Matthew McConaughey

Summary

Podcast Summary: Where Everybody Knows Your Name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson (sometimes)

Episode: Matthew McConaughey

Release Date: January 7, 2026
Guests: Matthew McConaughey (special guest), Nick Offerman (regular), Ted Danson, Woody Harrelson
Recorded in: Austin, Texas

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Episode Overview

This richly entertaining episode brings together celebrated friends Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson, Ted Danson, and Nick Offerman for a freewheeling, hilarious, and at times deeply reflective conversation recorded in Austin. While the tone is loose and unscripted (“these guys have no structure … they just ramble, and that's their job”—Woody Harrelson, 01:34), beneath the banter lies meaningful reflection on friendship, creativity, family, and legacy. The episode explores Matthew's prolific writing, his approach to acting, memorable career moments, family stories, and the big, existential questions—mixed, of course, with stories of wild nights out, the origins of “Alright, Alright, Alright,” and some heartfelt moments about love, fatherhood, and brotherhood.

Tone: Affectionate, irreverent, philosophical, and down-to-earth.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Chemistry, Reunions, and Night Out in Austin

Timestamps: 02:28–06:28

• The episode kicks off with the group recounting a rare shared night out, highlighting Ted’s tendency to bow out early:
  • “Teddy goes to dinner … and then you don’t see him for sure.” (Woody Harrelson, 02:32)
  • Stories of tequila, mezcal bars, and Woody’s drunken antics: “I was the descent of man … curved more and more toward the floor.” (Woody, 06:09)
• The playful mockery and warmth between the men set the relaxed, honest tone for the episode.

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2. The Vietnam Bike Trip & Source of a Poem

Timestamps: 06:30–08:48

• Matthew recounts a misadventure in rural Vietnam, where Woody got lost after a night out:
  • “If you don’t know where you live, I can’t take you home.” (08:48)
• This phrase becomes inspiration for a poem in McConaughey’s new collection, demonstrating how lived experience feeds his creative process.

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3. Writing, Poetry & the Spiritual Search

Timestamps: 09:02–11:28

• Discussion of McConaughey’s new book (“Poems and Prayers”) and Nick reading favorite passages.
• Matthew reflects on the central theme of seeking “a higher ground that’s above politics… that paradox where the truth lives.” (11:28)
• Woody wryly renames it “anarchy.”
  • “I call it anarchy.” (Woody, 11:28)

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4. Success and Family on Set

Timestamps: 12:00–16:43

• Rare professional feat: Simultaneously releasing a #1 book and a #1 movie (“Lost Bus”)—a “Lost Bus” story also marks a three-generation McConaughey on screen.
• Matthew’s son Levi auditions for, and wins, a key role in “Lost Bus”—but only after his last name is withheld in the casting process to ensure merit:
  • “Can you remove his last name?” (16:43)

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5. Life, Injury, and Friendship

Timestamps: 18:11–20:59

• Stories of Woody’s accident-prone filming, brotherly ribbing, and Nick’s spoof “secret to youth.”
• Matthew earnestly praises Ted’s healthy demeanor:
  • “From 100 yards away… you can just see… that’s a healthy, good looking dude right there. Inside and out.” (20:38)

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6. On Aging, Preparation, and the Power of Compliments

Timestamps: 20:59–21:39

• Banter about aging well, the role of “mirror time,” and a running joke about Nick needing compliments to start his day.

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7. The Origin of “Alright, Alright, Alright” & Days of Dazed and Confused

Timestamps: 29:47–37:41

• Woody prompts Matthew to tell the now-iconic story of landing his breakout “Dazed and Confused” role as Wooderson:
  • The random bar meeting with casting director Don Phillips, the micro role that expanded, and the memory of modeling Wooderson after his 17-year-old brother Pat:
    • “In my 10-year-old eyes… he was cooler than James Dean … nine feet tall.” (34:33)
  • The improvised “Alright, alright, alright” line is unpacked as a spontaneous product of character work:
    • “The first three words I ever said on screen, which have become iconic.” (37:18)
    • “Do you get tired of hearing that? Hell, no, man.” (37:21)

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8. Acting Philosophy, Preparation, and True Detective

Timestamps: 39:15–49:55

• Deep dive into Matthew’s acting method: authenticity through character-specific music playlists, drawing inspiration from real life, preparing timelines (especially on “True Detective”), and knowing when not to appear on screen.
• Insightful acting wisdom:
  • “It’s just as important where you are not as where you are.” (41:18)
• Nick and Matthew exchange thoughts on acting vs. producing, and letting “the performance be enough.”

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9. McConaughey and Harrelson’s Friendship (“Brothers”)

Timestamps: 50:16–53:31

• Announcement and backstory of their new Apple TV+ show “Brothers,” loosely based on a family rumor that Woody and Matthew might share the same father:
  • “You gain a brother, you’re asking me to, like, lose a father. That’s why.” (52:56)
  • The story’s roots: “My mom… goes, our Woody, I knew your father.” (51:54)
• Genuine affection: “Our kids have always thought we were brothers.” (50:34)

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10. Family, Legacy, and Fatherhood

Timestamps: 53:46–62:33

• Wild stories about Matthew’s parents’ tumultuous relationship (married three times, divorced twice), and his father’s vow (and fulfillment) to “die making love to your mother”:
  • “He said, boys, when I go, I’m gonna be making love to your mother … they called that shot for decades.” (54:36)
• Reflection on Matthew’s career starting just before his father’s passing:
  • “He was alive for me to start something that became a career.” (55:57)
• The pivotal phone call where his father supported film school over law school:
  • “Is that what you want to do? Well, don’t half ass it.” (56:48)

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11. Reflections on Watching One’s Own Work

Timestamps: 66:01–69:52

• Matthew and Nick discuss their self-critical nature when watching their own performances; Woody admits to more ease with self-appreciation:
  • “I’m a four time guy… the fourth watch of Coen Brothers films, I’m like, oh, I got the whole thing.” (67:54–68:12)
  • “I watch it one time, I’m like, woody, good job, buddy.” (68:14)

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12. Camila: Meeting, Marriage, Family

Timestamps: 69:55–81:39

• The story of meeting his now-wife Camila Alves in a Sunset Boulevard club, the near-mythic first sighting, and her immediate presence:
  • “What is that? I didn’t say, ‘Who is that,’ I said, ‘What is that?’” (72:38)
  • A series of memorable mishaps (her car towed, every reason to say no), but “that’s the only woman I’ve dated since…19 years.” (79:17)
• Discussing having children “out of order” and his mother’s emotional—then supportive—reaction:
  • “I would like to put some white out over that last conversation … I should be happy for y’all.” (82:12)

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13. Influence & Creative Process

Timestamps: 44:14–85:54

• Matthew touches on his preference for acting over directing, the consuming nature of producing, and why he enjoys live storytelling over scriptwriting.
• On writing, he expresses his joy in storytelling, but admits that scripting his famous “Greenlights” Australia story is never as satisfying as telling it live.

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14. Admired Work & Recent Projects

Timestamps: 64:00–66:10

• Nick brings up “The Free State of Jones” as a favorite McConaughey film (“watched that movie over and over again”).
• Matthew shares “Mud” as possibly his own favorite, linking it to a dream of introducing the film to his father.

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15. Final Reflections, Affection, and Goodbyes

Timestamps: 87:23–88:42

• Nick: “I really love that I got to hang out with you for an hour. I really appreciate it.” (87:36)
• Matthew: “I enjoy hanging out with you. I don’t know you well, but I like you more every time we hang out.” (87:43)
• Woody and Nick exchange brotherly gestures of affection as the episode wraps.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On rambling formats: “These guys have no structure. They got no ideas. They just ramble. And that's their job. You know what I mean?” — Woody Harrelson (01:34)
• On legacy: “He was alive for me to start something that became a career.” — Matthew McConaughey (55:57)
• On parental support: “Is that what you want to do? Yes, sir. Well, don’t half ass it.” — Matthew’s father (56:48)
• On acting wisdom: “It’s just as important where you are not as where you are.” — Matthew McConaughey (41:18)
• On the origin of “Alright, alright, alright”: “The first three words I ever said on screen, which have become iconic.” — Matthew McConaughey (37:18)
• On love at first sight: “What is that? I didn’t say, ‘Who is that,’ I said, ‘What is that?’” — Matthew McConaughey, on seeing Camila (72:38)
• On creative process: “If you don’t know where you live, I can’t take you home.” — Vietnamese cab driver via Google Translate (08:48)
• On humor in “True Detective”: "Marty's frustration... is kind of the audience's frustration, like, 'What is he talking about?'" — Matthew McConaughey (49:33)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 02:28 – Recounting a rare dinner and wild night out
• 06:30 – Vietnam trip story & poetic inspiration
• 09:02 – Writing, poetry, and spiritual musings
• 29:47 – The true story behind “Alright, alright, alright” & Dazed and Confused
• 39:15 – Acting philosophy & character creation
• 50:16 – Rumors of McConaughey and Harrelson being brothers / origins of "Brothers"
• 53:46 – Family, legacy, and fatherhood
• 66:01 – Reflections on watching yourself on screen
• 69:55 – Meeting Camila, marriage, and starting a family
• 64:00 – Favorite films: "Free State of Jones," "Mud"

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Final Thoughts

This episode exemplifies the magic that happens when old friends gather with no agenda but connection. With Matthew, Woody, Nick, and (sporadically) Ted, listeners get a front-row seat to cherished stories, offbeat wisdom, and the kind of chemistry that only comes from years of shared history. Whether dissecting the craft of acting, swapping family legends, reflecting on love and loss, or just making each other (and us) laugh, the hosts and guest create a space “to be known” that’s equal parts raucous, heartfelt, and wise.

Transcript

[Matthew McConaughey]

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[Woody Harrelson]

I don't need an astronaut.

[Nick Offerman]

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[Woody Harrelson]

So I met an alien.

[Nick Offerman]

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[Matthew McConaughey]

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[Nick Offerman]

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[Matthew McConaughey]

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[Nick Offerman]

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[Woody Harrelson]

You know, I think our listeners are like, these guys have no structure. They got no ideas. They just ramble. And that's their job. You know what I mean?

[Matthew McConaughey]

You wouldn't have it any other way, would you?

[Nick Offerman]

Welcome back to where everybody knows your name. This week, Woody and I are so chuffed. That's an English term, chuffed. To welcome a true Texas gentleman, Matthew McConaughey. We had a blast talking to Matthew in his hometown of Austin. And we got into everything from Matthew's books and poetry to his very special friendship with Woody. Not as special as mine, of course. So here he is, Matthew McConaughey.

[Woody Harrelson]

Should I say what happened last night? Yeah, we went.

[Matthew McConaughey]

I want to hear what happened last night.

[Woody Harrelson]

A rare thing where Teddy goes to dinner, you know, he usually is like, I'll meet you guys over there. And then you don't see him for sure.

[Matthew McConaughey]

You don't see an Irish entrance.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yes, it's Irish entrance. It's a no show entrance.

[Nick Offerman]

I work, I have a ball, and then I lie to my friend and say, I'll catch up with you and I go home to Mary.

[Woody Harrelson]

He's been doing that very, very consistent. Yeah, yeah, he's been very consistent. Since 1984 doing that same move. But anyway, last night he did the rare thing and he actually went out to dinner.

[Nick Offerman]

Had the best time.

[Woody Harrelson]

We interviewed Jesse Eisenberg live. We'd never done it last night. We'd never done it.

[Nick Offerman]

Yeah, yeah. It was part of a. Now you see me, now you don't. Lionsgate.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Is he in town?

[Nick Offerman]

He was.

[Woody Harrelson]

No, he went back this morning. He went back.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Oh, say he was with you last night.

[Woody Harrelson]

He was in and out.

