Where Everybody Knows Your Name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson (sometimes) - Matthew McConaughey

Episode Date: January 7, 2026

We’re deep in the heart of Texas as Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson link up with Matthew McConaughey in his hometown of Austin! Matthew has stories for days: riding with Woody in Vietnam, Woody’s legendary hangs with Matthew’s mom, driving Woody nuts on “True Detective,” meeting his wife in a club, and more. The guys also get into Matthew’s writing, including his New York Times bestseller POEMS & PRAYERS.  Special thanks to Record ATX studios in Austin, Texas. Like watching your podcasts?  Visit http://youtube.com/teamcoco to see full episodes.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You know, I think our listeners are like, these guys have no structure, they got no ideas, they just ramble and that's their job. You know what I mean? You wouldn't have it any other way, would you? Welcome back to where everybody knows your name. This week, Woody and I are so chuffed. That's an English term. chuffed to welcome a true Texas gentleman, Matthew McConaughey.

We had a blast talking to Matthew in his hometown of Austin, and we got into everything from Matthew's books and poetry to his very special friendship with Woody, not as a special as mine, of course. So here he is Matthew McConaughey. Should I say what happened last night? Yeah, we went... I want to hear what happened last night.

A rare thing where Teddy goes. to dinner. You know, he usually's like, I'll meet you guys over there. And then you don't see him. For sure, you don't see him. You do an Irish entrance. Yes. It's a show. It's an Irish entrance. It's a no-show entrance. I work. I have a ball. And then I lie to my friend and say, I'll catch up with you. And I go home to Mary. He's been doing that. Very, very consistent. Yeah. He's been very consistent since 1984 doing that same move. But anyway, last night, he did the rare thing, and he actually went out to dinner.

Had the best time. We interviewed Jesse Eisenberg live. We'd never done it. Last night? We'd never done it. Yeah. Yeah. It was part of a, now you see me, now you don't.

Lionsgate. Was he in town? He was. No, he went back this morning. He went back. Oh, so he was with you last time. He was in and out. But no, no, no, no.

Jesse did a tent. Jesse said, I'll catch up with you. Oh, he did. Okay, he did. And he went straight. Everybody's flip-flopping places. But anyway, we went and we had a great meal over the well. And then just had a lot of fun.

A lot of tequila. And Teddy was in good form. I was. What does good form define good form for Teddy? He's not in the corner crying. He's actually participating. Participating, having conversations. Yeah, laughing.

He usually, he curls up into, you know, like those little doodle bugs curl up into a ball. You can't see their feet, nothing. Yeah, that's what he does. Austin's good for me, man. But you really did. He had a good time. And then afterward, this is what he's looking for this story for, is afterward went to this Moscow bar, which was really fun. And I had about, so I had four drinks at the restaurant, and then four at the Moscow bar. I thought I got my drinking fully under control, but last night, I guess you couldn't call that under control. And then they were like, okay, we're ready to go. You know, my Laura and, you know, my daughter, McConey and whoever else, and I'm like, I think I'll stay, you know.

And they're like, no, no, you got to go. I said, no, I'm going to stay. I'm going to have another drink. I'll be along. I'll be along. No, he caved. Anyway, I caved. Was Laura there?

Laura was. I wasn't there. You could do some of the arm twisting there? Go, no, sir. You're going to come? You'll leave, I mean? It was finally Ilya that insisted you got to go and she kind of got through. You need to put a table of context in the next edition.

You know, I'm like you. Like sometimes you think I know where it was. If you've had a certain amount of alcohol, there's some kind of metamorphosis happens with you. where you become somewhat of a cromag? I mean, is that a bad thing to say? No. Are you talking about me in particular?

Yeah, you? Okay. Right. No, it is a bad thing. So what I'm saying is, yeah, it goes mammal, cromag, primate. Yeah, it goes big. Yeah. You're in the homo erectus category, Dave.

This language is not necessary. Exactly. It's mostly grunts and moans and little things like that. And straight charades. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. AIDS. There's a lot of physicality. And then, you know, so that's where I was at last night.

Oh, you were? Yeah. Getting closer to all fours. I was in MM mode. Yeah. Yeah, I was going, I was the, I wasn't the ascent of man. I was the descent of man. And I'd gone from Homo erectus, and then I was curved more and more toward the floor. I think that's a healthy place to go to from time to time in this bipedal world we're in. Every once in a while, dude. I've been working too hard. I'm not finding that point, but I'm going to, I'm going to, then I'll tell you what. I'll tell the story anyway. We're in Vietnam on a bike ride across the country.

We? We mean, myself, this man here, a friend of ours, Dan Butener, a friend of ours Matthew, who's out there in the lobby and some other good men. And I don't know, what do we ride today? How many miles? 20, 30, 40, 50? Yeah, it's something like that. You know, it was a good, it was a healthy day.

Yeah, right? And we're staying in a little huts and places. along the way of motels and da-da-da-da-da. We get this one place, it was like the big city. But it would mention, meaning it was a town of about 300 people. Yeah. Anyway, staying in a motel and there's everything in a bar downtown, downtown, how many blocks way that is, down the dirt road.

And he goes out to that, and we are all tuckards. We all, the rest of it, go to sleep. And he goes out to that and said, I'm staying a longer, and said, I met some great people. We rolled one there, man. That's a good, Woody. Man, these guys, they're great, man. And so times went on and on, and then so Woody gets out about 4 a.m.

decides it's time to go home, and he gets in the cab with this Vietnamese cab driver. And he don't know where the motel is. And it's pitch black. There's no streetlights, nothing. And he's in there, and he's going, it's down, do you know the, he doesn't even not, it's pronounced the name we're at. If he even remembered what the name was, what the name was, none of the above. And he's going on.

trying to figure this out and the cab driver what's he say in vietnamese or he said it into his phone and he came out of his phone yeah we had gotten into we had gone i knew it was this direction but then we got to the first fork in the road it couldn't go because i don't know whether it's this to the right or the left yeah and finally he's sitting there waiting and with my buddy he's like looking on his phone looking on his phone he can't find the name of the place and finally he he He Google Translate and he turns back. In 15 minutes, he's been sitting at this crossroads, right? Guy turns back and it says,

If you don't know where you live, I can't take you home. That is something about that's a light man. Right there. I'm going to read that more than put it more of the poems in there. If you don't know where you live, I cannot take you home, sir. Yeah, dude. I love this book, man. I love it.

Me too. Poems and prayers. Prays and poins? Poems and prayers. Now, that was a big old chunk of writing. So did you sit down to write this book, or is this accumulation of over time? Over 36 years of poems that's been writing in prayers. I have some of my favorites.

Oh, yeah? Yeah, I really do. Well, Birmingham, I love this. Read enough to work, blue enough to dream, like Southern royalty, without the queen. You ever been to Birmingham? No, but I'm married to Little Rock, you know, Mary. So this rings, you know.

