable and allowing Linklater to tap the region's existing infrastructure. McConaughey, then at a career inflection point, signed on after reading the script and has described the role as among his personal favorites. Filming the courtroom scenes at Bastrop County Courthouse required working around an active court calendar.

The Impact

Bernie earned strong reviews, a Golden Globe nomination for Jack Black, and an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Feature, but its most consequential outcome was legal rather than cinematic. After the film drew national attention to the case, defense attorney Jodi Cole approached Linklater and uncovered evidence that formed the basis for a new petition. Bernie Tiede was released from prison in 2014 and briefly lived in Linklater's Austin home while awaiting a resentencing hearing. A 2016 jury, less persuaded by the new evidence, sentenced him to 99 years a second time. As of 2026, Tiede remains incarcerated.

Plan Your Visit

A focused Bernie tour covers about 35 miles of driving total and works well as a half-day loop from Austin. Start at the Bastrop County Courthouse (~30 min from downtown Austin via TX-71), which takes 20–30 minutes for a proper exterior walk and grounds visit. From there, continue east on TX-71 to the Hyatt Regency Lost Pines (~10 min from downtown Bastrop), where you can stop for a drink or a meal at one of the resort's restaurants and walk the Colorado River grounds. Then double back to Smithville (~15 min west) to see the exterior of the old Zimmerhanzel's building at 307 Royston before a short walk along the Smithville main street. The whole loop can be done in three hours or stretched into a full day if you add time at the resort.

Bastrop County

Bastrop's main street sits two blocks from the courthouse and offers one of the more intact small-town commercial strips in Central Texas with independent restaurants, antique stores, and good river access at Fisherman's Park. The surrounding area is easy to pair with a stop at Bastrop State Park's Lost Pines forest, about 3 miles east.

Boyhood

Several of Boyhood's Texas chapters were filmed in and around Bastrop County over the course of the film's 12-year production, overlapping geographically with Bernie's locations. See the Boyhood film guide page for more.