[Nick Offerman]

But no, no, no, no, he didn't go. Jesse did a. Ted. Jesse said, I'll catch up with you.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Oh, he did.

[Woody Harrelson]

Okay, he did.

[Nick Offerman]

And he went straight.

[Woody Harrelson]

Everybody's flip flopping places. But anyway, we went and we had a great meal over the well and then just had a lot of fun.

[Nick Offerman]

A lot of tequila.

[Woody Harrelson]

And Teddy was in good form.

[Nick Offerman]

I was what?

[Matthew McConaughey]

What does good form define good form for Teddy?

[Nick Offerman]

He's not in the corner crying. He's actually participating.

[Woody Harrelson]

Participating? Having conversations. He curls up and, you know, like those little doodle bugs curl up into a ball. You can't see their feet. Nothing. Yeah, that's what he does.

[Nick Offerman]

Austin's good for me, man.

[Woody Harrelson]

But you really did. He had a good time. And then afterward. This is what he's looking for, this story for is afterward went to this mezcal bar, which was really fun. And I had about. So I had four drinks at the restaurant and then four at the mescal bar. I thought I got my drinking fully under control, but last night, I guess you couldn't call that under control. And. And then they were like, okay, we're ready to go. You know my Laura and. And you know, my daughter Makani and whoever else. And I'm like, no, I think.

[Matthew McConaughey]

I think I'll stay.

[Woody Harrelson]

You know, and they're like, no, no,

[Matthew McConaughey]

and you're gonna stay.

[Woody Harrelson]

You gotta go. I said, no, I'm gonna stay. I'm gonna have another drink and I'll be along. I'll be along.

[Nick Offerman]

No, he cade.

[Woody Harrelson]

Anyway, I came.

[Matthew McConaughey]

It was. Was Laura there?

[Nick Offerman]

Laura was. I wasn't there. Yeah, go.

[Matthew McConaughey]

No, sir, you're going to come. Leave.

[Woody Harrelson]

I mean, it was finally Ilya that insisted you got to go and kind of got through.

[Nick Offerman]

You need to put a table of contents.

[Matthew McConaughey]

You think? I know where it was.

[Woody Harrelson]

If you. If you've had a certain amount of alcohol, there's some kind of metamorphosis happens with you where you become somewhat of a CRO mag. I mean, is that a bad thing to say?

[Matthew McConaughey]

No. Are you talking about me? In particular. Yeah.

[Woody Harrelson]

You.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Okay.

[Woody Harrelson]

Right. Anyway, so what I'm saying is.

[Matthew McConaughey]

I mean, there's a. Yeah, it goes.

[Woody Harrelson]

It goes.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Mammal. CRO Mag. Primate. Yeah, it goes.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Language is not necessary exactly.

[Woody Harrelson]

It's mostly grunts and. And moans and little things.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Great. Charades.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Charades. There's a lot of physicality and then, you know. So that's where I was at last night. You were.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Yeah. Getting closer to all fours.

[Woody Harrelson]

I was in MM mode. Yeah. Yeah. I was going. I was the. I wasn't the ascent of man. I was the descent of man. And I'd gone from Homo erectus and then I was curved more and more toward the floor.

[Matthew McConaughey]

I think that's a healthy place to go to from time to time in this bipedal world we're in every once in a while. Dude. Yeah.

[Woody Harrelson]

I've been working too hard.

[Matthew McConaughey]

I'm not finding that poem. But I'm gonna. I'm gonna sit there. I tell you what. I'll tell the story anyway. We're in Vietnam on a bike ride across the country.

[Nick Offerman]

We.

[Matthew McConaughey]

We mean myself, this man here, friend of ours, Dan Buettner, friend of ours, Matthew, who's out there in the lobby, and some other good men. And. I don't know. What do we ride today? How many miles? 20, 30, 40, 50?

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah, it's something like that. You know, it was a good. It was a healthy day, Right.

[Matthew McConaughey]

And we're staying in little huts and places along the way and motels and. Da, da, da. We get this one place was like the big city, but it was. Meaning it was a town of about 300 people.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Anyway, staying in the motel and there's a. There's a. There's everything in a bar downtown. Downtown. How many blocks where that is? Down the dirt road. And he. He goes out to that and we are all tuckered. We all. The rest of it go to sleep. And he goes out to that and said, I'm staying longer. And said, I met some great people. We rolled one there, man. Great, man. These guys, they're great, man. And so times went on and on. And then so Woody gets out about 4am decides it's time to go home. And he gets in the cab with this Vietnamese cab driver. I'll know where the motel is. And it's pitch black. There's no street lights, nothing. And he's in there and he's going. It's down. Do you know the. He doesn't even know how to pronounce the name. We're at. If you even remembered what the name was? What the name. It was none of the above. And he's going on trying to figure this out. And the cab driver. What's he say in Vietnamese or. He said it into his phone in Vietnamese. It came out of his translate.

[Nick Offerman]

Yeah.

[Woody Harrelson]

We had gotten into. We had gone. I knew it was this direction, but then we got to the first fork in the road. It couldn't go because. Don't know whether it's this to the right or the left. And finally he's sitting there waiting. I'm with my buddy. He's like looking on his phone, looking on his phone. He can't find the name of the place. And finally he. He Google translate. And he turns back 15 minutes he's been sitting at this crossroads, right? Guy turns back and it says, if you don't know where you live, I can't take you home.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Right there. I'm gonna wrote it down that morning. Put it more than the poems in there. If you don't know where you live, I cannot take you home, sir.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah, dude, I. I love this book, man. I love it.

[Nick Offerman]

Me too.

[Woody Harrelson]

Poems and prayers. Praise and point.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Poems and prayers.

[Nick Offerman]

That. That was a big old chunk of writing. So is. Did you sit down to write this book or is this accumulation of over

[Matthew McConaughey]

time, over 36 years of poems? Just been writing in prayers.

[Nick Offerman]

I have some of my favorites.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Oh, yeah.

[Nick Offerman]

Yeah. I really do. Well, Birmingham. I love this. Red enough to work, blue enough to dream Like Southern royalty without the queen.

[Matthew McConaughey]

So you ever been to Birmingham?

[Nick Offerman]

No, but I. I'm married to little Rock Mary, so I. This rings, you know, I love that

[Matthew McConaughey]

I found Birmingham when I film. I did Rivals of Amzai, and I did not know that that place existed in the state of Alabama. And it did, and we fell in love with it. And I met a lot of great people there.

[Nick Offerman]

A lot of good music.

[Matthew McConaughey]

A lot of great music. Muscle Shoals right up north of there. Yeah, yeah. A lot of good music. Yeah.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah. They had some trouble back in the day, I think, you know, that's all people think about, you know, who haven't been there.

[Nick Offerman]

Well, Little Rock too. It was the same.

[Woody Harrelson]

Well, yeah, yeah, yeah. And. But now I guess it's turned into quite a place. I never been way forward.

[Matthew McConaughey]

I think it's fair to say it's on the way forward.

[Woody Harrelson]

On the way forward.

[Nick Offerman]

Let me do another one. This is not just me proving to you that I read your. Your book. But it helps did this. You wrote something that actually made me think of this so sorry, but a lot of your writing, this is some. This is roomy. I remember roomy. That he has a great phrase, beyond all right and wrong. Yeah. There's a field. I will meet you there. And a lot of your. Not a lot, but I saw that kind of running through a lot of what you were saying about.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Yeah, I think I'm inclined to talk about that space and at least pursue that space beyond logic, right and wrong, and into that place which is more value based, which is more spiritual, which is an open field that does not have a border or fences or judgments, because it's not needed here. We need it. And are we equipped to define as. As mankind, right and wrong. Good for me. Sometimes we were having. We're having a tough time doing that. We've always had a tough time that we will continue to have a time to. Tough time to do that. So I'm trying to sell to myself and others a higher ground that's above politics, that's above the right and wrong that we sit there and we. We see as contradiction so often in that place where it's the paradox. I believe that's where the truth lives.

[Woody Harrelson]

I call it anarchy.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Anarchy.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah. I'm saying it's beyond politics, but beyond right.

[Matthew McConaughey]

It has form. Huh? But it has form. Does anarchy have form?

[Woody Harrelson]

Anarchy has form.

[Matthew McConaughey]

What's the form of anarchy?

[Woody Harrelson]

It's a form of saying, we don't need your government. Dude, I'm just spitballing here.

[Matthew McConaughey]

I'm spitballing.

[Woody Harrelson]

Hey, but I do, you know, I gotta say, you know, I. I would hear these poems over the years, different poems and different. You know, he'd send me. He'd just come up with it, you know, before breakfast, you'd send me a thing. And it just. And it. And he's just riffing and it is incredible, right? And I'm thinking, then I hear him say, oh, you know, doing this book, Poems and prayers. And I'm thinking, he's gonna now make a book of all these things he's just spent. I thought these were just. And then he. He releases the book. Number one book, goes to number one, just like his last one. And at the same time, yeah, it's cool. He comes out with a movie, Lost book. Number one movie in the world that more people are seeing than any other movie. And I'm thinking, when is it? Who's. Has that ever happened to anybody? Like number one book, number one movie at the same time? What do you think?

[Nick Offerman]

Pretty cool.

[Woody Harrelson]

Pretty cool.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Tell you what was cool. And I Heard this hadn't happened since the Douglas family. In Lost Bus. I'm in two scenes with my mom and my son. Three, three generation. That was really cool.

[Woody Harrelson]

What did they do that had all three of them in it?

[Matthew McConaughey]

She played my mother.

[Woody Harrelson]

No, no, not you. No, I'm saying what did I know what it was?

[Matthew McConaughey]

I don't know. That's what I was told. I didn't, I didn't go look it up.

[Woody Harrelson]

That's pretty cool.

[Nick Offerman]

Forgive me, but tell me about Lost, boss. Tell me about it. I haven't seen it. Forgive me.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Well, it's worth seeing. Based on 2018, the fires in Paradise, California. 86 people, I think deceased from the fire. So it was the worst, deadliest wildfire in California history. And amongst many of the heroic stories on that day, Jamie Lee Curtis heard one on NPR and pulled over and said, this is a story worth telling. It's a story about this guy who had come back home because his dad had died. In our version of the story, his dad had died and he had a son that he was estranged from from an ex wife and he was taking care of his widowed mom. Took a job as a part time bus driver. This one morning took, picked up kids, took them to school like any other day. Fires. A fire was crossing the canyon. That happened all the time. No alarm. Everybody, you know, it'll, it'll, it won't jump the canyon, et cetera, et cetera. Anyway, that, that everything will be okay. Turned into a mandatory evacuation real quick. And this guy u turns the bus to go home and get his mom who can't drive, and his son who's too young to drive. And on the way he gets a call from dispatch his bus. Dispatch, I got 23 stranded kids on the east side of town. Does anybody on the east side of town have an empty bus? Well, guess who's got an empty bus. This guy, Kevin McKay. So he's got to make that decision. Oh, and he makes the decision to go get the kids. When he picks up the 23 kids, there's a, there's a teacher there, Mary Ludwig, played by America Ferreira, who gets on the bus with him and they head out. Supposed to be a quick 10 minute drop off to their parents at another location and then they'll be on their way. Well, that drop off was already burning and there was no one there. So this is a story about the next eight hours of them trying to get out of this. That's the story we chose to tell.

[Nick Offerman]

And his mother and son watch the movie.

[Matthew McConaughey]

I won't tell you.

[Nick Offerman]

Okay, all right, all right.