I love that. I found Birmingham when I filmed I did Rivals of Vamsai, and I did not know that that place existed in the state of Alabama. And it did. And we fell in love with it, and I met a lot of great people there. A lot of good music. A lot of great music. Muscle Shoals right up north of there.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of good music. Yeah. Yeah, they had some trouble back in the day. I think, you know, that's all people think about, you know, who haven't been there. Well, little rock, too.

It was the same. Well, yeah, yeah, yeah. But now I guess it's turned into quite a place. I've never been there myself. It's on the way forward. I think it's fair to say it's on the way forward. On the way forward. Let me do another one.

This is not just me proving to you that I read your book, but it helps. Did this, you wrote something that actually made me think of this, so sorry. but a lot of your writing this is some this is roomy i remember roomy that he has a great phrase beyond all right and wrong yeah there's a field i will meet you there and a lot of your not a lot but i saw that kind of running through a lot of what you were saying about i yeah i think i'm inclined to talk about that space and at least pursue that space yeah beyond logic right and wrong and into that place which is more value base which is more spiritual which is an open field that does not have our border or fences or judgments because it's not needed here we need it and are we equipped

to define as as mankind right and wrong good for me sometimes we're having we're having a tough time doing that we've always had a tough time to do that and we will continue to have a time to tough time to do that so I'm trying to sell to myself and others a higher ground that's above politics that's above the right and wrong that we sit there and we we see as contradiction so often in that place where it's the paradox i believe that's where the truth lives i call it anarchy anarchy yeah i'm saying it's beyond uh politics but beyond right but it has form huh but it has formed does anarchy have form anarchy has form what's the form of anarchy it's a form of uh saying uh we don't need your government

dude i'm just spitballing here i'm spitballing hey uh but i do you know i gotta say you know i i would hear these poems over the years different poems and different you know he'd send me he'd just come up with it you know uh before breakfast he'd send me a thing and it just and it and he's just riffing and it is incredible right and i'm thinking then i hear him say oh you know i'm doing book, poems and prayers. And I'm thinking, he's going to now make a book of all these things. He's just been, I thought these were just, and then he releases the book, number one book, goes to number one, just like his last one. And at the same time, he comes out with a movie, lost book, number one movie in the world that more people are seeing than any other movie. And

I'm thinking, when is it, who's, has that ever happened to anybody? Like, number one book, number one movie at the same time. What do you think? Pretty cool. Pretty cool. I'll tell you what was cool. And I heard this hadn't happened since the Douglas family in Lost Bus. I'm in two scenes with my mom and my son.

Wow. Three generations of behind us. That was really cool. What did they do that had all three a minute? She played my mother. No, no, not you. I'm saying, what did the dog? I don't know what it was. I don't know. That's what I was told. I didn't go look it up.

That's pretty cool. Forgive me, but tell me about Lost Bus. Tell me about it. I haven't seen it. Forgive me. Well, it's worth seeing. Based on 2018, the fires in Paradise, California. 86 people, I think, deceased from the fire. So it was the worst, deadliest wildfire in California history. And amongst many of the heroic stories on that day, Jamie Lee Curtis heard one on NPR and pulled over and said, this is a story worth telling. It's a story about this guy who had come back home because his dad had died,

in our version of the story, his dad had died. And he had a son that he was estranged from from an ex-wife, and he was taking care of his widowed mom, took a job as a part-time bus driver. this one morning picked up kids took them to school like any other day

a fire was crossing the canyon they happened all the time no alarm everybody you know it won't jump the canyon etc etc anyway that everything will be okay

turned into an mandatory evacuation real quick and this guy you turns the bus to go home and get his mom who can't drive and his son who's too young to drive and on the way he gets a call from dispatch

bus dispatch I got 23 stranded kids on the east side of town. Does anybody on the east side of town have an empty bus? Well, guess who's got an empty bus? This guy, Kevin McKay. So he's got to make that decision. Oh. And he makes the decision to go get the kids.

When he picks up the 23 kids, there's a teacher there, Mary Ludwig, played by America Ferreira, who gets on the bus with him, and they head out. It's supposed to be a quick 10-minute drop-off to their parents at another location, and then they'll be on their way. Well, that drop-off was already burning, and there was no one there.

So this is a story about the next eight hours of them trying to get out of this. That's the story we chose to tell. And his mother and son? Watch the movie. I won't tell the end. Okay, all right, all right. But his mother and son in the movie played my mother. My mother and my son actually played my mom and my son.

Cool thing. I want to hear y'all's opinion on this. Levi, my son, I didn't know he was interested in being in front of the camera. But as I do, you come home. What kind of work you doing, Dad? You kind of pitch it to people. And it's kind of good for our craft to pitch it in an elevator, right? Or to a child or to a grandmother, different ages.

You kind of kind of kind of tell it different ways, right? And I got to the part in the pitch about there being, this character mind having a son. And Levi goes, how old is he? I said he's about your age, 15. He goes, can I read for it? I gave him the cold show. He comes to me the next day. Can I read for it?

Four more times. He bugs me, pest me. He says, all right, you can read for it. Let's pick out a scene. He goes, I got a scene ready. I'm ready. I said, okay. Pull out the camera.

Boom. put him on camera on my, you know, mobile device. A kid can hold a frame. I threw him a few things that weren't scripted. He was able to respond honestly. It was like, all right, those are the basic goods that you need for this job. He did pretty good. We did two takes.

I sent it to the casting director with the note saying, and I think this might be good enough for a callback. She writes back 10 minutes later, I think it's good enough to send to Paul Greengrass, the director. I'm like, oh, okay. And it hit me. I was like, oh, well, if you do that, can you remove his last name? Yeah, yeah, smart.

that's what Camille and I thought right then she did he got the part and then she said that's Matthew's son and Paul Greengrass goes even better but that thought I think you know it's a fun subject for us to talk about I mean you know if he got the job on with the last name maybe he gets it on the same work he would have got the job on his merit because he got it anyway but would he have had an inkling in the back of his mind oh did my last name because it connected my dad helped me get that job and would that have always been the back of his mind if someone else said it which if he gets into the business people got to say that anyway sure would he have had that and you know kind of goes back camilla wanted to if we had a son wanted to name him

matthew and i didn't want it to be matthew because i didn't want to go out junior and i didn't want that to happen right in through his career but i'm glad we did it you know on that on that day and pulled his last name and then he he got the part so he knows he got it did he really good doing that, keeping his last name off? No, I didn't tell him. The director told him the story. That's great. Paul, when he called him. Yeah. Yeah. He's really good, really good,

and unnaturally handsome. So, yeah, you guys differ from each other in that one regard. You okay, buddy? Best legs in the business right there. You seen him in a pair of shorts? Coming from the best horse, though, man. That means a lot to me. This guy's got some legs on him, doesn't it? He's got some motorcycle wounds that we're not seeing because... I thought that was Padale wounds.

