Matthew McConaughey recently joined Woody Harrelson and Ted Danson on their “Where Everybody Knows Your Name” podcast. In the course of the episode, Harrelson recalled there have been “so persistently” he desired to “punch” McConaughey while filming the primary season of “True Detective” because he was method acting.
“He’s method,” Harrelson said. “After we were shooting, he was Rust Cohle. There [were] so persistently I desired to punch this motherfucker within the face. I’m so pissed at him cause he’s in his character.”
McConaughey explained that he needed to be “stoic” between takes to remain in his character’s headspace.
“We’re sitting there. We’re about to begin shooting, and we were rehearsing,” McConaughey recalled. “I’m just form of being stoic Rust Cohle. Woody goes, like, ‘Hey man, I would like to talk over with you about something.’ He goes, ‘The best way you and I work, McConaughey, I hit you the ball, you hit back, I hit it back to you. We volley, we play. … Man, that’s us. It’s dramatic, nevertheless it’s also comedy.’”
In HBO’s “True Detective,” Harrelson and McConaughey played a pair of Southern investigators hunting a serial killer within the esoteric back country of Louisiana. Harrelson, at one point, thought the show was too dark and suggested to McConaughey during production that they need to add in some jokes.
He recalled, “I remember saying to [McConaughey] before we began filming, I’m like, ‘Dude, individuals are gonna expect to laugh with us. We gotta throw some jokes in here.’ He’s similar to, ‘Mhm.’ I’m waiting for him to say, ‘Yeah, you’re totally, no, none of that.’ He just, ‘Mhm, yeah.’”
“True Detective” Season 1 earned 5 Emmy Awards and remains to be widely considered the most effective shows in HBO’s catalog. Despite the enduring popularity, Harrelson recently told “Today” that there may be “no probability” of him and McConaughey returning to “True Detective.”
“In fairness, never. No probability,” Harrelson said. “Since it turned out great. I really like that it turned out the way in which it did, and if anything, doing one other season would, I feel, tarnish that.”