[Matthew McConaughey]

But his mother and son in the movie played my mother. My mother and my son actually played. Oh, my mom and my son. Cool thing. I want to hear your opinion on this. Levi, my son, I didn't know he was interested in being from the camera. But as I do, you come home, what do you kind of work you doing, dad? You kind of pitch it to people, and it's kind of good for our craft to pitch it in an elevator, right? Or to a child or to a grandmother. Different ages. You kind of got to tell it different ways, right? And I got to the part in the pitch about there being this character, mine having a son. And Levi goes, how old is he? I said, he's about your age. 15. Goes, Can I read for it? I gave him the cold shoulder. He comes to me the next day. Can I read for it four more times? He bugs me, pests me, says, all right, you can read for it. Let's pick out a scene. He goes, I got a scene. Ready. I'm ready. Okay, pull out the camera. Boom. Put him on camera on my. On my, you know, mobile device. Kid can hold a frame. I threw him a few things that weren't scripted. He was able to respond. Honestly, I was like, all right, those are the basic goods that you need for this job. He did pretty good. We did two takes. I send it to the casting director with a note saying, I think this might be good enough for a call back. She writes back 10 minutes later. I think it's good enough to send to Paul Greengrass, the director, like, oh, okay. And it hit me. I was like, oh, if you do that, can you remove his last name?

[Nick Offerman]

Yeah. Yeah, smart.

[Matthew McConaughey]

That's what Camilla. And I thought right. Then she did. He got the part. And then she said, that's Matthew's son. And Paul Greengrass goes even better. But that thought, I think, you know, that's a fun subject for us to talk about. I mean, you know, if he'd have got the job on with the last name, maybe he gets it on the. He had the same work. He would have got the job on his merit because he got it anyway. But would he have had an inkling in the back of his mind, oh, did my last name. Because it connects. My dad helped me get that job. And would that have always been the back of his mind if someone else said it, which if he gets in the business, people got to say that anyway? Sure. Would he have had that? And, you know, it kind of goes back Camilla Wanted to. If we had a son, wanted to name him Matthew. And I didn't want it to be Matthew because I didn't want to go by Junior. And I didn't want that to happen right in. In through his career. But I'm glad we did it, you know, on that. On that day. And pulled his last name. And then he got the part, so he knows he got it.

[Nick Offerman]

You were doing that, keeping his last name off.

[Matthew McConaughey]

No, I didn't tell him. The director told him the story.

[Nick Offerman]

That's great.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Paul, when he called him.

[Nick Offerman]

Yeah, yeah.

[Woody Harrelson]

He's really good. Really good. And unnaturally handsome.

[Nick Offerman]

So.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah, you guys differ from each other in that one regardless.

[Nick Offerman]

Hey, you okay?

[Matthew McConaughey]

Best legs in the business right there. You seen him in a pair of shorts.

[Woody Harrelson]

Coming from the best torso, man, that means a lot to me.

[Matthew McConaughey]

This guy's got some legs on him.

[Nick Offerman]

He's got some motorcycle wounds that we're

[Woody Harrelson]

not seeing because that was padel wounds, you know.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Did you hear about this one?

[Woody Harrelson]

No, don't talk about this.

[Matthew McConaughey]

It was one rock. The. The. The parking lot was 2 acres, perfectly smooth cement. And then in the middle was a two foot by two foot rock.

[Woody Harrelson]

I just had to see it because you were. Because. No, no, no, I wasn't.

[Matthew McConaughey]

I wasn't high enough because, you know, why do you want to just ride a motorcycle? Rubber tires on smooth pavement. I love anarchy. He says go for the rock. Go for the second time. Second time we've been shooting our series Brothers. Second time he's come in with facial wounds that imposti are going to have

[Woody Harrelson]

quite a bit of cgi. I have to try to run here. And one here, he.

[Matthew McConaughey]

I must say, he healed quick, though.

[Nick Offerman]

He does.

[Woody Harrelson]

You want to put any.

[Matthew McConaughey]

That by the end there?

[Woody Harrelson]

Not even by the end of the. Before the first week was out, these. These were gone. And just had to cover with a little makeup, though.

[Matthew McConaughey]

No problem.

[Woody Harrelson]

Because they were red.

[Nick Offerman]

Yeah.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Yeah.

[Woody Harrelson]

Can you see them or. No.

[Nick Offerman]

No. You're perfect.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Hey, what's. What's. You mind me asking? You can tell. You can tell me. None of your effing business, but you mind me asking? LGR Ted.

[Nick Offerman]

78 in December. So sorry. 77.

[Matthew McConaughey]

All right, y' all got video, you're on.

[Woody Harrelson]

Doesn't they look great?

[Matthew McConaughey]

That's what I'm saying. Look at this. Talk to us. What is the secret? I asked you this when I. When we just met. That Woody's birthday party. Bowling.

[Nick Offerman]

Yeah.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Can you share some secrets? And I know it's gotta have to be more Than just you take cold showers.

[Nick Offerman]

No, no, no, no. It's you. You need to have a pretty shallow cut on life. Mary and I talk about hair products. We keep it shallow.

[Woody Harrelson]

Okay, so just keep it.

[Nick Offerman]

Here's the big one. Mirror time. You need to spend at least two, three hours a day just looking in the mirror because you don't age. You'll notice if you look at yourself in the mirror. You don't go, oh, I'm getting older.

[Matthew McConaughey]

No matter how even at the end of that third hour, you don't catch one more little wrinkle coming in.

[Nick Offerman]

No, no, no. That's why I don't sleep much.

[Matthew McConaughey]

No, but.

[Nick Offerman]

Okay. Hell, thank you, bud.

[Matthew McConaughey]

No, but, but, but, but.

[Nick Offerman]

Thank you. Appreciate it.

[Matthew McConaughey]

But I mean, from a. I can also your guy. I can see from 100 yards away, walking and just where you carry yourself, not even see you up close and go, that's a healthy, good looking dude right there. Inside and out, by the way you carry yourself. So I'm saying it's more than just topical serums, which I'm big on those too. But I mean, it's got to have something to do with diet, the company you keep, the lack of stress. Give me. Am I hitting any buttons here?

[Nick Offerman]

Let me. Yeah, all of them. Let me, let me, let me ask you. Have you ever heard our podcast? Because it's a running joke that people know to compliment me somehow. Anything early on, because it puts me at ease. You'll find that this, the rest of this hour is going to go really well.

[Woody Harrelson]

It's gonna go because I'm now super relaxed. Oh, yeah.

[Matthew McConaughey]

You seem.

[Woody Harrelson]

Just keep going.

[Matthew McConaughey]

So stressed before I brought that up.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah, I lost the stress he was under before. If he don't get six compliments by midday, something's not going right.

[Nick Offerman]

I get wrinkles.

[Matthew McConaughey]

No, no, no.

[Nick Offerman]

I tapped it like no.

[Woody Harrelson]

Oh, I thought you meant yes more.

[Nick Offerman]

Oh, all right.

[Matthew McConaughey]

It'll evaporate. It's like looking in the mirror. You'll always be there for you. Moipores.

[Nick Offerman]

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[Woody Harrelson]

Hey, so I want to ask you a question about something that you've been asked a million times, but I feel like it's just one of those mandatory things. It's got to be on this podcast.

[Nick Offerman]

The Dimples.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah, the Dimples. Where the you get those numbers? Come on. Come on.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Him and my mom act a major crush on each other before we get started.

[Woody Harrelson]

You know I do.

[Matthew McConaughey]

My mother and mom have been kicked out of two bars for smoking. Marriage, you want? As my dad would call for smoking joints together. Setting off fire alarm in one. Yeah. The other one was just like that's illegal. What the hell y' all doing? Get out here. And they ran.

[Woody Harrelson]

We ran.

[Nick Offerman]

That's right.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Me and my mom.

[Woody Harrelson]

Well, we ran the first time too.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Yeah. When that didn't you.

[Woody Harrelson]

That big fire alarm. Both times we got out of trouble.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Oh, it gets Talk about I'm staying when he and my mom get together.

[Nick Offerman]

Wow. Were you there or were you fun man?

[Matthew McConaughey]

I was in the. I was in another room having a Beer at the bar or something like that.

[Nick Offerman]

Do you smoke ever? But just not now, or no, no,

[Woody Harrelson]

you don't want him smoking.

[Nick Offerman]

Oh, I got the primate.

[Woody Harrelson]

He had a little puff last night.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Did you. My God, that new stuff.

[Nick Offerman]

Fake to puff.

[Woody Harrelson]

Fake the puffy.

[Matthew McConaughey]

The new. The new. The new stuff does not agree with my constitution and my mental makeup. It goes the other way. Time speeds up for me. I've chipped front tooth three times falling out of a tree on a full moon when I smoke some of that stuff Woody has.

[Nick Offerman]

Mary and I didn't smoke for the long trees.

[Matthew McConaughey]

3D, all fumes.

[Nick Offerman]

This is what I do on dope. Mary wasn't smoking, and so when we met, so I went, okay, I'm not gonna smoke either. And we didn't smoke for like two or three years. And then we went out with friends. We were at Two Bunch Palms, you know, the hot springs and everything. And we went, oh, fuck, let's smoke. And so we. And Mary's going, we have so much fun together. This is gonna be amazing. I smoked and she said she turned around. And the whole night I went underwater, held my breath, come up, take a breath, and go back down. That was my entire stoned experience.

[Woody Harrelson]

You were submarine.

[Nick Offerman]

That I was, yeah.

[Matthew McConaughey]

That's the secret. He didn't say about looking so young, staying too young.

[Nick Offerman]

Don't do cold water.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Do hot water, shallow.

[Woody Harrelson]

Oh, we've been doing cold, shallow.

[Nick Offerman]

Yeah.

[Matthew McConaughey]

I mean, don't stick that stuff.

[Woody Harrelson]

Me and Matthew got into a competition on the cold plunge. And it started out, like, real gentle, like three minutes. And then he'd do four minutes, and I'd do five minutes, and then he'd do seven minutes, and then, you know, and it kept going up and up. And then at one point, I did 13 minutes. I'm like, I got him now. The very same day, that night, unbeknownst to me, when I went in to tell him I did 13 minutes, he goes, I did 17. 17.

[Nick Offerman]

You guys still do it?

[Matthew McConaughey]

It's my.

[Woody Harrelson]

He.

[Matthew McConaughey]

It's. It's my deal.

[Nick Offerman]

Oh, really?

[Matthew McConaughey]

Because he sent one back the next day where he did 24 minutes, 23.

[Nick Offerman]

So you. Every. Every day?

[Matthew McConaughey]

No, I won't do. I won't do it every day if. I mean, if I. If I can. I'm trying to get 50 minutes a week, but I don't do it religiously.

[Nick Offerman]

Wow.

[Woody Harrelson]

I think it's one of the great things.

[Nick Offerman]

I'm sure.

[Woody Harrelson]

I know the Wim Hof method. The Wim Hof is just that Guy has figured something out that now think about it, like, this guy came along and now every sports team, you know, he's a crazy guy who just. When he was like 11 years old, he's in the Netherlands in the winter. He's like, I'm going in that pond. And he went in to the pond in the night for a full minute, and it was like, freezing, you know. And now every sports team, every, you know, Madonna, every. Every, you know, they all do the orange.

[Nick Offerman]

The big wave surfer, McNamara.

[Woody Harrelson]

Oh, yeah, he does it. Lar.

[Nick Offerman]

Lar.

[Woody Harrelson]

Those guys. Those. Oh, yeah. Can I get back to the question I was about? God, you guys are tough, man.

[Nick Offerman]

Quickly, why one sock?

[Matthew McConaughey]

No, that's a great question.

[Woody Harrelson]

You know, I just want to leave that untouched.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Oh, is that a foot that's injured? Do you need a little more? You want the swords to get a little more air?

[Woody Harrelson]

Give it air?

[Nick Offerman]

Yeah. Do you want us to rub it? No.

[Matthew McConaughey]

You want. You had to blow on it.