You know, it's in the neighborhood. Did you hear about this one? No. How does he do it? Don't talk about this, Goddeme. There was one rock. No. The parking lot was two acres.

Perfectly smooth cement. And in the middle was a two foot by two foot rock. I just went right to it. Because you were... Because... No. No, I wasn't high. I know, hey, because, you know, why do you want to just ride a motorcycle rubber

tires on smooth pavement? I love anarchy. He says, go for the rock. Go for the ride. Second time, second time, we've been shooting our series brothers. Second time he's come in with facial wounds that in posty are going to have quite a bit of CGI. Try to ride out here, annoying to hear.

I must say he healed, but he does. You want to put any of that teacher. No, he eats well. By the end of the, before the first week was out, these were gone. And we just had to cover with the little makeup, though. No problem, because they were red. Yeah. Yeah.

Can you see them or no? No, you're perfect. You came around. Okay, good, good, good. Hey, what's, what's, you mind me asking, you can tell me none of your f-in business, but you mind me asking how old you are, Ted? 78 in December. So, sorry.

All right. Y'all got video. You're on video. Doesn't they look great? I do. That's what I'm saying. Look at this. Talk to us. What is the secret? Actually, when we just met that Woody's birthday party, Bolin, can you share some secrets? And I know it's got to have to be more than just you take cold showers. No, no, no. It's, you need to have a pretty shallow cut on life. Mary and I talk about hair products. We keep it shallow. Okay. Keep it shallow. So just keep it. What's great advice. Here's the big one, mirror time. You need to spend at least two, three hours a day just looking in the mirror.

Because you don't age, you'll notice. If you look at yourself in the mirror, you don't go, oh, I'm getting older. No matter how, even at the end of that third hour, you don't catch one more little wrinkle coming in. No, no, no. That's why I don't sleep much. No, but. Okay. Hell.

Thank you, bud. No, but, but, but. Thank you. Appreciate it. No, but I mean from a, I can also your guy, I can see from a hundred yards away walking and just, well, you carry yourself, not even see you up close and go, that's a healthy, good-looking dude right there inside and out. By the way, you carry yourself.

So I'm saying it's more than just topical serums, which I'm big on those too. But, I mean, it's got to have something to do with diet, the company you keep, the lack of stress, give me, or am I hitting any buttons here? Let me, yeah, all of them. Let me ask you, have you ever heard our podcast? Because it's a running joke that people know to compliment me somehow, anything early on, because it puts me at ease. You'll find that the rest of this hour is going to go really well.

It's going to go great. Because I'm now super relaxed. Oh, yeah, you seem so stressed before I brought that up. Yeah, I noticed. The stress he was under before you. If he don't get six compliments by midday, something's not going right here. I get wrinkles. No, no, no, I tapped it like, no.

Oh, I thought you meant yes more. Oh, all right. I've never done this, by the way. It'll evaporate. You just like looking in the mirror. At least you'll always be there for you. Morepours. Hey, so I want to ask you question about something that you've been asked a million times,

but I feel like it's just one of those mandatory things. It's got to be on this podcast. The dimples? Yeah, the dimples. Yeah, the dimples. Where the fuck you get those numbers? Come on. Come on.

That's from mom. That wasn't where I was, I want to ask. Him and my mom act, have a major crush on each other. Before we get started, do you know, my mother and Mom Mike have been kicked out of two bars for smoking marriage you want, as my dad would call it, for smoking joints together, setting off fire alarm in one. The other one was just like, that's illegal, what the hell y'all doing, get out here, and they ran. We ran. That's right. He and my mom.

the first time, too. Yeah. And you got away both times, didn't you? That big fire alarm. Both times we got out of trouble. Oh, it gets talking about I'm staying when he and my mom get together. Wow. Were you there or were you?

She's fun, man. I was in the other, I was in another room having a beer at the bar or something like that. Do you smoke ever, but just not now? No, no, you don't want him smoke. Uh-uh. Oh. The primate. He had a little puff last night.

Did you? No, I go, that new stuff. I faked a puff. Faked a puff. The new stuff does not agree with my constitution and my mental makeup. It goes the other way. Time speeds up for me. I've chipped front two three times falling out of a tree on a full moon.

Wow. Smok some of that stuff, Woody has. Mary and I didn't smoke for the longest time. Three of a trees, three dints, all fun moons. This is what I do on dope. Mary wasn't smoking and so when we met so I'm not going to smoke either

and we didn't smoke for like two or three years and then we went out with friends we were at two bunch of ponds you know the hot springs and everything and we went oh fuck let's smoke and Mary's going we had so much fun together this is going to be amazing

I smoked and she said she turned around and the whole night I went underwater held my breath come up, take a breath, and go back down. That was my entire stoned experience with my wire. You were submarine that.

I was, yeah. That's the secret you didn't say about looking so young, staying too young. Don't do cold water, do hot water. Shallow. Oh, we've been doing cold. Shallow, yeah. Don't seek that stuff to chest is, yeah. Me and Matthew got into a competition on the cold plunge.

And it started out like real gentle, like three minutes, and then he'd do four. minutes and I'd do five minutes and then he'd do seven minutes and then you know and it kept going up and up and then at one point I did 13 minutes I'm like I got him now the very same day that night unbeknownst to me when I went in to tell him I did 13 minutes he goes I did 17 17 do you guys still do it it's my it's it's my deal oh really because he sent one back the next day where he did 24 minutes. 23. So are you every day?

Yeah, 23. No, I won't do it every day. I mean, if I can, I'm trying to get 50 minutes a week, but I don't do it religiously. Wow. I think it's one of the great things. I'm sure I know. The Wimhoff method, the

Wimhoff is just, that guy has figured something out that now think about it. Like, this guy came along, and now every sports team, you know, he's a crazy guy who just, when he was like 11 years old he's in the netherlands in the winter he's like i'm going in that pond yeah and he went in to the pond in the night for a full minute and it was like freezing you know and now every

sports team every yeah you know madonna every every uh you know musician they all do the our age the big wave surfer are macamara oh yeah he does it layer layer layer those guys that's where i learned those those oh yeah Can I get back to the question? I was about, God, you guys are tough, man. But quickly, why one sock, no. That's a great question. I just want to leave that untouched.

Oh, is that a foot that's injured? Do you need a little more, the one if the sores, get a little more air? Give it air, yeah. Do you want us to rub it? No. You want to have to blow on it? Me to lick it? Blown on it might help.

No, I don't want anyone touching or blowing on it. Or licking. Or licking. Speaking of rub, you got your own rub, your own, the meat, you rub your meat with that rub. What do you do? Got my own meat rub. I'm sorry. It's called the one.

It is. It's a meat rub. Okay. It's called the one. And actually, as a vegan, I love it. It's all, it's vegan. Oh, wait, this is on the market kind of thing? No, no, no.

It's out of my own kitchen only so far. So are you pepper hot, hot, hot? No, no. So this isn't bad. It's not a spicy thing. It's just makes every meat taste. Oh, it is delicious. He's derailing a really interesting conversation.

