Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey 'may do DNA test' to confirm if they're brothers

Woody Harrelson has confirmed Matthew McConaughey’s claim that they could be brothers. Credit: AP

Woody Harrelson has said he is eager to find out whether he and longtime friend and co-star Matthew McConaughey might actually be brothers.

During an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Harrelson discussed the possibility the actors could be related, admitting “there is some veracity to that thought.”

Speaking on the US chat show, he said: “We were in Greece watching the US team win the World Cup and I mentioned something about regrets.

“And I said, ‘you know, it’s odd that my father has no regrets.’

"I have known (McConaughey's mother) for a long time, and she goes, ‘I knew… your father.’ And it was the ellipses I found a little troubling, or interesting.”

Harrelson added that her pause was “filled with innuendo”, to which Colbert quipped that it might even have been a “pregnant pause.”

Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey have starred in multiple movies together. Credit: AP

Last week, McConaughey revealed in the podcast Let’s Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa that Harrelson’s father was on furlough at the same time his own parents were undergoing their second divorce and that his mother and Harrelson’s father could have met in West Texas.

Harrelson also revealed that the pair are looking to do a DNA test, but added that "it's a lot more of a big deal" for McConaughey.

"He feels like he is losing a father, but I'm like 'no, you are gaining a father and a brother,'" Harrelson added.

Harrelson's father, Charles, was a convicted contract killer who was first convicted for armed robbery in 1960.

He jailed for murder and released on good behaviour five years later, and would go onto assassinate a federal judge.

He also claimed to have taken part in the murder of President John F. Kennedy. His claims were later rubbished by the FBI.

Harrelson's father also admitted that he had been involved in dozens of murders beginning in the early 1960's.

The actor has spoken in the past of growing up with his father largely absent from his life with his mother and siblings.

He said he used to visit his dad in prison, and described him as more of a 'friend' than a father figure. Charles Harrelson died in jail in 2007.

Harrelson and McConaughey both have two brothers each.

The pair have appeared onscreen together in True Detective and the film EDtv, and are poised to reunite in an Apple TV+ show called Brother from Another Mother, where they play fictionalised versions of themselves.

Charles Harrelson's mug shot after his 1960 arrest for armed robbery. Credit: Houston police.

The two actors first met in 1997 while working on Ron Howard’s “EDtv,” although they disagree about the precise moment.

“There was tequila involved,” McConaughey quipped in a video on his YouTube channel.

He first remembers meeting Harrelson at a costume fitting in San Francisco for “EDtv,” when Harrelson walked in wearing “bike shorts, professional bike top and he’s still got his professional bike riding shoes on that he’s walking the streets of San Francisco in.”

Since then, McConaughey and Harrelson have starred in the movie “Surfer, Dude,” and in the widely acclaimed police thriller “True Detective” series together.


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