[Woody Harrelson]

Blown on it might help. No, no, I don't want anyone touching

[Nick Offerman]

or blowing on it or licking.

[Woody Harrelson]

Or licking. Hey, speaking of rub, you got your own rub. Your own. The meat. You rub your meat with that rub.

[Nick Offerman]

What do you do?

[Matthew McConaughey]

Got my own meat rub. I'm sorry, it is.

[Woody Harrelson]

It's a meat rub, okay. It's called the One. And actually, as a vegan, I love it. It's all. It's vegan.

[Nick Offerman]

Oh, wait, this is on the market. Kind of thing.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Out of my own. Out of my own kitchen. Only so far, but.

[Nick Offerman]

So are you pepper hot? Hot? You like hot?

[Matthew McConaughey]

No, no, no, no, no, no.

[Nick Offerman]

So this isn't that.

[Matthew McConaughey]

It's not a spicy thing. It's just makes every meat taste incredible. Spice.

[Woody Harrelson]

Delicious.

[Nick Offerman]

He's derailing. A really interesting.

[Woody Harrelson]

I want to get back to the question.

[Nick Offerman]

Oh, yeah, no.

[Woody Harrelson]

Oh, I'm derailing.

[Nick Offerman]

Go. And then I'll go.

[Woody Harrelson]

You know, I think our listeners are like, these guys have no structure. They got no ideas. They just ramble, and that's their job. You know what I mean?

[Matthew McConaughey]

You wouldn't have it any other way, would you?

[Woody Harrelson]

I wouldn't have it any other way.

[Nick Offerman]

All right, so you used your shot at going someplace.

[Woody Harrelson]

So the question was, I gotta get back to Wooderson, because this is one of the great origin stories ever, you know? And so I just want you to tell me, like, I know you were in a bar, you were going to ut.

[Matthew McConaughey]

I'm at ut.

[Woody Harrelson]

And then someone said, that guy down there cast Sean Penn, and fast time.

[Matthew McConaughey]

So I'm at ut. I'm in between my junior and senior year. I've been in film school for one year. I go to this top of the Hyatt because the guy was bartender that night, was in my film class. He'd give me a free vodka and tonic, right? So I go in there and he comes up and he says, there's a guy at the end of the bar who's in town producing a film. And I went over there, introduced myself. Three and a half hours later, we get kicked out because we had played as we got in, talking about golf. We weren't talking about acting or nothing like that, nothing about Hollywood together, talking about golf. We played a similar course. And Don, if you ever knew the great Don Phillips, who did cast Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Melvin and Howard, he produced as well with Art Linson. Worked with him for a while, and then he cast. He was casting days confused. I didn't know this at the time, but all I knew is he was a producer. He's on the top of some table going, yeah. Then I was over here and I hit this three iron like this, and, oh, it was just beautiful. Knocked it up there six feet, blah, blah, blah. We get kicked out. On the cab ride home, he's riding with me. I'm going back to my apartment. He's like, hey, you ever done any acting? I said, yeah, I was in a middle, like, commercial for about that long. I don't know if you consider that acting. Maybe it's more of a modeling job. He's like, well, you. You might be right for this part. In the. In the script, it's this guy named David Waterson. He's like your age, 21, 22. He's out of high school, but he still likes the high school girls. Or. I come to this address tomorrow morning, 9:30am I'll have the script waiting for. For you. And this is now 3:30 in the morning. All right. Drops me off, say good night. I get up, whatever, four and a half hours later, go down there and damn it, there's this script with two pages earmarked and a handwritten note. Hey, Matthew, great night last night that I read this part. You might be right for. I read the part. There's Wooderson into one of the scenes was him sitting outside of the billiards pool hall talking to his buddies. And girls walk by and leans over and checks out their backside. And his buddy says, watershed. You got to cut that out, man. You're gonna go to jail, man. And Wooderson says, no, man, that's what I love about them high school girls, man, I get older, but they stay the same age. That line. And that's the scene that was about

[Woody Harrelson]

the extent of your part too. There wasn't much.

[Matthew McConaughey]

There were three, I think there were three. Three. Three lines.

[Nick Offerman]

Yeah, yeah.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Two scenes, three lines. I think, anyway. But when you get a line like that. Yeah, it's what I call a launchpad line. Who is that guy?

[Nick Offerman]

Yeah, who?

[Matthew McConaughey]

Who? And I remember going, who is that guy? If that's not an attitude, if he didn't say that line for everyone to laugh, he's like, no, that's my mo. That's how I see the world, man. That's my philosophy. I've got it. You can write a book on that person. Yeah, right. You know what that person's eating, you know what kind of car they drive, you know what they do, what they don't do. Anyway, so I'm trying to figure out who the guy is. I got two weeks before the audition and what it hit me was I remember when I was 10 years old, going with my mom to go pick up my brother Pat at school. His car, something was wrong with it, was in the shop. He was. He was 17 in high school. So he drove. But we. This day we were supposed to pick him up because his car was in the shop. And we're driving through the campus and I'm looking out the back end of that wood panel station wagon looking for Patch. He says, where is he? Well, it's supposed to be here. And I'm like, I don't know where he is. And as we go on by, about 200 yards away, I see this shadowed figure leaning against a shady wall in the smoking section. And I can see the ember, this lazy finger cigarette hanging on these two hands. This guy's leaning against the wall with his left leg, boot heel up against the wall, smoking. And I went, it was my brother. I went, there's but. And I stopped because I knew if I said, there's Pat, mom saw him smoking, he's gonna get trouble. So she goes, what? I go, nothing, nothing, nothing. We drove on. Never picked up Pat that day. Got home, she was like, where were you? He made up some excuse. Anyway, in my 10 year old eyes to my 17 year old brother, who was my hero in that shot. From 200 yards away, he was cooler than James Dean and he was 9ft tall. He was the coolest man.

[Nick Offerman]

Yeah.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Now that's who I base Wooderson on. That wasn't who my brother was, but that in my 10 year old eyes,

[Woody Harrelson]

that's who it was, that image.

[Matthew McConaughey]

And so went in, read for it, got the part. I remember Rick Linklater going, this isn't you. I said, no, but I know who, I know who this guy is. And laid back and shoulder back and Redford Wooders and got the part. The first night I go to set, we did a wardrobe, hair, makeup test over by the Top Notch. I was not supposed to work that night just to come in, test y' all know how that goes. And I come out my peach pants and my hair and everything. And you know, Linklater, director, comes off set to look at me, walks around me. He's like, yeah, Wooderson. All right, man. I see the peach Nugent. Yeah. Is that a pipe? Is that a Black Panther tattoo? Oh, the combo for cool. And I'm like, all right. And I said, all right, man, well I'll see you next week. He goes, hang on a second. He goes, I got this girl in the scene that. She's the redheaded intellectual played by Marissa Ribisi. She's kind of pulling up, it's the last day of school, she's with all her friends, they're kind of nerdy. You think Wooderson would, well, maybe pick her up? I was like, yeah, man, Waterson likes all kinds of shit. Next thing I know, I'm getting a Lavalier mic put on me and I'm sitting in my car going, this is the first scene and nothing is written. All I know is I'm gonna pull up and go try to pick her up. And I'm getting a little anxious, right? But I'm telling myself, asking myself, who's my man? Who's Wooderson? What do I love? And I'm like, all right, all right. I love my car. Here we go. Boom. I'm in my 70 chevelle. There's one. I said, I love rock and roll. I said, damn, man, I got Nugent Stranglehold jamming in the eight track right now. There's two. I said, I love to get high. I said, well, look, Slater's riding shotgun. He's always got a doobie rolled up. All of a sudden they hear action. And as I look up, I look across and there's that red headed intellectual played by Marissa BC I put it in drive and in my mind I said, I got three out of the things that I love in my life and I'm going to get the fourth. Put it dry, pull out to affirm those three that I have. All right, all right, all right. That was the three affirmations of the three things I had going to get the fourth. And we pulled up, improvised that scene. Bunch of people laughed. Felt kind of good to me. And Rick said, great. And he kept inviting me back to the set to be in scenes that I was not written in. And it started to fill a story out.

[Woody Harrelson]

Just do one little footnote.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Yeah.

[Woody Harrelson]

He was off screen when he said those words already.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Yeah.

[Woody Harrelson]

How did that become part of the lexicon?

[Matthew McConaughey]

Because it's a shot from on top of the next building. You just see the car pull up, and you hear, all right, all right, all right. And then you come down and introduce what's pulling up. And they were. They were off screen. First three words I ever said on

[Nick Offerman]

screen, which have become iconic. That's pretty.

[Matthew McConaughey]

That's when people go, do you get tired of hearing that? I'm like, hell, no, man. That's the first three words I said in a scene that I was not written into, that I didn't know on that night. Would this be this one night? I worked on a film set in 1992. Oh, remember that fun time back in 92, that little hobby and turned out to be a career. So I'm like, say it anytime.

[Nick Offerman]

Back up a second. How did you have the confidence, the balls, the whatever? I mean, just listening to you describe your process in that moment, having never acted before, is full of so confident. So where did that. But where did you get that?

[Woody Harrelson]

Before you do that, pull the front of your shirt down. Just pull up. Just take a pull.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Yeah.

[Nick Offerman]

Yeah. Okay, go ahead. Trying to take it down a notch, isn't it just.

[Woody Harrelson]

You could undo that.

[Matthew McConaughey]

I need to relax.

[Woody Harrelson]

Greatest torso. Greatest torso in the industry. All right.

[Matthew McConaughey]

How did I have it?

[Nick Offerman]

Yeah. Parents.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Well, I mean, part. I mean, I guess I've always been. I've had a pretty good batting average when it came to, bam, you're on. You're on. Go. And it's fight or flight. So let's. Let's. Let's go. Let's swing. Let's swing big. I did where I had it, where I understood at that time, which now that I know so much more 36 years later, is a great instinct to have you affirm who is. What do you. What does your man have that he loves? What. What do you have that you want and what do you need that you don't have? That's basic, you know, what do you need? What's the obstacle? What's the event? So I was. Knew who my guy who Wson was Through that image, that fuzzy image of my brother.

[Nick Offerman]

But how did you know to look for that? That's what I mean, not everybody, you know, comes to that. Those choices or thoughts. Without some sort of something that was well said, huh?

[Matthew McConaughey]

I mean, look, let me say this. What was Richard Linkletter's direction at that time? Some of the best direction that we can ever get. He gave each character, each actor a cassette with music that he goes, this is what I think your character might be listening to. Have a listen you like. Some of you, maybe you liked it, maybe you don't. So you're not being told what to do, but you're put in the world. And I've got this cassette with some great Dylan and some Nugent, some Zeppelin on it. Aerosmith. And I'm just going, all right, this is Saturday night stuff, man. Let's get the shoulder. All of a sudden, the shoulders go back. All of a sudden, the.

[Nick Offerman]

The.

[Matthew McConaughey]

You know, you're not walking head first. No, you're walking cock first. You know what I mean? That. All of a sudden, the. It's how you stand, how you move. What's the. You know, that's so cool. And a guy who's going, not a tresp. Not trespass in anybody's space, man. On the backside of every wave. And that's kind of why, when I look around, what I loved about my brother, that's what I thought. He. He was cool. He was always just like, didn't intrude, man. And those people that don't intrude like that. You're kind of attracted to them. Because you're like. They just kind of draw you to them. Because they're not trying to sell you anything. They're not trying to convert you to anything there. And I always love, love since then finding a character that. What is it about a character that you can go. That person's not trying to solicit that they are who they are. They trust that. And there's a place where they will be. There's places where they should not be. I even. I've learned this since that. Since then when I rewatched that film. At the end of the film. This is the end of three weeks work. Now. Wooderson says, all right, gang, they're going to get Aerosmith tickets. All right, gang, let's load up. I'm gonna get. I'm getting melbatoast and I. Wooderson gets in his car. Well, the scene went on a while and what. And I got out of the car and went back to the scene and growing the group. Waterson would have never done that. I shouldn't have gone back. Wooderson never two stepped. And I went back into a scene where I learned, oh, it's just as important where you are not as where you are.