Yeah, I want to get back to the question. Oh, no. Oh, I'm derailing. The question. No, go, then I'll go. You know, I think our listeners are like, these guys have no structure, they got no ideas, they just ramble and that's their job.

You know what I mean? You wouldn't have it any other way, would you? I wouldn't have it any other way. All right, so you used your shot at going to some point. Okay, so the question was, I got to get to, back to Wooderson because this is one of the great origin stories ever you know and so I just want you to tell me like I know you were in a bar you were going to UT I'm at UT and then someone said that guy down there cast Sean Penn and fast time so I'm at UT I mean between my junior and senior

year I've been in film school for one year uh I go to this Top of the Hyatt because the guy was a bartending at the night was in my film class and he'd give me a free vodka and tonic. So I go in there and he comes up and he says there's a guy at the end of the bar who's in town

producing a film. And I went over there introduced myself. Three and a half hours later we get kicked out because we had played this we got in talking about golf. We weren't talking about acting or nothing like that.

And nothing about Hollywood. We got to talk about golf. We'd played a similar course. And Don, if you ever knew, the great Don Phillips, who did cast Fast Times at Ridge, my high. Melvin and Howard, he produced as well with Art Linson, worked with him for a while. And then he cast, he was casting days confused. I didn't know this at the time.

But all I knew was he was at Prus. He's on the top of some table going, yeah, and then I was over here and I hit this three iron and like this and ah, it was just beautiful, knocked it up there, six feet, blah, blah, blah. We get kicked out. on the cab ride home he's riding with me i'm going back to my apartment he's like hey you ever done any acting i said yeah i was in a middle-lake commercial for about that long i don't know if you'd consider that acting maybe it's more of a modeling job he's like well well you you might be right for this part in the script it's this guy named david wooderson he's like your age 21 22 he's

out of high school but he still likes the high school girls all right come to this address tomorrow more than 930 a m i'll have the script waiting for you and this is now three 3.30 in the morning, all right? Drops me off, say good night. I get up, whatever, four and a half hours later, go down there, and damn it, there's this script with two pages, earmark, and that I have handwritten note, hey, Matthew, great night last night that I read this part you might be right for. I read the part. There's Wooderson, and one of the scenes was him sitting outside of the billiards pool hall talking to his buddies, and these girls walk by and leans over and checks out their backside, and his buddy says,

You've got to cut that out, man. You're going to go to jail, man. And Wooderson says, no, man, that's what I love about them high school girls, man. I get older, but they stay the same age. That line. And that's the scene that was an audition for. That was about the extent of your part, too. There wasn't much more.

I think there were three, three lines. Yeah, yeah. Two scenes, three lines, I think. Anyway, but when you get a line like that, it's what I call a launch pad line. Who is that fucking guy? And I remember going, who is that guy? If that's not an attitude, if he didn't say that line for everyone to laugh, if he's like, no, that's my M.O.

That's how I see the world, man. That's my philosophy. I've got it. You can write a book on that person, right? You know what that person's eating. You know what kind of car they drive. You know what they do, what they don't do anyway. So I'm trying to figure out who the guy is.

I got two weeks before the audition. and what it hit me was I remember when I was 10 years old going with my mom to go pick up my brother Pat at school. His car, something was wrong with it. It was in the shop. He was 17 in high school, so he drove. But we, this day, we were supposed to pick him up because his car was in the shop. And we're driving through the campus. And I'm looking out the back end of that wood panel station wag.

I'm looking for Pat. He says, where is he? Where is he? And I'm like, I don't know where he is. And as we go on by, about 200 yards away, I see this shadowed figure leaning against the shady wall in this smoking section. I can see the ember of this lazy finger cigarette hanging on these two hands. This guy's leaning against a wall with this left leg boot heel up against the wall. Smoking.

And I went, it's my brother. I went, there's a. And I stopped because I knew if I said, there's Pat. Mom saw I'm smoking. He's going to get trouble. So she goes, what? I go, nothing, nothing, nothing. And we drove on, never picked up path that day.

He got home. She was like, where are you? He made up some excuse. Anyway, in my 10-year-old eyes, to my 17-year-old brother, who was my hero, in that shot from 200 yards away, he was cooler than James Dean. And he was nine feet tall. He was the coolest, man. Yeah. Now, that's who I based Wooderson on.

That wasn't who my brother was, but in my 10-year-old eyes, that's who it was. That image. And so went in, read for it, got the part. I remember Rick Linklater going, this isn't you. You said, no, but I know who I know who this guy is. And laid back and shoulder back in Redforderson got the part. The first night I go to set, we did a wardrobe hair makeup test over by the top notch. I was not supposed to work that night.

It was just to come in test. Y'all know how that that goes. And I come out in my peach pants and hair and everything and, you know, link letter, the director comes off set to look at me, walks around me. He's like, yeah, Wooderson, all right, man, I see the peach bed, Nugent, yeah. Is that a pipe? Is that a black panther tattoo? Oh, the comb over cool.

And I go, all right. And I said, all right, man, I'll see you next week. He goes, hang on a second. He goes, I got this girl in the scene that she's the red-headed intellectual, played by Marissa Ribisi. She's kind of pulling up. It's last day of school. She's with all her friends. They're kind of nerdy.

You think Wooderson would maybe pick her up? I was like, yeah, man, Wuderson likes all kinds of shit. Next thing I know, I'm getting a lavalier mic put on me. And I'm sitting in my car going, this is the first scene and nothing is written. All I know is I'm going to pull over. up and go try to pick her up. And I'm getting a little anxious, right? But I'm telling myself, I'm asking myself, who's my man? Who's Wooderson? What do I love? And I'm like, all right, all right, I love my car. Here we go. Boom. I'm in my 70 Chevel. There's one.

I said, I love rock and roll. I said, damn man, I got Nugent Stranglehold jamming in the eight track right now. There's two. I said, I love to get high. I said, well, look, Slater's riding shotgun. He's always got a dobie rolled up. All of a sudden, you're action. And as I look up, I look across, and there's that red-headed intellectual played by Marissa Ribisi. I put it in drive. And in my mind, I said, I got three out of the things that I love in my life. And I'm going to get the fourth. Put it, drive, pull out to affirm those three that I have.

All right, all right, all right. That's the three affirmations of the three things I had going to get the fourth. And we pulled up, improvised that scene. A bunch of people laugh. I felt kind of good to me. And Rick said, great. And he kept inviting me back to the set, to be in scenes that I was not written in. And it started to fill a storyhold.

But I just do one little footnote. Yeah. He was off screen when he said those words, all right, all right, right, right. Yeah, how did that become? Part of the lexicon. Because it's a shot from on top of the next building. You just see the car pull up and you hear, all right, all right, all right. And then you come down and introduce what you're pulling up.

