Nine years ago, close friends Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson were sitting on a porch while vacationing together in Greece with their families. Their kids were sharing pictures of their fathers from when they were younger, amazed at how similar the two actors looked. “Everyone’s going, ‘Man, you two: Those mannerisms are the same, you look alike. It’s like you’re brothers!’” remembers McConaughey. Everyone laughed, and then McConaughey’s mother, in a perfectly timed comedic bit, turns to Harrelson and says, “Oh, I knew your father.”
But it wasn’t a joke. McConaughey’s mother revealed for the first time that she had known (yes, in the Biblical sense) Harrelson’s father before McConaughey was born. They did the math, and realized there was a possibility that the actors were not only best buddies, but half brothers. “Woody believed it from the get-go, and I don’t believe it from the get-go,” McConaughey tells Vanity Fair.
The possibility has become one of Hollywood’s most fascinating rumors—and now it’s the inspiration for Apple TV’s new comedy series, Brothers. McConaughey and Harrelson play fictionalized versions of themselves, as they grapple with a decades-old secret that’s been unearthed.
Every episode of the show, which will debut on September 23, opens with the line: “Based on a true rumor.” McConaughey and Harrelson are quick to emphasize that while the characters have their names, the series is very much a fictionalized version of their story. But still, the friendship captured onscreen is true to life, and an interesting peek into one of Hollywood’s most enduring bromances. “They just love each other,” says Brothers showrunner Lee Eisenberg. “They just really enjoy one another like brothers.”
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Interviewing McConaughey and Harrelson goes exactly how you’d expect. McConaughey is loquacious with his answers, his Texas drawl stretching out his thoughts and stories. Harrelson is quieter, but often follows up McConaughey’s monologues with a funny quip or story. They both have a habit of getting off track to roast each other or reveal something that maybe they shouldn’t be sharing to a reporter with a recorder.
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