[Nick Offerman]

That's great.

[Matthew McConaughey]

And I'm sitting there innocently going, I got more possible screen time and I'm having a great time. Three weeks work, I want to keep. Let me go get myself back in the scene. And I was a little hasty looking back. I was like, that was false. Wooderson would have never gone one place, didn't return.

[Woody Harrelson]

Well, hold on, hold on. One very important thing to throw on top of that, which is actors want to be where the camera is pointing. You notice like every actor in every scene and every movie, every show, as they're walking out, the cameras behind them, Take a look, whatever, maybe say something.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Yeah, okay. But then there's also good examples of. And you saw, I, I saw, you know, Chalamet do it with the Dylan, with the Dylan role. He never looked in the camera. He was always shading himself off the edges just to the shadows. And you're drawn to that. So, yeah, there's certain things, you know,

[Nick Offerman]

unless it's too self conscious.

[Woody Harrelson]

He's a hell of an actor.

[Nick Offerman]

I don't mean he was. I just mean I think you can become.

[Matthew McConaughey]

We've also seen and I've done it over choreographed. In a role, you're like, yeah, you got all these little parts working, you made all these great choices, but just like maybe cut and just, just have a listen and just be the person, you know.

[Nick Offerman]

Cheers was great for learning like you, you could have a small part and not a lot of jokes, but if you were standing next to the joke in a two shot, you got as much credit as the person. You know, it didn't matter.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Just, you know, and the old John Cleese, that group, the third man, the straight man.

[Nick Offerman]

Yeah.

[Matthew McConaughey]

On the outside joke, if you cut the gut, that's that, that's the audience laugh.

[Woody Harrelson]

That's the audience response to the joke.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Is.

[Woody Harrelson]

Is really where the laugh comes from.

[Nick Offerman]

It's a good joke because Cheers would be. We were always live because you can count how many cheer stories I tell and then cut me off at about three. Okay, okay.

[Woody Harrelson]

I don't. I, I love it. It's like. All right, all right.

[Matthew McConaughey]

I love it.

[Woody Harrelson]

You want to talk about Cheers? Sure.

[Nick Offerman]

Okay. So big proscenium arch kind of set, you know, the whole.

[Woody Harrelson]

Okay, that's enough. So no kidding, kidding, kidding.

[Nick Offerman]

Okay. So you had to stay live and everyone was acting and whatever, even if the camera was over here shooting a thing. But if you had a joke that was good, people would be. You notice that your fellow mates were crossing right behind you in that shot. They were in that shot. If you had a clunker, which you would know throughout the week. It was like tumbleweeds. It's like where the everyone is ducked

[Matthew McConaughey]

down to get a glass.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah,

[Matthew McConaughey]

you got a good check. Everybody's your buddy.

[Nick Offerman]

Have you done theater? Forgive my ignorance, I have not any desire. Or do you just go, no, I'm

[Matthew McConaughey]

getting a taste of it now. I've been doing this road tour with the book and I took the book instead of doing a go to bookstore sign book book tour. I went and got some rented out theaters invite I come out with the 22 minute sermon and then I invite a musical guest up and they play a company like a 12 poem playlist. And that's this really the first time I've been on stage.

[Nick Offerman]

You must love it though, because you do tell good stories.

[Matthew McConaughey]

I do love it. I'm going to do some more of it.

[Nick Offerman]

Yeah, that's cool.

[Woody Harrelson]

He's got some pretty cool freaking musical accompaniment. Like great.

[Nick Offerman]

This wasn't a poem. Sorry, I just jotted a few things down. You're prepared for the day so you can saunter through instead of racing through it. And I love that you said saunter because you do saunter better than anyone I have ever met or seen.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Saunter, saunter. Your word, your word to throw it back at you. Part of the when you prepare and dive deep, the doing the playing is wading through the shallows as you were bringing up earlier. It's much shallower water that you saunter through. If you prepare for the ocean, you're out there just skipping rocks on the puddle.

[Woody Harrelson]

You're one of the great preparers. You are prepared. You are like militantly prepared, like, and it's great. And then everyone's like, you're so cool, like you say in the book. You know, you're so cool. You're so chill. Well, he is because he's so prepared. So on top of it, right? You've always been that way to try to be. Well, remember when we did True Detective? I used to go into. Because he had the timeline. I mean it was way too confusing for this little brain. And he had the timeline in his Airstream all the way stretched out across and I'd. Before the scene, I'd go In and I'd look, okay. Oh, well, here we are. Oh, and that just happened. Okay, let's go.

[Matthew McConaughey]

And that was a. Like a musical meter because especially we were doing a big long series. You know, you always. It's good to know when you're going to scene where we just come from and where we going to. Where do we fit? What just happened? So kind of.

[Nick Offerman]

Did you have the whole script at your disposal before you started? Was the whole thing written?

[Matthew McConaughey]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Woody Harrelson]

I think you name.

[Matthew McConaughey]

We had all.

[Woody Harrelson]

I bet it was.

[Nick Offerman]

It was too thoughtful.

[Matthew McConaughey]

I think we did. Or at least a few, A few episodes. By the time we started, we had

[Woody Harrelson]

two before we even signed on or you signed on.

[Nick Offerman]

You both were so good in that. Really good.

[Matthew McConaughey]

I missed that show, man. I missed that show. My favorite. Even though we're in it, I have no problem saying that was my favorite thing on. That you ever did on tv. Favorite, favorite thing to watch tv.

[Woody Harrelson]

You mean the only thing you ever did on TV before now was your favorite thing you ever did?

[Matthew McConaughey]

I'm saying the enjoyment I got from watching and I didn't watch it, like I didn't. I had everything. I didn't watch it. I watched it like everyone else on Sunday night was the first time I saw it with Camilla. Follow on food, 8 o'. Clock. Whatever. It was HBO. We're sitting down undivided watching it. So. And I don't, I didn't remember where the series, where the, where the episode breaks were. So I was like everyone else going, oh, what's going to happen next? Or where do we. So I, I, whatever. It was 10 part, 8 part it. I watched it once a week like everyone else.

[Woody Harrelson]

Oh, yeah, yeah. You know he can't do that method. You know that.

[Matthew McConaughey]

What does that mean?

[Woody Harrelson]

Well, okay, but whatever, dude. You know what? You know what I'm talking about. He doesn't like to be pinned down. He's Russ Cole. When we were shooting that, he was Russ Cole.

[Nick Offerman]

Yeah, dude.

[Woody Harrelson]

There's so many times I want to punch this in the face. I'm so pissed at him. So he's in his character.

[Matthew McConaughey]

He goes, we're sitting there, we're about to go. We're about to start shooting. And we were rehearsing and I'm just kind of being still across coal and everything. And Woody goes like, hey, man, I need to talk to you about something, man. He goes, the way you and I work, kind of, hey, I hit you the ball. You hit it back. I hit it back to you. We follow, we get it back to each other. We play papa. I give you, you give me back, man. That's us. And that good. It's dramatic and also some comedy. But this thing, what you're doing now, man, I'm hitting you the ball and you're just standing there at the baseline and the bounces back, hits the backstop and comes to arrest. And you're just staring at me still, and it's not funny, and I hate it. And I go, I got a hunch that might end up being funny. And I think it did end up being funny.

[Woody Harrelson]

It did. It did.

[Matthew McConaughey]

By the way.

[Woody Harrelson]

I forgot about that. I'm glad to hear that story.

[Matthew McConaughey]

You're standing there and let the ball goes past you, hits the back and just comes to rest. You just still just staring at me dead pain. I'm like, what the Bachman hit the ball back.

[Woody Harrelson]

And I remember saying to you before we started filming, I'm like, dude, you know, people are going to expect to laugh with us. You know, we got to throw some jokes in here.

[Nick Offerman]

And I'm.

[Woody Harrelson]

And he's just like, yeah, he went. And he. And I'm like. I'm waiting for him to say, yeah, you're totally. No, he just. Yeah. And I'm like, oh, this. You know, and. And he was totally right. He did say that. You said that. Then you said, I think there might be humor in just the situation, you know, and. No, but we need some jokes, dude. You gotta get Nick to write us some jokes.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Marty's frustration. And Marty going, you know what? Why don't you just shut the up and never talk like that again, Russ. And he's. That's. It's kind of the audience's frustration, like, what is he talking about? And you're going to, you know what you. Yeah, it's like, yeah, him, right? What you talking about? And then I'm just over there looking out the window, deadpan.

[Nick Offerman]

What the.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Dude, what's the problem? And that's what the audience is. I thought it was. And I laughed.

[Woody Harrelson]

It was fun. Yeah. And the world is a circle. Whatever.

[Nick Offerman]

Yeah, yeah.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Take your flat circle.

[Woody Harrelson]

That's what it was. Yeah, yeah, it was fun. But now you know. So now what are you working on now?

[Matthew McConaughey]

I'm working on an Apple series with you called Brothers. I think it's fair to call it comedy family. Yeah, comedy. This is based off of our friendship. And, you know, as, you know, Ted and anyone close to us knows, it's kind of like when Woody and I do get going, like, he's talking about hitting those balls back and forth. It's like, where do I start, right? Where do I end? Where does he start? Where does he end? That's. That's. That's Muddy Waters, man. You're not sure. It's just kind of coming together, and we're on a similar frequency and we're doing our thing, and it can go on and on and on and on. Our kids have always thought we were brothers or at least acted like brothers. I call me. His kids call me Uncle Matthew. My kids call him Uncle Woody. You know, it's always been in jest. And about eight years ago, we're in Greece, both our families, and my mom's there with us as well. And, you know, I think your kids have pulled out some sort of picture from high school that was me. And everyone looked at it, thought it was him and my kids, like, oh, man, that's. That's. That's like a Woody. I thought that. And then all of a sudden, in. Out of the car, out of nowhere, my mom on probably her third glass, Kendall Jackson, goes our Woody. I knew your father. And it was a perfect pause ellipsis, as you like to put it, that even our. My young kids got the innuendo.

[Nick Offerman]

Oh, that's great.

[Matthew McConaughey]

And I think I got a. What was he, like, five even? He got it, like, that was a lot. I know what that.

[Woody Harrelson]

I know that means.

[Matthew McConaughey]

You're telling me that you and you and Woody's dad were, you know, doing tube snake boogies, you know what I mean? And all of a sudden, the kids go push into action mode, pulling out scrapbooks. We're bringing out things. And mom just hanging on that. And Woody's up, going, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. What, what, what? And mom actually is like, just saying, just saying. And from that night on, this mystery has started. And are you brothers? Pulled up facts that could make this more pot, this more possible. Like, my mom and dad were divorced twice and married each other three times during the second one of the second divorce. My mom and dad, there was a time when it would have been possible for them to physically meet and.

[Woody Harrelson]

And physically procreate.

[Matthew McConaughey]

West Texas. So all of a sudden, people are on it and families on it. And, you know, it hit me a year ago because Woody's been so excited about this being true. Love you for that. And he was like, why aren't you more excited, Matthew? And I was like, well, dude, it's easy for you, man. You gain a brother. You're asking me to, like, lose a Phone. That's why. So we said, let's. Let's build a series off of that. And that's what we're shooting now.

[Nick Offerman]

Yeah, that's great.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Yeah.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah. But there was definitely some good hard fucking going on. Anyway, let me go back to my Mac Mama. And your father got divorced twice.

[Nick Offerman]

Three times.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Divorced twice. Married.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah, married three times.

