Woody Harrelson has confirmed that he wants to get a DNA test along with Matthew McConaughey to see if the two are half-brothers. The “True Detective” costars have been friends for quite some time, but a few years ago, they learned they may have the same father.
McConaughey revealed last week on Kelly Ripa’s radio show, “Let’s Talk Off Camera,” that his mother had mentioned years ago while they were all vacationing in Greece that she “knew” Harrelson’s father, and noted that “it was a loaded K-N-E-W.”
During an appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on Tuesday, Harrelson said “there is some veracity,” to McConaughey’s belief they could be brothers.
Harrelson agreed that when McConaughey’s mom said she “knew” his father, Charles Harrelson, it seemed like she was insinuating she slept with him and he could be McConaughey’s biological father. Harrelson even mirrored McConaughey’s words in saying that there were “ellipses” in the sentence, which he said he found “troubling.”
Harrelson added that the pause around “knew” was “filled with innuendo.”
“She was on a sabbatical from her relationship with [McConaughey’s] supposed father, Jim,” Harrelson said. “We want to go [DNA] test, but for him it’s a bigger deal because he feels like he’s losing a father. But I’m like, ‘No, you’re gaining a different father and a brother.'”
McConaughey had said in his interview with Ripa, “It’s a little harder for me, because he’s asking me to take the chance to go, ‘Wait a minute, you’re telling me my dad may not be my dad of 53 years’ and believe in it? I got a little more skin in the game.”
Colbert then showed a photo of the two actors together, saying some people might feel they look like half-brothers.
Justin Theroux, who was present during Tuesday’s interview, chimed in to say, “I kind of want to be your brother, too.”
McConaughey said last week that he and Harrelson discussed the connection and realized Harrelson’s dad was in West Texas around the same time McConaughey’s parents were getting their second divorce. McConaughey’s parents married each other three times and divorced twice, according to Entertainment Tonight.
Harrelson was raised by a single mother after his dad, Charles Harrelson, was sentenced to life in prison for murdering a federal judge. Charles Harrelson died of a heart attack in a federal prison in 2007.
While McConaughey, 53, grew up in Uvalde, Texas, Harrelson, 61, was born just north in Midland, Texas, and later moved to Ohio.
The pair starred on HBO’s “True Detective” together in 2014 and their strong friendship inspired their new show “Brother From Another Mother,” loosely based on their connection.
“The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” airs on CBS. Both CBS News and CBS are owned by Paramount Global.
