Families can be complicated, beguiling things. Long-kept secrets can simmer away for generations before exploding in a mess of trauma and recriminations. Children can learn that they have a different biological father. Cousins can learn that they’re actually siblings removed at birth. And Matthew McConaughey can have a bit of a hunch that Woody Harrelson is his half-brother.
Somewhat unbelievably, this last one is playing out in real time. On an episode of Kelly Ripa’s Let’s Talk Off Camera podcast, McConaughey started to discuss Harrelson, his regular co-star in work as diverse as True Detective and EDtv. “You know, where I start and where he ends, and where he starts and I end, has always been like a murky line … My kids call him Uncle Woody. His kids call me Uncle Matthew. And you see pictures of us and my family thinks a lot of pictures of him are me. His family thinks a lot of pictures of me are him.”
