Actors Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey aren’t just True Detective co-stars – they’re also lifelong friends.
And in an incredible twist of fate, the famous besties have learned they might actually be brothers.
The pair do share a remarkable resemblance, from their eye colour to their perfectly high cheekbones and pronounced chins. (Now you've seen it, you really can’t unsee it though, can you?)
And after McConaughey shared recently that the pair might actually be related, Harrelson has now confirmed what could be the best long-lost sibling story we've ever heard.
"Well, I’ll just say there is some veracity to that thought," the actor told late-night show host Stephen Colbert during a recent appearance.
ICYMI, Harrelson and McConaughey were promoting their new comedy project, Brother From Another Mother on Kelly Ripa’s Let’s Talk Off Camera podcast recently when they first made the revelation, reports Variety.
The belief, they said, stems from an admission McConaughey’s mum made while their famous families were holidaying together in Europe.
"You know, where I start and where he ends, and where he starts and I end, has always been like a murky line," Oscar-winner McConaughey said.
"And that’s part of our bromance, right? My kids call him Uncle Woody. His kids call me Uncle Matthew. And you see pictures of us, and my family thinks a lot of pictures of him are me. His family thinks a lot of pictures of me are him."
"In Greece a few years ago, we’re sitting around talking about how close we are and our families," he continued. "And my mum is there, and she says, 'Woody, I knew your dad.' Everyone was aware of the ellipses that my mum left after 'knew.' It was a loaded K-N-E-W."
The actors knew what "K-N-E-W" meant. But could McConaughey really be a product of his mother Kay’s romance with Harrelson’s father, Charles? (Who, ICYMI, was a murderer...)
Now Harrelson has addressed the theory himself during his appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
"Well, I’ll just say there is some veracity to that thought because we talked to Ma’ Mac, Matthew’s legitimate mother, and she let us know one time… I mean, this is crazy. We were in Greece, we were watching the US team win the World Cup and I don’t know, I mentioned something about regrets," Harrelson told Colbert.
"And I said, ‘You know, it’s odd that my father has no regrets.’ And I have known Ma’ Mac a long time, and she goes, ‘I knew… your father.’ And it was the ellipses I found a little troubling, or interesting."
"The thing is, we want to go for a test, but for him, it’s a much more big deal," the actor added.
"I mean he feels like he is losing a father. But I’m like, no, you’re gaining a different father and a brother."
McConaughey also explained why he was hesitant to do a DNA test during his appearance on Ripa’s podcast.
"Look, it’s a little easier for Woody to say, 'Come on, let’s do [DNA tests],' because what’s the skin in it for him?" he said.
"It’s a little harder for me because he’s asking me to take a chance to go, 'Wait a minute, you’re trying to tell me my dad may not be my dad after 53 years of believing that?' I got a little more skin in the game."
Woody Harrelson's father, Charles Voyde Harrelson, was a contract killer who was arrested following a stand-off with police after shooting dead US District Judge John H. Wood Jr in May, 1979.
Woody Harrelson was 11 at the time, and heard the news over the car radio after school pickup. At this point, his father was no longer in his life, having left Harrelson and his mum, Diane, years earlier.
The actor would later learn it wasn’t his only killing.
In 1968, Woody’s father was paid $2000 for the murder of Sam Degalia Jr, a grain dealer and father-of-four in McAllen, Texas. In 1973, after an initial mistrial, Charles was sentenced to 15 years in prison, though he was released after five years for good behaviour.
In 1981, Charles was handed down two life sentences for the assassination of the judge. His son had already launched his acting career by this time (he was 20) and spent millions of dollars on lawyer fees to help his father – not because he thought he was innocent, but because he wanted to help his dad, with whom he also shares a birthday.
In a 2012 interview, actor Harrelson opened up about an eerie belief in Japanese culture about males who share birthdays with their father.
"They have a thing in Japan where they say if you’re born on your father’s birthday, you’re not like your father, you are your father," he told The Guardian.
"And it’s so weird when I would sit and talk with him, it was just mind-blowing to see all the things he did just like me. Idiosyncratic things. The way he laughed. The face, very similar."
It’s incredible to think Harrelson rekindled a relationship with his father, a convicted murderer who left his wife to raise three sons alone.
"You know, I’ve got to give her credit because she never really soured us on him, she didn’t talk negative about him, never, ever. And she could have – he wasn’t the greatest husband. Or father."
Feature Image: Getty/Mamamia.