Matthew McConaughey has had a long-standing bromance with Woody Harrelson, but now they are wondering if it’s because they might actually be brothers.
The two have known each other since 1997, when they worked on the Ron Howard comedy EDtv and got along famously.
“You know, where I start and where he ends, and where he starts and I end, has always been like a murky line,” is how Matthew explained the relationship to Kelly Ripa in a podcast interview earlier this week.
“My kids call him Uncle Woody. His kids call me Uncle Matthew,” he added. “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.”
But things may have gotten murkier after a comment made by Matthew’s mother about Woody’s father, hitman and organised crime figure Charles Voyde Harrelson.
Matthew said his and Woody’s families were vacationing together in Greece a few years ago when Matthew’s mum said, “Woody, I knew your dad.”
It was big news, the actor said, because “everyone was aware of the ellipses that my mom left after ‘knew.’ It was a loaded K-N-E-W.”
Since then, Matthew said, he’s been investigating his family history.
“We went on to unpack what this ‘knew’ meant and did some math and found out that [Harrelson’s] dad was on furlough at the same time that my mom and dad were in their second divorce,” the actor said. “Then there’s possible receipts and places out in West Texas where there might have been a gathering, or a meeting, or a ‘knew’ moment.”
However, the two friends have yet to take a DNA test to determine whether they are also family. Matthew admits he has concerns.
“It’s a little easier for [Woody] to say, ‘Come on, let’s do it!,’ because what’s the skin in it for him?” he explained. “It’s a little harder for me, because he’s asking me to take a chance and go, ‘Wait a minute. You’re telling me that my dad may not be my dad after 53 years of believing it?’ I’ve got a little more skin in the game.”
You can hear the entire podcast below. Meanwhile, Matthew and Woody have collaborated on a new Apple TV+ show Brother From Another Mother, where they play fictionalised versions of themselves living together with their families on a Texas ranch.