And they were off-screen. First three words I ever said on screen. Which has become iconic. That's pretty cool. That's when people go, you get tired of hearing that. I'm like, hell no, man. That's the first three words I said in a scene that I was not written into that I didn't know on that night would this be this one night I worked on a film set in 1992.

Oh, remember that fun time back in 92, that little hobby? And it turned out to be a career. So I'm like, say it any time. Back up a second. And how did you have the confidence, the balls, the whatever? I mean, listen to you describe your process in that moment, having never acted before, is full of so confident. So where did that, where did you get that growing up?

But before you do that, pull the front of your shirt down, just pull like, take a pull. Yeah, yeah. So I was trying to take you down a notch, isn't it? You could undo that, but, come on. I need to relax. Greatest torso, greatest torso. in the industry. All right, go ahead.

How did I have it? Yeah. Parents? Well, I mean, I mean, I guess I've always been, I've had a pretty good batting average when it came to, bam, you're on, you're on, go. And it's fight or flight, so let's go. Let's swing big.

I did, where I had it, where I understood at that time, which now that I know so much more 36 years, is a great instinct to have. You affirm what does your man have that he loves? What do you have that you want and what do you need that you don't have? That's basic, you know, what do you need? What's the obstacle? What's the event?

So I knew who my guy who Wooderson was through that image, that fuzzy image of my brother. But how did you know to look for that? That's what I mean. Not everybody, you know, comes to that, those choices or thoughts without some sort of something that was well said i mean look let me say this what was what was richard link letter's direction at that time some of the best direction that we can ever get he gave each character each actor a cassette with music that he goes this is what i think your character

might be listened to have a listen you can like some of maybe you liked it maybe don't so you're not being told what to do but you're put in a world and i've got this cassette with some great Dylan and some Nugent, some Zeppelin on it, Larry Smith, and I'm just going, all right, this is Saturday night stuff, man. Let's get the shoulders. All of a sudden, the shoulders go back. All of a sudden, you know, you're not walking head first. No, you're walking cock first.

You know what I mean? All of a sudden, all of a sudden, how you stand, how you move, what's the, you know. That's so cool. And a guy who's going not trespass in anybody's face, man, on the back side of every wave and that's kind of why when i look around this what my loved about my brother that's what i thought he was cool he was always just like didn't intrude man and those people that don't intrude like they kind of attracted to them because you're like they just kind of draw you to them because they're not trying to sell you anything they're not trying to convert you to anything they're

and i always loved love since then finding a character that what is it about a character that you can go that person's not trying to solicit that they are who they are they are they try to trust that. There's a place where they will be. There's places where they should not be. I even have learned this since then. When I re-watched that film, at the end of the film, this is the end of three weeks work now. Wooderson says, all right, gang, they're going to get Aerosmith tickets. All right, gang, let's load up. I'm going to get Melba Toasty. I mean, Wurston gets in his car. Well, the scene went on a while, and I got out of the car and went back to the scene and growing the group. Wooderson would have never done that. I shouldn't have gone

back. Wooderson never two-stepped. And I went back into the scenes where I learned, oh, it's just as important where you are not as where you are. That's great. And I'm sitting there innocently going, I got more possible screen time, man, I'm having a great time. Three weeks work. I want to keep, let me go get myself back in the scene. And I was a little hasty. Looking back, I was like, uh-uh, that was false. Wooderson would have never gone one place, then returned. Well, hold on, dude, hold on. One very important thing to throw on top of that. which is actors want to be where the camera is pointing. And you notice, like, every actor in every scene and every movie, every show, as they're

walking out, the camera's behind them. They always turn back. They always turn back, take a look, whatever, maybe say something. Yeah, okay. But then there's also good examples of, and you saw, I saw, you know, Chalamay do it with the Dillon, with the Dillon role. he never looked in the camera. He was always shading himself off the edges just to the shadows.

And you're drawn to that. So there's certain things, you know. Unless it's too self-conscious. He's a hell of an actor. I don't mean he was. I just mean... No, we've also seen, and I've done it, over choreographed bullshit. In a role, you're like, you got all these little parts working.

Made all these great choices, but just like maybe cut half of them. And just to have it listen and just be the person, you know what I mean? Cheers was great for learning, like, you could have a small part and not a lot of jokes. But if you were standing next to the joke in a two-shot, you got as much credit as the person, you know, it didn't matter. Just, you know. And the old John Cleese, that group, the third man, the straight man. Yeah. On the outside joke, if you cut the gut, that's the audience laugh.

That's the audience's position. The response to the joke is really where the laugh comes from a lot of times. If it's a good joke, because cheers would be, we were always live because you can count how many cheers stories I tell them, cut me off at about three, okay? I don't, I love it. It's like, all right, all right, right, I love it. You want to talk about cheers, sure. Okay, so big proscenium arch kind of set, you know, the whole, it was a huge set.

Okay, so, no, kidding, kidding, kidding. Okay, so you had to stay live, and everyone was acting and whatever, even if the camera was over here shooting a scene. But if you had a joke that was good, people would be, you'd notice that your fellow mates were crossing right behind you in that shot. They were in that shot. If you had a clunker, which you would know throughout the week, it was like, you know, tumbleweeds.

It's like, where the fuck? Everyone is ducked down to get a glass. Yeah. You got a good check, everybody's your buddy. Have you done theater? I have not. I have not. Any desire, or do you just go, no?

I'm getting a taste of it now. I've been doing this road tour with the book. And I took the book and said to go to a bookstore, sign book tour. I went and got some running out theaters and invite. I come out with a 22-minute sermon, and then I invite a musical guest up, and they play a company like a 12-poen playlist. And that's this really first time I've been on stage. You must love it, though, because you do tell good stories.

I do love it. I do love it. I do love it. I'm going to do some more of it. Yeah. That's cool. He's got some pretty cool, freaking musical accompaniment. Like, great.

This wasn't a poem, sorry. I just jotted a few things down. Oh, yeah. You're prepared for the day so you can saunter through instead of racing through. And I love that you said saunter, because you do saunter better than anyone I have ever met or seen. Saunter. Sonder. Yeah.

throw it back at you. That's part of the... When you prepare and dive deep, the doing, the playing is waiting through the shallows as you were bringing up earlier. It's much shallower water that you sauntered through. If you prepare for the ocean, you're out there just skipping rocks on the puddle. You're one of the great preparers, dude. You are prepared.

You are like militantly prepared. Like, and it's great. And then everyone's like, you're so cool. Like you say in the book, you know. You're so cool, you're so chill. Well, he is because he's so fucking prepared. So on top of it. You've always been that way.

I'd try to be. Well, remember when we did True Detective, I used to go into it because he had the timeline. I mean, it was way too confusing for this little brain. And he had the timeline in his airstream all the way stretched out across. And before the scene, I'd go in and I'd look, oh, okay. Oh, here we are. Oh, and that just happened. Okay, let's go.

