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“This is absolutely crazy,” marveled Jared Padalecki. “It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen. It’s growth and expansion on a turbocharger. You just walk like … whoa. “
That the Walker actor is having a little trouble expressing the seismic changes in Austin over the past year is perfectly understandable. The Texan capital has seen a pandemic influx that is unlike anywhere else in the country – including some notable ones – thanks to a spate of invading tech companies (Samsung, Oracle) along with quarantined, remote-working transplants from major cities seeking a lifestyle upgrade Actors like Padalecki (Austin based since 2010) suddenly decided that the Texas Hill Country was more seductive than the Hollywood Hills.
Walker’s Jared Padalecki jogs on the Colorado River
@ Jaredpadalecki / Instagram
Elon Musk could have named it. The mogul – who is opening a Tesla gigafactory the size of 138 soccer fields just outside Austin city limits – declared in February that the city will be “America’s biggest boom town in 50 years.”
Locals counter that Austin has been booming, at least to some extent, since the 1990s when Silicon Valley companies, lured by lucrative tax incentives, first added Austin offices and consistently topped the “Best Cities to Live” list. Add in a variety of festivals like South by Southwest (which THR’s parent company, P-MRC Holdings, took a 50 percent stake in in April) that draws hundreds of thousands of people from around the world each March, and even the Great Recession hardly stepped on the brakes on Austin’s ascent. (Local Joke: What’s the Official Bird of Austin? The Crane!)
Yet even those used to Austin’s mounting pain were stunned by the aftermath of the pandemic, which saw property prices soar 43 percent in one year – the steepest rise of any major metropolitan area in the country. There are many stories of home sellers bombarded with cash-only offers once a property hits the market. 1,440 homes in the Austin area were sold for over $ 100,000 in the first half of the year, up from 22 homes in the same period last year. “The market is so crazy – our house we bought this fall is already worth as much as we bought it,” says LA-to-transplant actress Becca Tobin (who featured a guest column for this week’s THR entitled “Why I Left Hollywood for Austin”). “It’s like, ‘Are we going to turn around and sell this house again?’ ”
A man, however, is not remotely surprised by any of this.
“I was just waiting for the secret to come out,” says Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey, who has become an unofficial brand ambassador for Austin (and hopefully a Texas governorate who will challenge Republican incumbent Greg Abbott in 2022) . “I look forward to growth. We’re not going back. We don’t have a landmark like Niagara Falls or Disney World or the Eiffel Tower. They all come for the mood – we have people. “
Newcomers include Zachary Levi (who plans to build a studio on his property in nearby Bastrop), Scott Eastwood, Adrianne Palicki, Adrian Grenier and James Van Der Beek. “You weren’t allowed to fly a KITE in the Beverly Hills park near the house we just moved from,” The Beek grumbled on Instagram when he and his family moved to Texas in November. “Also not allowed in any park in Beverly Hills: ride a bike, climb a tree, learn from a teacher, use weights … When people ask why we are moving our children out of LA, these are just a few of the reasons. ”
Transplants Zachary Levi (left) and Stephen Amell
Levi: Rich Fury / Kca2019 / Getty Images for Nickelodeon; Amell: Dia Dipasupil / Getty Images
“More freedom” was also a motive that arguably the most influential newcomer often expressed: Joe Rogan, who moved his hugely popular Spotify podcast from LA and uses his platform to regularly evangelize central Texas. “I’ve never felt so comfortable,” Rogan told his audience in May, “I fucking love it here … It’s too good. You think you know what city life is and then you come here and it’s most of the good things and very few bad things. It’s a city of utopian size, with great values, really friendly people, great restaurants, and a great art scene. ”(If only he could start saying“ Franklin Barbecue ”, not“ Franklin’s ”.)
Rogan’s Pied Piper call has drawn other comics to town (including Tony Hinchcliffe and Tom Segura) and he’s announced he’ll be opening a comedy club near Austin’s posh suburb of Westlake. But Rogan says the future of Austin’s entertainment industry goes way beyond adding new venues. “Austin could easily be the center of the comedy,” says Rogan. “Comedy doesn’t need show business anymore. Ten friends moved here last year and they keep growing. “
Matthew McConaughey on his Triumph motorcycle, which is painted in UT Austin’s signature burnt orange.
Courtesy of the subject
The city has also long since attracted film and television productions. CW’s Walker and Netflix’s Queer Eye shot their newest seasons in town, and HBO’s Love and Death, starring Elizabeth Olsen, is in preproduction for the fall. But overall film exposure hasn’t increased as much as the general population or the tech side – at least not yet. “We’ve increased slightly and our crew base is fully at work at this point,” notes Brian Gannon, director of the Austin Film Commission.
It remains to be seen whether the pandemic-inspired boom in creative communities continues as coastlines return to normal. With summer temperatures soaring in the triple digits, at least one recent transplant stated his move to Austin was a mistake.
“It’s not a world-class city,” comedian Tim Dillon complained to his podcast listeners in June. “The city of Austin, Texas is a city [for artists] who left New York or LA and never found a way to make their art commercial. It’s always been a community of sloth-like people. Joe Rogan can walk around and say, ‘Why don’t you write anymore? Shouldn’t you be exercising? ‘ They are losers to the bone. “
For locals, Dillon’s push would be more relieved than offended. The city’s famed lackluster vibe – this slurred word is often used by fans of the city – was embodied in Richard Linklater’s aptly titled 1990 film Slacker, which also helped kickstart the city’s indie film scene. Apparently, Austin’s uniquely specific frequency is still within reach, even with all of those Teslas around – a place where, as McConaughey once said, “nobody is too good and everyone is good enough”.
The cast of Queer Eye while filming in Austin.
Courtesy of Netflix
“What we have to be careful about in Austin is preserving our DNA,” says McConaughey. “I’ve spoken to a lot of people and since they came here I’ve kept hearing the two words ‘hospitality’ and ‘optimism’. So my line was: ‘Don’t transform here why you left there.’ Our challenge will be how to deal with this huge influx. If any place has an identity in the soul that we need to preserve, it is Austin. “
Replace “Austin” with “Texas” in McConaughey’s quote, and it sounds like it might be a winning dull speech. But Padalecki agrees with McConaughey’s concerns.
“Austin’s unwritten motto is: Keep Austin Weird,” he says. “The landscape has changed, but I hope that doesn’t change. It’s a cool place. Hopefully it stays that way.”
Related: ‘Glee’ star Becca Tobin explains: “Why I left Hollywood for Austin.”
This story first appeared in the August 4th issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
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