[Matthew McConaughey]

And.

[Woody Harrelson]

And he said. He predicted. He says, I will die making love to.

[Nick Offerman]

I've read that.

[Woody Harrelson]

And which he did die having sex. And so I just want to know what kind of crazy was Mama getting up to in the.

[Matthew McConaughey]

That's a great question.

[Nick Offerman]

Maybe not for you to ask.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Let us know. Because we always said we thought nothing could. Nothing could kill dad, me, Rooster, and Pat. We said nothing could kill that. And we found out one could you. Oh, who knows what she was up to, man. He woke up frisky. He would tell us. He would say, boys, when I go, I'm gonna be making love to your mother. He said, they called that shot for decades.

[Nick Offerman]

Wow.

[Matthew McConaughey]

And this Monday morning, after he had played golf that weekend, he woke up 6am for work. A little frisky. Heart fibrillation.

[Nick Offerman]

How old were you?

[Matthew McConaughey]

I was 21. Check this out. I. That film Days Confused, which I've always seen some. Some beautiful. There's some grace in this to me. I was five days into shooting that day. My first acting job, my first film. Why'd I say there's grace in that? Because everything in my life prior, I remember this vividly talking my dad into getting me the skateboard knee pads and the skateboard elbow pads, and him going, man, yeah, I ain't gonna pay for some hobby. You're not gonna follow through with that. And I was like, yes, I will. Like, you know, he only wanted to buy some things for me, and we didn't have a whole lot of money. He only get something for me that if I was gonna follow through on it and I talked him into it, like, I'm gonna. All summer, every day, I'm gonna train to be a great skateboarder. I didn't. So everything I had sold to him that I wanted to do, I never finished or followed through or made a life out of it. He's alive five days into me shooting, days confused, which I don't know if that's going to be a hobby. That's going to be one we. Like I said one week in my life that I'm like, oh, that was fun. But he was alive for me to start something that became a career.

[Nick Offerman]

That's Great. He saw that.

[Woody Harrelson]

What did he think about, did he make any comment on it? But did he make any comment on you doing this part?

[Matthew McConaughey]

No, it wasn't a part. I mean, he made look the year prior when I called him and didn't want to go to law, told him I didn't want to go to law school and I wanted to go to film school. That was one of the more nerve wracking things I've ever had to do in my life because I really thought he was going to go, you want to do what? You can do that on a weekend. That's too avant garde. That sounds like a European hobby. Boy, you got to get a real job 9 to 5, you know what I mean? And when I told him, I said, I don't want to go to law school, I want to go to film school. I remember this long pause on the phone and that same beat of sweat and I've told you about went down the back of my neck waiting for him to go because he was paying for my school.

[Nick Offerman]

Yeah, as well.

[Matthew McConaughey]

And a long pause and he goes, is that what you want to do? I said, yes, sir. He goes, well, don't half ass it. And he just gave me rocket fuel by saying that. And I did not expect that to be what he was going to say, you know. So it was a year before that he gave me the more than permission to go do that with the privilege and the responsibility and the chutzpah to go do it. And then a year later, I'm actually have a real, I'm actually working doing it. People are inviting me back. I'm getting 320 a day for it. I think he knew that happening, going, okay, so it's connected to him saying don't have assets.

[Woody Harrelson]

If he, if he didn't support you to go to ut, you never would end up being at that bar. You never would end up meeting a guy. I mean, let me tell you how

[Matthew McConaughey]

I ended up going to ut. Because again, at life, right, Mystery, going forward, science, looking back, you know, we can always connect all the dots to how we got here, right? And then that time it didn't make sense. I'm in Australia as an exchange student. I call him. I got into smu. I got into smu. I was at Grambling and Texas. Didn't get into Duke, didn't get into Vanderbilt. So I'm going to go to SMU because I'm going to go to law school. Dallas is a big metropolitan city. In the summers I'll get an internship At a, at a law firm. So right when I get out of school, I can already have be hired. I'm already thinking ahead about that, right? Dallas, the metropolitan city in, in Texas. That's what I'll do. I call him. So I want to go to smu. And my dad always talked in like sports terms. He'd be like, well, you. What about them Longhorns? Texas Longhorns. I was like, no, I want to be a Mustang, dad. SMU Mustangs. He's like, ah, doggy sure, bud. And I guess, sir, that's what I want to do. He's like, all right, okay, well that's you do. Five minutes later, phone rings. My brother Pat, the hero in Smokesthet called me, goes, hey buddy, dad just told me you want to go to smu. I said, yeah. He goes, all right. He ain't got to tell you this, but the oil business is tough right now, man. I mean, people are. He's trying to keep from going bankrupt. SMU is going to cost him 18,000 because it's a private school and Texas cost cost him five. You'd be doing that a real solid if you went to Austin. I'm like, man, I don't know. He goes, have you ever been to Austin? Said no. He goes, man, it's your kind of town. He goes, you can walk in there in your flip flops, no shirt and a pair of shorts, you can walk in a damn bar, sit down, order a drink. You're gonna have a sheriff to the left of you, Native American Indian to the right, a blue headed lesbian on the other side of the sheriff, and a dwarf on the other side of that Native American. He goes, now everyone's getting. You gonna love it. And I was like, you think? And he goes, yes, dude, promise you, Pat Pat's always been my good luck charm. And so then I called dad back. I said, dad, I decided I want to be a long one. He's. Oh, God bless you, son.

[Nick Offerman]

Hey, how pretty cool of your brother to see your father get it and be able to pass it on to you. That's. Yeah, that's a good man.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah, he's a cool guy.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Yeah.

[Woody Harrelson]

What happened when we saw him last? He had just been. He just did a little car wreck with Levi in the car. It's something funny, man.

[Nick Offerman]

I forget Levi is.

[Matthew McConaughey]

He's got a little bit of that. I'll hit that rock in the middle of that two acre parking lot. Something. That was a streak of bad luck. Pat, Pat, Pat. Pat's had some funny Funny bad luck of. Of the ball bouncing in odd ways that you go, oh, gosh. This time he gets on the. It's me he works for. He's working for my older brother in the pipe business. And he's got a. This is. I don't know, 20 years ago.

[Nick Offerman]

So it was.

[Matthew McConaughey]

It was a cell call service. You had. You had a. What do you call it? A secretary who's mobile, like in. Probably in Utah or India somewhere. You call in, hey, this is 816. And they check your account for all the calls that come in. Yeah, right. Business calls. Right. Well, we're leaving our ranch right after New Year's, and we're driving back, and Pat decides he's going to call in because here comes early January, time to get back to work. Going to call into his service to get all his calls. Business calls, I'm coming. He calls me. God, it's 816. She goes, 816, check. But I'm not seeing. He goes, It's 816. She goes, lady on the other phone goes, oh, yeah, okay. I just. I just found that, sir, that. That. That account's been down for two years. Pat pulls over on the side of the road, screeches to all. Gets out on the phone. I mean, starts eating. It just.

[Woody Harrelson]

You.

[Matthew McConaughey]

You're telling me. I'm gonna sue you. You know how much money you've lost me? The millions of dollars of business you lost me because you hadn't been taking my calls. I can't. What kind of is. I'm taking this to the Supreme Court. You guys owe me at least $10 million. I had chunks of phone. I can't.

[Nick Offerman]

I'm.

[Matthew McConaughey]

He's sweating his ass off. Gets back in the truck. Can you believe that, man? Two years been down, you know, it's big business. He's hot. And then my brother Rooster, the king of common sense, sitting in the front seat, listening all this stuff, and all of a sudden he goes, you gonna take it to court? Huh? Package? Fuck, yes, I am. And he goes, what do you think the judge is gonna say when he finds out you hadn't called to check your messages in two years? God damn it, I didn't think of that.

[Woody Harrelson]

I never imagined Rooster being called the king of common sense.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Got good common sense.

[Woody Harrelson]

He's got common sense, but he is one wild dude. Oh, he is great. He is. He's good. Good quality, good value, as you like.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Yes, he is.

[Woody Harrelson]

But no, but then he. He had a little wreck while I was over your place. I think Thanksgiving or something last year and he had a little wreck on the way back to the house. I shouldn't talk about it. Is that the look you gave?

[Matthew McConaughey]

No, no, no. Go ahead, go ahead. I don't remember what I'm trying to remember.

[Woody Harrelson]

I just remember that Levi, you know, everybody had their. The real version and Pat had his version.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Yes, of course, of course.

[Woody Harrelson]

You know, anyway,

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[Matthew McConaughey]

Why have I asked my electrician I found on Angie.com to bury my pet hamster? I was so moved by how carefully he buried my electrical wires. I knew, knew I could trust him to bury my sweet nibbles after his untimely end.

[Woody Harrelson]

This is very strange, Angie.

[Nick Offerman]

The one you trust. Define the ones you trust. Find pros for all your home [e-mail]. you know, one movie, and I'm blanking on the name. The something. State of Jones.

[Matthew McConaughey]

The Free State of Jones.

[Nick Offerman]

Free State of Jones. That's one of those movies you. You've made amazing films, but every once in a while there's a movie that you will watch just over and over again. I've watched that movie.

[Matthew McConaughey]

You have?

[Nick Offerman]

Yeah. Over and over again. And it's just one of those great films. And you're really, really good in it.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Thank you, man. Not many people saw that. It came out. We were proud of that film. And it came out, though, at an odd time, you know, release times and do you get. And there was things I won't. I won't talk about on air because it'll. It'll be the wrong headline. But there it came out at an odd time. And for the marketing team and everyone, they get a little bit on their heels and I mean, people thought. But it was really, really wonderful.

[Nick Offerman]

The production design, everything about it just. Gary Ross directed that Nitty Gritty Real, you know, and it's. It's so easy to mess up a period piece by bad production design. It was great. Everything about it was cool.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Yeah, I enjoyed that.

[Nick Offerman]

Yeah.

[Woody Harrelson]

I was gonna also mention Mud, which I loved that.

[Matthew McConaughey]

My favorite. Probably my favorite.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah, it's the one.

[Matthew McConaughey]

My dad. I've dreamed of my dad. I've had dreams of my dad coming to me at 12 years old, putting his arm around me, going, hey, buddy, you seen this movie Mud?

[Nick Offerman]

Yeah.

[Matthew McConaughey]

No, sir. He goes, oh, we gotta watch it. It's a good one. And when my dad. My dad said, it's a good one. That's as high as a compliment or something. Yeah, somebody. Oh, he's a good one. Oh, she's a good one. That meant they were like a mensch. And I always think I've had dreams of my dad coming to me at 12, going, we gotta see this movie together. It's a good one. With his arm around me and.

[Nick Offerman]

Wait, sorry. You have a dream that your dad would say that about.

[Matthew McConaughey]

That my dad would have said that about Mud. Mind you, I was much older, but I. That when I was 12, dad would have come to me said, let's go. You got to see this movie.

[Nick Offerman]

Yeah, that's great. Do you direct? I can't remember. Forgive me. Have you directed?

[Matthew McConaughey]

I have, but I don't. It's. It's not something I do.

[Nick Offerman]

Yeah.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Or I'm looking to do on any kind of consistent produce. Rather not.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah, I produce it now, dude.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Yeah. But yes. So I. Whether I listen to my own advice or not, I. I believe I'm a better performer and have a better experience.

[Nick Offerman]

Yeah, me too.

[Matthew McConaughey]

When I am an actor for hire.

[Nick Offerman]

Me too. I think I'm a contract player at heart.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Right.