And that was like a musical meter. Because especially we were doing a big, a long series, you know, it's good to know when you're going to scene where we just come from and where are we going to. Where do we fit? What just happened? So it kind of know where I had. Did you have the whole script at your disposal before you started? It was the whole thing written.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think we had all that. I bet it was. It was too thoughtful. I did, I think we did. Or at least a few or a few episodes of, well, I don't know. the time we started we had two before we even signed on or you signed on first you both were so good in that really good i missed that show man i missed that show my favorite even though we're in it

i'm have no problem saying that was my favorite thing on that you ever did on tv favorite my favorite thing to watch tv you mean the only thing you ever did on tv before now was your favorite thing you ever did on i'm saying the enjoyment i got from watching and i didn't watch it like I had everything. I didn't watch it. I watched it like everyone else. On Sunday night, it was the first time I saw it with Camilla. Bottle wine, food, 8 o'clock, whatever it was, HPL, we're sitting down undivided watching.

So, and I didn't remember where the series, where the episode breaks were. So I was like everyone else going, oh, what's going to happen next? So I, whatever it was, 10 part, eight part, I watched it once a week like everyone else. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you know, he's method. You know that? What does that mean? Well, okay, but whatever, dude, you know what, you know what I'm talking about.

He fucking doesn't like to be pinned down. Like, he's Russ Cole. When we were shooting that, he was Russ Cole. Yeah. There's so many times I want to punch this motherfucker in the face. I'm so pissed at him. So he's in his character, you know. He goes, we're sitting there.

We're about to start shooting. We were rehearsing it, and I'm just going to be in stowa, Russ Coal and everything. And he goes, like, hey, man, I didn't talk to you about something, man. And he goes, the way you and I work, kind of, hey, I hit you the ball. You hit it back. I hit it back to you. We hit it back to each other. We play.

Bye-bye. I give you. You give me back, man, that's us. And it's dramatic and also some comedy. But this thing, what you're doing now, man, I'm hitting you the ball. And you're just standing there at the baseline. And the ball bounces back, hits the backstop, and comes to arrest. And you're just staring at me still.

And it's fucking not funny. And I hate it. And I go, I got a hunch. That might end up being. funny and I think it did end up being funny that's right it did it did by the way I forgot about that I'm glad to hear that story oh you're just staring there and let the ball goes past you hits the back and it just comes to arrest you just still just staring at me dead pain I'm like what the fuck man hit the ball back and I remember saying to you before we started filming I'm like dude you know

people are going to expect to laugh with us you know got to throw some jokes in here and I'm And he's just like, mm-hmm, yeah, he went and he, and I'm like, I'm waiting for him to say, yeah, you're totally right. No, no, that. He just, mm-hmm, yeah, mm-hmm. And I'm like, oh, this motherfucker, you know, and he was totally right. He did say that. You said that then. You said, I think there might be humor in just the situation, you know, and I'm like, no, but we need some jokes, too.

You've got to get Nick to write us some jokes. Marty's frustration and Marty going, you know what, why don't you just shut the fuck up and never talk like that again, Russ? And he's fucking busy. That's kind of the audience's frustration. Like, what is he talking about? And you're going, you know what?

Fuck you. And it's like, yeah, fuck him, right? What's he talking about? And then I'm just over there looking out the window. Deadpan. It's like, what the fuck, dude. What's the problem? And that's what the audience is.

I thought it was, and I laughed hard for watching that series. Yeah, and the world is a. Yeah, yeah, take your flat circle bullshit. Flat circle, that's what... Yeah, yeah. It was fun. But now, you know, so now I want to talk about the... What are you working on now?

I'm working on an Apple series with you called Brothers. I think it's fair to call it comedy, family, comedy. This is based off of our friendship. And, you know, as you know, Ted and anyone close to us knows, it's kind of like, when Woody and I do get going? Like, he's talking about hitting those balls back and forth. It's like, where do I start and where do I end? And where does he start? Where does he end?

That's muddy waters, man. You're not sure. It's just kind of coming together and we're on a similar frequency and we're doing our thing, and it can go on and on and on and on. Our kids have always thought we were brothers or at least acted like brothers. I call me, his kids call me Uncle Matthew, my kids call him Uncle Woody. You know, it's always been in jest. And about eight years ago, we're in Greece, both our families and my mom's there with us as well. And, you know, I think your kids had pulled out some sort of picture from high school.

That was me, and everyone looked at it and thought it was him. And my kid's like, oh, man, that's, that's, that's like a Woody. I thought that, and then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, my mom, probably her third glass of Kendall Jackson goes, oh, Woody, I knew your father. And it was a perfect pause, elipsis, as you like to put it, that even my young kids got the innuendo. Oh, that's great.

And I think I got a, what was, what was the living here? Like, five? Even he got it. Like, that was a lot, I know what that, I know what that pause means. That means, you're telling me that you and, you and Woody's dad were, you know, doing tube snake boogies. You know what I mean? And all of a sudden the kids go, push, into action mode, pulling out scrapbooks,

we're bringing out things. And mom just is hanging on that and Woody's up going, way, way, way, way, way, wait, what, what, what? And mom actually's like, just saying, just saying. And from that night on, this mystery is started. And our kids have pulled up facts that could make this more possible. Like, my mom and dad were divorced twice and married each other three times. During one of the second divorce my mom and dad,

there was a time when it would have been possible for them to physically meet. And physically procreate. Yes, Texas. So all of a sudden, people were on it. families on it and you know, it hit me a year ago because Woody's been so excited

about this being true, love you for that. And he was like, why aren't you more excited, Matthew? And I was like, well, dude, it's easy for you, man. You gain a brother.

You're asking me to like, lose a father. That's why. So we said, let's build a series off of that. And that's what we're shooting now. Yeah, that's great. Yeah.

Yeah. But there was definitely some good, hard fucking going on. Anyway, let me go back to Mamak. Mamak and your father got divorced twice, three times. Divorced twice, married three times. And he said, he predicted, he says, I will die making love to Kay. I read that. Yeah.

And which he did die having sex. And so I just want to know what kind of crazy shit was Ma'amak getting up to in the... That's a great question. Maybe not for you to ask. Mamak, let us know because we always said we thought nothing could kill Dad. Me, Rooster, and Pat, we said nothing to kill that. And we found out one thing could, you. she was up to you, man.

And he woke up frisky, he would tell us, he would say, boys, when I go, I'm going to be making love to your mother. He said they called that shot for decades. Wow. And this Monday morning, after he'd play golf that weekend, he woke up 6 a.m. Four work, a little frisky. Heart privy later.

How old were you? I was 21. Check this out. That film, Days Confused, which I've always seen some beautiful, there's some grace in this to me. I was five days into shooting that. My first acting job, my first film.

Why do I say there's grace in that? Because everything in my life prior, I remember this vividly, talking my dad into getting me the skateboard knee pads and the skateboard elbow pads and him going, man, yeah, I ain't going to pay for some hobby. You're not going to follow through with that. And I was like, yes, I will.

