Brothers: The 'Real' Story Behind Matthew McConaughey & Woody Harrelson's Apple TV Comedy
They couldn’t be, could they? For decades, Hollywood stars Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson have been best friends.
Meeting one night over tequila, with both recalling being “a bit hazy” over the details, they hit it off properly on the set of Ron Howard’s 1999 comedy EDtv. Fast forward to 2014 and the duo reunited for the groundbreaking, award-winning thriller series True Detective, playing Louisiana State Police homicide detectives Rustin "Rust" Cohle and Martin "Marty" Hart, who investigate a bizarre ritualistic murder in 1995 and recount the unsolved case during separate interrogations 17 years later.
So, while the rumours persist about their real-life brotherhood, the duo decided that, for their next project together, they would do something a little different — and certainly lighter than True Detective — poking fun at the possibility that they are, indeed, Brothers.
What Is Brothers About?
Brothers stars Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson as fictionalised versions of themselves, the central joke being that their lifelong friendship may actually have a biological explanation: they could be half-brothers. Apple describes the series as being inspired by the “messy line between myth and reality.”
The show chronicles these versions of McConaughey and Harrelson's lives, as their strong friendship is put to the test when they decide to live with their families at McConaughey's Texas ranch after Harrelson's daughter's wedding falls apart. While at the ranch, McConaughey and Harrelson uncover a family secret suggesting that they might actually be brothers. The two then set out to find the truth.
“Initially we were thinking it would be more like Curb Your Enthusiasm where there’d be an outline and then everybody would improvise, but then cooler heads prevailed,” Harrelson told Esquire recently.
“We were also thinking, ‘Hey, let’s just do it with the real families,” McConaughey adds. “My mom, and his family, and my family. Let’s just throw us in and do…”
The Real-Life Story Behind the TV Show
The show is based on a real-life story from McConaughey’s mother, who told the actor that he could, in fact, be Harrelson's real half-brother. According to McConaughey, in 2017 or thereabouts, he and Harrelson’s families were on holiday on the sunny island of Greece, and their kids started looking through old photos.
To their surprise, they all noted how similar their fathers looked — in their faces, mannerisms and general appearance — and, soon enough, the joke about their “brotherhood” gained momentum.
On a 2023 episode of Let’s Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa, McConaughey told the story and said that his mother “knew” Harrelson’s dad.
“Everyone was aware of the ellipses that my mom left after ‘knew.’ ... It was a loaded K-N-E-W,” McConaughey said.
“We went on to unpack this, what ‘knew’ meant, and did some math and found out that his dad was on furlough at the same time that my mom and dad were in their second divorce… Then there are possible receipts in places out in West Texas where there might have been a gathering, or a meeting, or a ‘knew’ moment.”
Harrelson added on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert in April 2023: “Well, I'll just say there is some veracity to that thought... We were in Greece, we were watching the US team win the World Cup. I mentioned something about regrets, and I said, 'Ah, it's odd that my father had no regrets.’
“I've known Mom Mc [Mary McCabe] a long time, and she goes: 'I knew... your father'.”
“It was the ellipsis I found a little troubling, or interesting,” Harrelson added
Apple Has Doubled-Down On The Rumour to Promote Brothers
The Apple marketing team went gangbusters with the project, including using some youthful photos of the pair in the promotional posters, even splicing them in half to add further fuel to the fire. On The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, McConaughey said he would take the DNA test to “get it over with”, but is still not as convinced as Harrelson is.
So, will we ever get an answer to the question of their heritage and potential real-life sibling 'rivalry'? Probably not.
For now, Brothers will be our little fantasy gateway into the “McConaulssons” soap opera and, for what it's worth, when they are together, magic always happens — and we hope they stay together forever.