[Nick Offerman]

You know, here, put this cowboy hat on and go to the next sound stage over. You're going to be doing this, right? Okay.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Now, there's a singular focus. That's freedom to doing that that way. And when I've been a producer or something, I take that responsibility seriously. But it's a different hat. It's an objective hat. You have to look at the entire thing. How is, you know, are we creating the situation? Are we getting. You're looking at everyone's story, looking at all. When you're an actor, it's a subjective experience. You know, where I got to be. I have to own my man. And I, I. If I own my man, that's plenty. And it is. And, And I'd rather just. I prefer to just have the one hat of acting. Subjective hat.

[Nick Offerman]

How about watching your work? Are you good with that?

[Matthew McConaughey]

I don't love it. I always say this. I love the sound of my voice when it's coming out of my mouth. Yes.

[Nick Offerman]

But not after I'm fucking Brando or Olivier. When I'm working. When I watch it, oh, geez. I become this judgmental dick. I'm almost in tears. I want to quit almost every time. It bores the hell out of my wife. I have to watch it four times. First time I go, oh, I guess my nose isn't that bad, you know, oh, look, there are other actors in this scene. And finally, about the fourth time I can watch.

[Matthew McConaughey]

I'm a four time guy too. Me watching my own work. The fourth time I watch it, if I make it that far, is when I actually can watch the movie. It's also, you know, four times. I'm a four time guy. All Coen Brothers films. It's the fourth watch of Coen Brothers films. I'm like, oh, I got the whole thing.

[Nick Offerman]

Oh, that's great. That's great.

[Woody Harrelson]

You guys are kind of different from me in that regard. I'm kind of like, I watch it one time, I'm like, woody, good job, buddy. Way to go.

[Nick Offerman]

Did you hear people in the other room laughing?

[Woody Harrelson]

They laugh because they know that was a joke. But why did you laugh? Hold on. Anyway, Matt o' Hare's over.

[Nick Offerman]

It's much healthier. That, that's much healthy. Mary works from a place of joy, you know, and she watched and she's okay if people come to the set. And she loves having people around and watching it with people I kind of work from. Shame, basically, is where I work from. So it's like, I'd rather you not come to the set.

[Matthew McConaughey]

I just don't enjoy because I will dissect the hell out of myself and I'll, I'll be judgmental and I'm not wrong, but maybe I shouldn't be that hard. But I don't. Like I said, I like doing it. And I could. I've done it long enough. We've all done it long. You know when you hit it.

[Nick Offerman]

Yeah.

[Matthew McConaughey]

You gotta look at the direction, go, yeah. And they go, yeah. I mean, when you first start off, you're doing it and you think you hit it, you look up and you go, look at that. You go, look at what you did. And you're like, oh, geez, that's not what I was intended to do. But after a while, you start closing that gap between what you want to do, what you actually do, and what's getting recorded. And you can feel it when it's, when it's true for you. And, and if the agreeing with the director. I don't, I don't really want to go back and, and watch it over. I. I'll get. I don't want to be susceptible to being vain in a place that maybe I I wouldn't be if I didn't see it. I don't want to know. Oh, the lighting's better. I don't.

[Nick Offerman]

Let me make a U turn here because I want to hear you talk about Camila, right?

[Matthew McConaughey]

Yeah.

[Nick Offerman]

I'd love to know when you met and how. I love what you wrote about. You'll be sitting there across the room from your wife, and she'll be in mid conversation with somebody else, but she'll turn around and catch your eye and give you just the slightest smile and a wink. Yeah, that must feel fucking great. It feels great.

[Matthew McConaughey]

I got. I got one today. She was in there with the kiddos and they were all. They were all watching something after all the sports we've been at and all the UT game and all that stuff. And they were just in the quiet little shady room watching that series together. High potentials right there watching. And as I was leaving, you know, she's kind of a little lean back. And I went kiss her on the forehead. She stood there on the. After I kissed on the forehead with. By staying there, that meant like, move your head about four more inches towards my chin and give me one on the lips. You know what I mean? As I did, I got an upside down wink on the way out. I was like, there we go.

[Nick Offerman]

How'd you meet?

[Woody Harrelson]

She's quite a lady. You. You met in Malibu?

[Matthew McConaughey]

No, sir. We met on Sunset Boulevard at a

[Woody Harrelson]

club up in the boulevard. Which.

[Nick Offerman]

Which place?

[Matthew McConaughey]

In the club? I'm forgetting the name. And I've told you, wasn't like Roxy

[Woody Harrelson]

in one of those places.

[Matthew McConaughey]

No, up in the club, it was Ends up.

[Woody Harrelson]

Oh, really?

[Matthew McConaughey]

It was in the club, dude. Okay, I'm not a club guy because

[Woody Harrelson]

I thought you were at like a

[Nick Offerman]

restaurant, whatever that was.

[Woody Harrelson]

Was there a restaurant in.

[Matthew McConaughey]

No, no food.

[Woody Harrelson]

You're over there with the champagne.

[Matthew McConaughey]

I'm living at the Chateau. No, I'm. No, no, no, no. I'm living up in Hollywood Hills. I'm out of the Chateau by this point, and I'm over at the table making margaritas. I've got. I've got the bottle of tequila. I've got a knife. I got my limes, I got my syrup. I got my contro. I'm making homemade market. I can make a good Margarita. Takes about 12.

[Woody Harrelson]

He does make a good, good margaritas.

[Matthew McConaughey]

And I'm making margaritas, and I'm sitting there thumping. And I've had a couple of margaritas. Just enough to see straight, you know what I mean? Where you see a little Straight to her. Sometimes after a couple. And about 15ft in front of me at the end of the table, crossing the room maybe 20ft. This figure with caramel skin with a little bit of. There's enough. It was hot enough in the club where there's a little dew on the shoulders. And this turquoise dress with the strap going on the top moved right to left in my eyeline. And tell me it didn't. Her head wasn't even bobbing. It's like that Spike Lee had with Malcolm X. Denzel Washington on that. On that. And remember in Malcolm X where he's walking, he's got him on that pulley. He's not even stepping. He's on exactly this. Just like the. Like a Land Cruiser floating across the top of the top of the floor.

[Woody Harrelson]

So she looked almost as good as Denzel Washington.

[Matthew McConaughey]

He looked better. So I follow her, go over. She goes and sits down next to these two girls on this red couch. And I'm. I got her in mine and I'm. I. When she moved across, I remember standing up and saying to myself, what is that? I didn't say, who is that? I said, what is that? And she sat down and I try to catch her eye and I'm kind of waving.

[Nick Offerman]

Really?

[Matthew McConaughey]

Yeah.

[Nick Offerman]

You're making a move.

[Matthew McConaughey]

I'm making a direct move. And as I'm waving and not catching her eye and now I know her well enough to know she probably saw me, wasn't going to give me the. The I ain't catching your eye waving me. Because what I heard in my ear was my mom, who wasn't there physically, but my mom saying to me, this is not the kind of girl you wave across the room, dumbass. Get your ass up and go introduce yourself to. Which I did. I introduced myself. And as I was introducing myself and inviting her to come to the table, I thought, oh, invite her two friends as well.

[Nick Offerman]

Good move.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Good move, right. Of which I did. So therefore, she came over solo. Said, now, youngster. She came over, sat down right next to me. I made her a margarita. Music's pumping. It's now close to 2 in the morning. I'm speaking fluent Spanish, better Spanish than I've ever spoken.

[Woody Harrelson]

But she speaks Portuguese.

[Matthew McConaughey]

All right. She's speaking Portuguese.

[Nick Offerman]

Wait, I laughed. Is that correct?

[Matthew McConaughey]

That's correct.

[Nick Offerman]

Oh, that's fantastic.

[Matthew McConaughey]

But it's in the same music meter much more than English is. It's definitely different. I've learned that. Yeah, yeah. Spanish and very much, very different, but much more closer to the music meter.

[Nick Offerman]

Of love.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Speaking English, Portuguese. I'm understanding her Portuguese better than I ever have since. In 19 years, okay? I swear. Sip of margaritas. When she talks, I'm leaning my ear here. When I'm talking, she's leaning over here. The language, it's working. I remember my buddy comes up and goes, hey, we got to go. And he said, I didn't even look at him. He just said that. He said, I put my right hand up in his face, and I go, five minutes. Give me five minutes. And we talk five more minutes. I invite her to come over to my house with me and my two friends to have one more drink. She says, no, it's all right. I'll walk you to your car.

[Nick Offerman]

Walk her to her car.

[Matthew McConaughey]

She gets the spot. She's like, I. I parked it right here. Where is.

[Nick Offerman]

It

[Matthew McConaughey]

was Toad.

[Nick Offerman]

Oh, yes.

[Matthew McConaughey]

All right.

[Woody Harrelson]

But you had to look like. Oh, that's terrible. I'm so sorry. Well, you know, we could.

[Matthew McConaughey]

We'll give you a lift, but come on my house for a drink, and then I'll have my driver take you home.

[Nick Offerman]

My driver. That doesn't hurt.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Doesn't hurt?

[Nick Offerman]

No, that doesn't hurt. That's pretty cool.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Doesn't hurt, right? So come back over. She has another drink. We have two buddies. We're all laughing, got music on, having a good time. We're all laughing at know that she's really cool, really fun. She says, I'm ready to go, so I'll walk her out to the driveway. A driver had left.

[Woody Harrelson]

A little message. Out of here now.

[Nick Offerman]

Yeah, see, that's what I'm wondering. What, are you telling the truth? That he left or did you give him.

[Woody Harrelson]

Did you tell him, get out of here.

[Matthew McConaughey]

He wasn't in the driveway.

[Woody Harrelson]

Wow. He avoided that question. This probably been question lingering all these years.

[Matthew McConaughey]

So come on back inside. We'll call a cab. Well, up in the mountains, up in the Malibu Canyon, sometimes Laurel Springs, it's tough to get reception for a cab. You can take. Take the guest bedroom. Takes the guest bedroom. Cut to. I get kicked out of that bedroom twice that night and finally go to sleep. And the next morning, I'm the last one up. 10:45am and as I'm coming down out of my bedroom, I got a spiral staircase that comes down on the ground floor. Then you walk down this foyer past a big fish tank, and then there's. In the middle of the next room is a big kitchen island. And as I'm coming down the stairs, I hear this laughter and this conversation Going on between these two guys and this woman, my two friends and Camilla, that it's. They're. They're covering each other's sentences. They're like saying one word that's calling back a joke. Like that happened either last night or the night before. It's like friends that have known each other a while, they're a hooting and going on like old buddies. And I'm coming down and as I walk holding court, I see that same turquoise. Those same turquoise dress on the same caramel shoulder. Same dress from last night. I went, oh, that's another plus. This is not a little girl who thinks wearing the dress from last night is a walk of shame. No, this is a woman. That's what I wore here. That's what I was wearing, and it's what I'm wearing out of here the next day. Yes, I'm here owning that. She's holding court. My two buddies are. Got the shirts off, drinking orange juice, eating pancakes and stuff. And I hear this conversation going on like old buddies. And I walk in and she just, oh, hey. And continues the conversation. I'm like, wow, that's got some woman's. Got presence. Okay, I'll give you a ride to the. To the pound to go pick up your car. On the way to the car, it was an hour drive. I had this album of this artist, a reggae artist I produced named Mischka. And I put it in and the album's 55 minutes long. It was an hour drive. We listened to the entire album and didn't say a word to each other the entire time. Nor did either one of us feel like we needed to say something in between songs.

[Nick Offerman]

That's very cool.

[Matthew McConaughey]

And we've all been there. We like, here's the science. I gotta feel the space.

[Nick Offerman]

Yeah.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Didn't feel like we need to feel the space. We get there, we get her car, drop her off. She's there about to get in her car. I get. I get her number and she comes down for a kiss. She turned her cheek right at the last second. I come over, I catch a quarter bit of lip.

[Woody Harrelson]

Oh, quarter lip, quarter lip, quarter left.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Come on. I asked her out that night.