Like, you know, he only wanted to buy some things for me. We didn't have a whole lot of money. He only got something for me that I was going to follow through on. on it and I talked him into it. Like I'm going to, all summer, every day, I'm going to train to be a great skateboard. I didn't. So everything I had sold to him that I wanted to do, I never finished or followed through

or made a life out of it. He's alive five days into me shooting days confused. I don't know if that's going to be a hobby. That's going to be one week, like I said, one week in my life that I'm like, oh, that was fun. but he was alive for me to start something that became a career. That's great. He saw that. What did he think about?

Did he make any comment on it? But did he make any comment on you doing this part? No, it wasn't a part. I mean, he made, look, the year prior, when I called him and didn't want to go to law, told him I didn't want to go to law school and I wanted to go to film school, that was one of the more nerve-wracking things I've ever had to do in my life because I really thought he was going to go, you want to do what? You can do that shit on the weekend. That's too avant-garde. That sounds like a European hobby, boy. You got to get a real job, nine to five, you know what I

mean? And when I told him, I said, I don't want to go to Los. I want to go to film school. I remember there's long pause on the phone and that same beat of sweat. And I've told you back, went down the back of my neck, waiting for him to go. Because he was paying for my school. Yeah. And the long pause. And he goes, was that what you want to do? I said, yes, sir. And he goes, well, don't have acid. And he just gave me rocket fuel by saying that. And I did not expect that to be what he was going to say, you know. So it was a year before that he gave me more than permission to go do that

with the privilege and the responsibility and the hoods ball to go do it. And then a year later, I'm actually have a real, I'm actually working, doing it. People are inviting me back. I'm getting $320 a day for it. it. I think he knew that happening going, okay, so it's connected to him saying don't have asset. If he, if he didn't support you to go to UT, you never would end up being at that bar, you never would end up meeting a guy. I mean, let me tell you how I ended up going to UT. Because again, at life, right, mystery going forward, science looking back, you know, we can always

connect all the dots to how we got here, right? And then that time it didn't make sense. I'm in Australia as an exchange student. I call him, I got into SMU. I got into SMU, I was at Grambling, and Texas. Didn't get into Duke, didn't get into Vanderbilt. So I'm going to go to SMU because I'm going to go to law school. Dallas is a big metropolitan city. In the summers, I'll get an internship at a law firm, so right when I get out of school, I can already have be hired.

I'm already thinking ahead about that, right? Dallas, the metropolitan city in Texas, that's what I'll do. I call him, so I want to go to SMU. My dad always talked in, like, sports terms. He'd be like, well, you, what about them longhorns? Texas Longhers. I was like, no, I want to be a Mustang, Dad, SMU Mustangs. He's like, ah, donkey, sure, bud?

And I guess, sir, that's what I want to do. He's like, all right, okay, well, that's what you can do. Five minutes later, phone rings. My brother, Pat, the hero, and Smokos said, call me. He goes, hey, bud. Dad just told me you want to go to SMU. I said, yeah, he goes, all right. He ain't got to tell you this, but the oil business is tough.

stuff shit right now, man. I mean, people are, he trying to keep him going bankrupt. SMU's going to cost him $18,000 because it's a private school. And Texas costs him, cost him five. You'd be doing that a real solid if you went to Austin. I'm like, man, I don't know. He goes, have you ever been to Austin? He said, no, he goes, man, it's your kind of town.

He goes, you could walk in there and your flip-flops, no shirt, and a pair of shorts. You can walk in a damn bar, sit down, order a drink. You're going to have a sheriff to the left of you, Native American ending to the right, a blue-headed lesbian on the other side of the sheriff and a dwarf on the other side of that Native America. He goes, and everyone's getting, you're going to love it. And I was like, you think. And he goes, yes, dude, promise you.

Pat's always been my good luck charm. And so then I called Dad back. I said, Dad, I decided I want to be a long run. He said, oh, God bless you, son. Hey, how pretty cool of your brother to see your father get it and be able to pass it out of you? That's a good man. He's a cool guy. What happened when we saw him last?

He had just been, he'd just stood a little car wreck with Levi in the car. It was something funny, man. I forget. Levi is his. He's got a little bit of that I'll hit that rock in the middle of that two-acre parking lot. Something that was a streak of bad luck. Pat, Pat's had some funny, funny bad luck of the ball bouncing in odd ways. That you go.

Oh, gosh. Oh, this time, he gets on the, uh, it's me, he works for, he's working for my older brother in the pipe business. And he's got a, this is, I don't know, 20 years ago. So it was a, it was a cell, call service. You had a, you had a, what do you call it, a secretary who's mobile, like in probably in Utah or India somewhere. You call in, hey, this is 816, and they check your account for all the calls that come in.

Yeah. Right. Business calls, right? Well, we're leaving our ranch right after New Year's, and we're driving back, and Pat decides he's going to call in, because here comes early January time to get back to her. We're going to call in to his service to get all of it. His calls, business calls up coming. And he calls him, because that's 816.

She goes, 816? He goes, yeah, check about that. I'm not seeing it. He goes, it's 816. She goes, lady on the other end phone goes, oh, yeah, okay. I just found that, sir, that account's been down for two years. years. Pat pulls over in the side of the road, screeches till all, it gets out on the phone, I mean, starts eating it. You're telling me, I'm going to, I can sue you. You know how much

money you've lost me? The millions of dollars of business you lost me, because you hadn't been taking my fucking calls. I can't, what kind of shit is? I'm taking this shit to the Supreme Court. You guys owe me at least 10 million dollars. I can't junk the fucking go on. He's fucking, fucking, he's sweating his ass off, gets back on the charge. Can you fucking believe that man? Two years is fucking been down. You know, it's big business all over? son, motherfucker. He's hot. And then my brother, rooster,

the king of common sense, sitting in the front seat, listen to all this stuff. And all of a sudden he goes, you're going to take it to court, huh? Packed, fuck, yes, I am. And he goes,

what do you think the judge is going to say when he finds out you hadn't called to check your fucking matches in two years? God damn it! I didn't think of that.

Ha! Ha, ha, ha. I never imagined Rooster being called the King of Common Sense. He's got good common sense. He's got common sense, but he is one wild, dude. Oh, he is great. He's good, good quality, good values, you like to say. Yes, he is.

But, no, but then he had a little wreck while I was over at your place, I think Thanksgiving or something last year. And he had a little wreck on the way back to the house. I shouldn't talk about it. Is that the look you gave me? No, no, no, go ahead. Go ahead. I don't remember what it was.

I just remember that Levi, you know, everybody had the real version and Pat had his version. Yes, of course. Of course. You know, anyway. You know, one movie, and I'm blanking on the name, the something state of Jones, the free state of Jones. Free State of Jones. That's one. one of those movies, you've made amazing films,

but every once in a while there's a movie that you will watch just over and over again. I've watched that movie. You have? Yeah, over and over again. And it's just one of those great films, and you're really, really good in it. Thank you, man. Not many people saw that. It came out, we were proud of that film.

