Matthew McConaughey has revealed that he and Woody Harrelson have drawn blood during real-life fights, with the pair’s three-decade friendship having survived a chipped tooth, a cracked lip, and at least one blow to the jaw.
“Blood has been drawn. No broken bones. Blood has been drawn, though, and will be drawn again,” McConaughey told Entertainment Weekly.
Harrelson responded that McConaughey got a “chipped tooth” and a “cracked lip”, and the latter clarified it happened because the former “accidentally overswung” and hit him in the jaw.
“One of the great athletes of all of time with incredible special sense,” McConaughey joked. “Such a bulls*** excuse when he says, ‘Oh, I didn’t mean to extend it, miss it by four inches long.’ He knows exactly where every part of his body is.”
Harrelson said that while the duo “butt heads” quite often, ultimately they “f***ing love each other”.
“We hug it out. We mix a drink. Everything’s groovy,” said the Hunger Games star.
The True Detective co-stars are reuniting for Brothers, an eight-episode Apple TV series where they star as fictionalised versions of themselves and follows a family mystery in which the two men begin to wonder whether they could actually be brothers.
The series grew out of a bizarre real-life story involving McConaughey’s mother, Kay “Ma Mac” McConaughey, who in 2017 told Harrelson that she “knew” his father around the time the Interstellar actor was conceived.
“We’d been chatting for years, and it was becoming quite an entertaining narrative amongst he and I and our families every time we got together since my mom said that line that night in Greece [about Harrelson’s dad],” McConaughey told The Hollywood Reporter. “And then, a few years ago, Woody came up with, ‘You know what? Why don’t we make this a TV show?’ I was like, ‘Okay, that’s kind of a good idea.’”
McConaughey has ruled out taking a DNA test to confirm the story, telling The New York Times earlier this month it could mean learning that “your dad’s not your dad that you thought your dad was for 50 years”.
The actor was quick to clarify that his reluctance has nothing to do with the fact that Harrelson’s father was Charles Harrelson, a convicted contract killer. “No, I don’t really care about that,” he told the publication.
The real-life friendship between the two actors began in 1997, when the actors met while working on Ron Howard’s comedy EDtv. They later appeared together in Surfer, Dude and, most famously, starred as detectives Rustin Cohle and Martin Hart in the first season of HBO’s True Detective in 2014.
It was their time making True Detective that appears to have provided some of the more memorable examples of their ability to irritate each other.
“There were 500 times I wanted to punch him in the nose,” Harrelson told The New York Times about McConaughey’s “method” approach.
“We had a fight scene where he went a little long. We had a fight scene where he went a little long. I know he’s a great athlete, so he didn’t go long unless he means it.” McConaughey added, then telling Harrelson that he “chipped” his tooth.
Brothers will premiere globally on Apple TV on 23 September, with the first two episodes released on the same day, followed by one episode each Wednesday through 4 November.