[Nick Offerman]

Yeah.

[Matthew McConaughey]

She can't. I said, come on. Why? She goes, it's my father's birthday. I'm like, oh, it's because that. History, family.

[Nick Offerman]

Yeah, yeah.

[Matthew McConaughey]

These things, you know, got all this stuff going on for her that she cares about. Ain't got nothing to do with me. I'm becoming more and more attracted to her for these Reasons I keep asking her out. About a week later, she says, yeah, she comes over. I cook her dinner and makes more of those margaritas. We have a great night, dance all night. And. And. Oh, that's been. That was our first date. And that's the only woman I've dated since. Or how long ago was it? 19 years.

[Nick Offerman]

Well done, bud.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Thank you.

[Woody Harrelson]

So hold it. Next year is 20 years. Yeah, 20, 26. Because that was 2016.

[Matthew McConaughey]

That'll be 20 years. We didn't get married. We've only been married 13.

[Woody Harrelson]

Hold it. I thought you got married.

[Matthew McConaughey]

We. No, no, no. We'd known each other 19. We had. We had Levi and Vita before we were married.

[Nick Offerman]

Yeah. What?

[Matthew McConaughey]

We had Levi and Vita before we married. You.

[Woody Harrelson]

You had children in. In sin, out of red.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Speaking of. According to Mac, your best friend. Yes. You love this story. I get home, we're staying in it. We've moved into a double wide out in Paradise Cove. And I get home one night, and we've been trying. We've been. We've been trying to have kids. And I get home, and all of a sudden I smell walking through, I smell cheeseburgers, and she walks up and hands me a double margarita. And like, whoa, what's going on, man? My favorite meal and everything. What's going on? And she gives me this gift, and I open it up in this treasure bag, and it was a picture of this at the sonogram.

[Nick Offerman]

Yeah.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Oh, my God. We cry, laughing. There's like, let's gotta call my mom. Gotta call my mom. Get out the phone. Put it on his speaker phone. Mom? Mom? Mom? Mom, you there? She's. Yeah, yeah, I'm here. I said, all right, Camilla's here. She says, hi, Ms. McConaughey. All right, can you hear. You can hear us all good. We got some great news to share with you. Oh, I can't. I love good news. Tell me what it is. I said, okay, mom, guess what? Camilla's pregnant.

[Nick Offerman]

Crickets.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Crickets, bro. All of a sudden. Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. Matthew, this is so out of order. This is not how I taught you. Oh, no. Oh, Matthew. Oh, this just breaks my. And I'm going, whoa. And I'm. And I'm about to go down and take her off speakerphone, but I'm like, in deep enough with. With Camilla. And I'm like, this is my mother. Let's. Let's let it ride. And mom just goes on and on and on and on and on about how this is the worst thing I'm so sorry. I can't believe. Jesus. I gotta go. And hangs up the phone. Whoa, look at each other. And we're like, whoa, better get that bottle. Let's pour another. Pour another straight one here. Good gosh. That did not go out. That was gonna go.

[Nick Offerman]

It was very clear with Camila that you were on her side there. Was that you hadn't been impacted by your mother.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Like, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. Camilla. Locked.

[Nick Offerman]

We're good. Yeah, that's great.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Five minutes later, phone rings. My mom. Yeah, Mom. Hey, put me on speakerphone, Matthew. All right, you're on speakerphone. Camilla, Are you there yet? Camilla, come here. Yes, Mr. Connie, I'm here. All right. Can you all both hear? Yeah, mom, we hear you just fine. Okay, listen up. I would like to put some white out. Over that last conversation, I started thinking how selfish that was of me to not be happy for y'.

[Nick Offerman]

All.

[Matthew McConaughey]

But if you are happy, I should be happy for y'. All. Now, that is not my place to come in here and say that shouldn't be done.

[Woody Harrelson]

And that's not.

[Matthew McConaughey]

You should have done it. So I would like to put some white out over that. And we forget that was ever said. I'm very happy. That's Mom.

[Nick Offerman]

That's fantastic. White.

[Woody Harrelson]

Incredible. What? What? She just worried about being a grandmother, probably.

[Matthew McConaughey]

No, no. It was a direct reaction of.

[Woody Harrelson]

But was it because you weren't married or.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Yeah, because we weren't married. Oh, out of order.

[Woody Harrelson]

That's a little old fashioned to her. I don't think of her as old fashioned.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Yeah, I mean, she's extremely progressive, but, I mean, at the same time, that's how we were raised. There was no question about it.

[Nick Offerman]

Yeah.

[VRBoCare Announcer]

Day or night, VRBoCare is here 247 to help make every part of your stuff stay seamless. If anything comes up or you simply need a little guidance, support is ready whenever you reach out. From the moment you book to the moment you head home. We're here to help things run smoothly, because a great trip starts with the right support. And, hey, a good playlist doesn't hurt either.

[Woody Harrelson]

By the way, we're gonna have to wrap this up because we're just.

[Matthew McConaughey]

You got to go bang a drum.

[Woody Harrelson]

I gotta go bang a drum. And we're going to the thing. We're gonna bang drums.

[Nick Offerman]

One, one. I'm a drum banger.

[Woody Harrelson]

Are you a drum banger?

[Nick Offerman]

Well, not. Not real drum drums, but, you know, manly man groups.

[Woody Harrelson]

Oh. Oh.

[Nick Offerman]

That kind of drumming. Okay. Years ago. One last question. One Last question.

[Woody Harrelson]

I really want to get into this.

[Nick Offerman]

I love your book. I love your poetry.

[Woody Harrelson]

Rub me. Did you have the meat rub?

[Nick Offerman]

No, I'm just. Oh, you mean like.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Oh, you think.

[Woody Harrelson]

Why do you think that way? Dude, come on.

[Nick Offerman]

I almost went to a really bad place. But we do edit this, so, you know. Anyway, I love you. I love your prayer, I love your poetry. And you tell stories beautifully.

[Woody Harrelson]

He's one of the great stories.

[Nick Offerman]

You are a great storyteller. So forgive me if you already have. Do you write film scripts?

[Matthew McConaughey]

No. Well.

[Nick Offerman]

Well, may I suggest. Why not? Because you're an amazing storyteller.

[Woody Harrelson]

He really is.

[Nick Offerman]

You're fun.

[Woody Harrelson]

By the way, the greatest story Ever told is a story he tells, which is in Green Lights, another one of his number one New York Times bestseller books. And it's. It is. When he was in Australia, if you haven't. I'm not going to make presumptions and I don't want you to answer, but if you haven't read or listened to him doing Green Lights, you got to listen to this story of him in Australia. I call it the Greatest story Ever.

[Nick Offerman]

I will. I get it.

[Matthew McConaughey]

It is.

[Woody Harrelson]

It's a masterpiece of storytelling. Anyway, go ahead.

[Nick Offerman]

So you should write something for us.

[Matthew McConaughey]

I mean, I'm writing it in like. There's stories in Greenlights that I'm like. They're the. I just don't really. I'm not enjoying put them in script form, but that could be it.

[Woody Harrelson]

That could be a script.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Well, we have to. I've worked on scripts about that year. Oh, and they were good. They weren't as good as that 43 minute story I tell. Right, right, right, right. They weren't as good as what really happened, but it's a. It's a. It's a massive black comedy.

[Woody Harrelson]

Oh, my God.

[Matthew McConaughey]

It's great.

[Woody Harrelson]

It's.

[Matthew McConaughey]

That goes really, really sideways and ways.

[Nick Offerman]

M.

[Matthew McConaughey]

You got lifestyle for the duration of your stay here in Australia, you learn to appreciate fine wines, fine cheeses, and not to voice your opinion for the masses. Don't voice my opinion for the masses.

[Nick Offerman]

What the. Okay,

[Matthew McConaughey]

father that I was staying with.

[Nick Offerman]

Oh, that's great.

[Woody Harrelson]

No, you're seven. How old were you?

[Matthew McConaughey]

I'm 18.

[Woody Harrelson]

18.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Two weeks out of high school.

[Nick Offerman]

Don't voice your what? Opinion for you la.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Not to voice your opinion for the masses.

[Nick Offerman]

So I take it he didn't have

[Woody Harrelson]

a podcast, that guy?

[Nick Offerman]

No.

[Woody Harrelson]

What's he thinking now? He has to have heard all this now he has to have heard the story and all of that has got to have gotten back to him. And I wonder what he's thinking now. Can't wait to meet you.

[Matthew McConaughey]

I've, I've, you know, seen him since he usually comes on some. Might want to do some Australian press, really show up.

[Woody Harrelson]

So he don't mind.

[Matthew McConaughey]

He likes it. I don't, I don't, I don't know. I, I, I was reasonable and I changed some names.

[Woody Harrelson]

I think he's gonna figure out that was him.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Dude,

[Nick Offerman]

hey, really fun. See, what Woody does is he lives his life and he meets everybody and hangs out for some weird reason I don't. So I really love that I got to hang out with you for an hour. I really appreciate it.

[Matthew McConaughey]

I enjoy hanging out with you. I don't know you well, but I, I like you more every time we hang out, so we'll have more. Okay.

[Woody Harrelson]

Next time we're all in la, we go over to his place, Rustic Canyon, one of the nicest. You can go around the park, have a fire. It's great. It's great.

[Nick Offerman]

You'd love my wife, too.

[Woody Harrelson]

Well, obviously way more than you. Talking about better half. It's better three quarters, you know, hands down.

[Nick Offerman]

You'll take a second look at me once you meet her, you'll go, oh, all right. Yeah.

[Woody Harrelson]

How did this happen?

[Nick Offerman]

Maybe he's all right.

[Woody Harrelson]

This is really. Yeah. Bottom heavy ticket. Anyway, love you, brother.

[Nick Offerman]

Love you too, man.

[Woody Harrelson]

Yeah, no, I was talking.

[Nick Offerman]

I understand. I shouldn't have put the.

[Woody Harrelson]

I don't know why you tapped me. I'm talking to him.

[Nick Offerman]

Well, yeah, I'm sorry.

[Woody Harrelson]

Love you, man. Thanks for coming. Thanks for doing it.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Thanks for asking me.

[Woody Harrelson]

I know you're busy going.

[Nick Offerman]

Honor us by coming, sir.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Thank you all for hanging, man.

[Nick Offerman]

That's all for our show this week. Special thanks to our friends at Team Coco. If you enjoyed this episode, send it to someone you love. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app and maybe give us a great rating and review on Apple Podcasts if you're of a mind. If you like watching your podcasts, all our full length episodes are on YouTube. Visit YouTube.comteamcoco See you next time. Where Everybody Knows your.

[Matthew McConaughey]

You've been listening to Where Everybody Knows yous Name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson Sometimes. The show is produced by me, Nick Leow. Our executive producers are Adam Sachs, Jeff Ross and myself. Sarah Fedorovich is our supervising producer. Engineering and mixing by Joanna Samuel with support from Eduardo Perez. Research by Alyssa Grohl. Talent booking by Paula Davis and Gina Bautista. Our theater music is by Woody Harrelson, Anthony Gend, Mary Steenbergen, and John Osborne.

[VRBoCare Announcer]

Day or night, VRBoCare is here 247 to help make every part of your stay seamless. If anything comes up or you simply need a little guidance, support is ready whenever you reach out. From the moment you book to the moment you head home, we're here to help things run smoothly, because a great trip starts with the right support. And hey, a good playlist doesn't hurt either.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Why have I asked my electrician I found on Angie.com to bury my pet hamster? I was so moved by how carefully he buried my electrical wires, I knew knew I could trust him to bury my sweet nibbles after his untimely end. This is very strange.

[Nick Offerman]

Angie. The one you trust. Define the ones you trust. Find pros for all your home projects at Angie.

[Matthew McConaughey]

Combination.