Matthew McConaughey is opening up about the surprisingly physical arguments he has had with his longtime friend and frequent co-star Woody Harrelson.
The pair have shared a close friendship for almost three decades, but McConaughey, 56, acknowledged that some of their real-life clashes have become intense enough to draw blood. Harrelson is 65.
‘Blood has been drawn,’ McConaughey told Entertainment Weekly while discussing their new Apple TV series, Brothers, which premiered Tuesday.
‘No broken bones. But blood has been drawn, and it will be drawn again,’ he said.
Harrelson explained that the two actors regularly ‘butt heads,’ recalling one incident that resulted in a chipped tooth.
‘A cracked lip,’ Harrelson added. ‘That kind of thing.’
Matthew McConaughey, 56, has discussed his real-life fights with longtime friend Woody Harrelson, 65. The pair are pictured at the Brothers premiere in Los Angeles on September 17.
Although the Hollywood stars have been close for nearly 30 years, McConaughey said some of their physical confrontations have ended with one or both of them bleeding.
McConaughey confirmed that Harrelson was responsible for chipping his tooth.
He then teased his friend by claiming Harrelson had ‘accidentally overswung’ and caught him on the jaw.
‘One of the greatest athletes of all time, with incredible spatial sense,’ McConaughey joked, gesturing toward Harrelson.
‘It’s such a bulls**t excuse when he says, “I didn’t mean to extend it and miss by four inches.” He knows exactly where every part of his body is.’
Harrelson insisted that the accidental injuries have happened on both sides. Despite their occasional altercations, he made clear that their friendship has never been seriously shaken.
‘At the end of the day, we f*****g love each other. We hug it out, make a drink and everything is groovy.’
McConaughey and Harrelson first crossed paths in 1997 while working together on the comedy EDtv.
Their best-known partnership arrived in 2014, when they played detectives Rustin Cohle and Martin Hart in the first season of HBO’s acclaimed drama True Detective.
‘Blood has been drawn,’ McConaughey told Entertainment Weekly while promoting Brothers, his latest Apple TV project with Harrelson.
McConaughey said there had been ‘no broken bones,’ while Harrelson recalled that their frequent clashes had once led to a chipped tooth. The actors are pictured in 2008.
Harrelson said their friendship has survived their physical disagreements. ‘At the end of the day, we f*****g love each other. We hug it out, make a drink and everything is groovy.’
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The actors have reunited for the Apple TV series Brothers, which explores the idea that the two Hollywood stars could actually be half-brothers. They are pictured in a scene from the show.
The speculation initially kicked off after McConaughey said his mother, Kay, once claimed she ‘knew’ Harrelson’s father – a convicted contract killer – around the time that he was conceived; Seen with his mother in 2025
McConaughey and Harrelson (seen in their high school yearbook photos) were both born in Texas
The two have recently reunited once again for the Apple TV series Brothers, a comedy that plays on the wild theory that the two Hollywood stars might actually be half-brothers.
The speculation initially kicked off after McConaughey revealed his mother, Kay McConaughey a.k.a Ma Mac, once claimed she ‘knew’ Harrelson’s father – convicted contract killer Charles Voyde Harrelson – around the time that McConaughey was conceived.
The two have now turned the rumor into an eight-episode series.
McConaughey and Harrelson recently spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about their idea for the show, with the Oscar winner sharing, ‘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].’
‘He’s the engine trying to get it done because he’s the one who believes it’s true, and who wants it to be true! For us to be brothers,’ McConaughey added.
‘It is true!’ Harrelson quipped, adding, ‘because Ma Mac did say, “I knew… your father.”‘
McConaughey joked that for Harrelson Ma Mac’s statement ‘means more than a DNA test. And if a DNA test comes out and says we’re not brothers, he’s gonna say, “That’s why you can’t trust science.”‘
McConaughey was born in Uvalde, Texas, while Harrelson was born in Midland, Texas, divided by roughly 279 miles.
The best friends later pieced together that Harrelson’s father, who was involved in dozens of murders in the 1960s and 1970s, had been on furlough around the time McConaughey’s parents were getting their second divorce.
The first two episodes of Brothers are now available on Apple TV. New episodes will premiere every Wednesday through November 4
Harrelson and McConaughey’s most famous collaboration came in 2014, when they starred on the first season of HBO’s True Detective as Rustin Cohle and Martin Hart; Seen in a still
Harrelson then said that McConaughey refuses to take a DNA test. McConaughey explained that if it turned out Harrelson’s father was also his father then he’d need to ‘unpack 56 years of who I thought my dad was.’
Harrelson also said that McConaughey ‘is more my brother than my brothers in reality, for years and years.’
Harrelson’s father received a life sentence for the 1979 murder of a judge. During childhood, Harrelson had little contact with his father, who abandoned the family when he was seven.
As an adult, he tried to rebuild a relationship with Charles, visiting him in prison until he died in 2007.
The first two episodes of Brothers are now available on Apple TV. New episodes will premiere every Wednesday through November 4.