Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson announced in March they will be reuniting onscreen after “EDtv” and “True Detective” in a new Apple TV+ comedy from creator David West Read. The 10-episode series will star the actors as fictionalized versions of themselves as they bring their families under the same roof on a Texas ranch. McConaughey recently announced on Kelly Ripa’s “Let’s Talk Off Camera” podcast that the series is titled “Brother From Another Mother.”
While the series’ title evokes McConaughey and Harrelson’s real-life friendship over decades, McConaughey let it slip to Ripa that he’s actually questioning whether or not Harrelson is actually related to him. It all stems from the revelation that McConaughey’s mother knew Harrelson’s father, perhaps intimately.
“You know, where I start and where he ends, and where he starts and I end, has always been like a murky line,” 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,” McConaughey continued. “And my mom is there, and she says, ‘Woody, I knew your dad.’ Everyone was aware of the ellipses that my mom left after ‘knew.’ It was a loaded K-N-E-W.”
The revelation led McConaughey to investigate his family history. He said, “We went on to unpack what this ‘knew’ meant and did some math and found out that [Harrelson’s] dad was on furlough at the same time that my mom and dad were in their second divorce. Then there’s possible receipts and places out in West Texas where there might have been a gathering, or a meeting, or a ‘knew’ moment.”
Whether or not this real-life question factors into the Apple TV+ comedy series remains to be seen. The actors have not yet decided to take a DNA test to get proof about a potential family connection between them.
“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?” McConaughey 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.”
In the logline for “Brother From Another Mother,” Apple TV+ calls theshow “a heartfelt odd couple love story revolving around the strange and beautiful bond between Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson.”
Skydance Television is behind the series, which is executive produced by Read, as well as Harrelson and McConaughey. Other exec producers include David Ellison, Dana Goldberg and Matt Thunell for Skydance Television, along with Bill Bost and Jeremy Plager.