And it came out, though, at an odd time. You don't get release times, and do you get, and there was things I won't talk about on air because it'll be the wrong headline. But it came out at an odd time and for the marketing team and everyone, they get a little bit on their heels. And not many of you thought, but it was really wonderful story. The production design, everything about it just felt so nitty-gritty real, you know. And it's so easy to mess up a period piece by bad production design.

It was great. Everything about it is cool. Yeah, I enjoyed that. Yeah. I was going to also mention mud, which I loved that mud. That's probably my favorite film. Love that movie.

Probably my favorite. Yeah? It's the one my dad. I've dreamed of my dad. I've had dreams of my dad coming to me at 12 years old. Putting his arm around and going, hey, buddy, you seen this movie, Mud? Yeah. I noticed her, and he goes, oh, we got to watch it.

It's a good one. And when my dad, my dad said, it's a good one, that's as high as a compliment to something he's a good one. Somebody, oh, he's a good one. That meant they were like, like a mitch. And I always think I've had dreams of my dad coming to me at 12 going, we got to see this movie together. It's a good one with his arm around me. And wait, sorry, you have a dream that your dad would say that about mud? I've had a dream that my dad would

have said that about mud. I mind you, I was much older, but I had a dream that when I was 12, dad would have come to me and said, let's go. Are you got to see this movie, Bud? Yeah, that's great. Do you direct? I can't remember. Forgive me. Have you directed? I have, but I don't, it's not something I do or I'm looking to do on any kind of consistent basis. Produce? Rather not. Yeah. You're producing now, dude. Yeah, but, yes.

So, whether I listen to my own advice or not, I believe I'm a better performer and have a better experience. Yeah, me too. When I am an actor for hire. Me too. I think I'm a contract player at heart. right you know here put this cowboy hat on and go to the next sound stage over you're going to be doing this right okay now there's a singular focus that's freedom to doing that that way and when i've uh been a producer or something i take that responsibility seriously but it's a different hat

it's an objective hat you have to look at the entire thing how is you know are we creating the situation are we getting you're looking at everyone's story you're looking at all you're an actor It's a subjective experience, you know, where I've got to be, I have to own my man. And I, if I own my man, that's plenty. And it is. And I'd rather just, I prefer to just have the one hat of acting subjective hat. How about watching your work? You're good with that?

I don't love it. I always say this. I love the sound of my voice when it's coming out of my mouth. Yes. But not after. I'm fucking Brando or Olivier when I'm working, when I watch it, oh, geez, I've become this judgmental dick. I'm almost in tears.

I want to quit. Almost every time it bores the hell out of my wife. I have to watch it four times. First time I go, oh, I guess my nose isn't that bad. You know, oh, look, there are other actors in this scene. And finally, about the fourth time I can watch. I'm a four time got to. Me watching my own work, the fourth time I watch it, if I make a lot of it.

if I make it that far is when I actually can watch the movie. It's also, you know, four times? I'm a four-time guy, all Cohen Brothers films. It's the fourth watch of Cohen Brothers films. I'm like, oh, ha, ha, ha, ha, I got the whole thing. Oh, that's great. That's great. You guys are kind of different from me in that regard.

I know. I'm kind of like, I watch it one time. I'm like, Woody, good job, buddy. Way to go on now. Did you hear people in the other room laughing? They laugh because they know that was a joke. But why did you laugh? Hold on.

Anyway, Matt O'Hare's over there laughing. It's much healthier. That's much healthy. Mary works from a place of joy, you know. And she's okay if people come to the set and she loves having people around and watching it with people. I kind of work from shame, basically.

That's where I work from. So it's like, I'd rather you not come to the set. The degree of truth. I just don't know. enjoy because I will dissect the hell out of myself and I'll I'll be judgmental and I'm not wrong but maybe I shouldn't be that hard but I don't like I said I like doing it and I could I've done it long enough we've all done it long you know when you hit it yeah you can got a look at the direct and go yep and they go yeah I mean when you first start off you're doing it

and you think you hit it you look up and you go look at it you go look at what you did and you're like oh geez that's not what I was intended to do but after a while you start closing that gap between what you want to do, what you actually do, and what's getting recorded. And you can feel it when it's, when it's true for you. And if you're agreeing with the director, I don't, I don't really want to go back and, and watch it over. I'll get, I don't want to be susceptible to be in vain in a place that maybe I, I wouldn't be if I didn't see it. I don't know, oh, the lighting's better. I don't, uh, don't, don't know. Let me make a you too in here because I want to hear you talk about Camila, right? Yeah. I'd love to know.

when you met and how and i love what you wrote i love what you wrote about you'll be sitting there across the room from your wife and she'll be in mid-conversation with somebody else but she'll turn around and catch your eye and give you just the slightest smile and a wink yeah that must feel fucking great feels great i got i got one today she was in there with the kiddos um they were all they were all watching something after all the sports we've been at and on the UT game and all that stuff, and they were just in a quiet little shady room watching a series together. High potentials right there watching. And as I was leaving, you know, she was kind of just a little lean back, and I went to kiss her on

the forehead. She stayed there after I kissed on the forehead, but by staying there, that meant like, move your head about four more inches towards my chin and give me one on the lips, you know what I mean? As I did, I got an upside down, wink on the way out, and I was like, there we go. How'd you mean? She's quite a lady. You met in Malibu?

No, sir. We met on Sunset Boulevard at a club. Up in the club. Which place? Up in the club. I'm forgetting the name and I've told it many times. It wasn't like Roxy at one of those places. No, up in the club.

It was in the club, dude. Oh, really? It was in the club, dude. Okay, I didn't realize it. And I'm not even a club guy. Because I thought you were at like a restaurant. Whatever that was. Was there a restaurant in the...

No, no food, or straight-up club? You're over there with the fucking champagne and all... I'm living at the chateau. No, no, no, no, no. I'm living up in Hollywood Hills. I'm out of the chateau by this point. And I'm over at the table making margaritas. I've got the ball of tequila.

I've got a knife. I've got my limes. I got my syrup. I got my contrao. I'm making home-in-marking. I can make a good margarita. It takes about 12 minutes. He does make a good margaritas.

And I'm making margaritas, and I'm sitting there thumping, and I've had a couple of margaritas just enough to see straight. you know what I mean, where you see a little straight to her sometimes after a couple. And about 15 feet in front of me at the end of the table, crossing the room, maybe 20 feet, this figure with caramel skin with a little bit of, there's enough, it was hot enough in the club where there's a little dew on the shoulders. And this turquoise dress with the strap going all the top moved right to left in my eye line and telling you, her head wasn't even bobbing.

It's like that Spike Lee had with Malcolm X, Denzel Walser, on that, on that, and remember in Malcolm X for he's walking, he's got him on that pulley. He's not even stepping. He's on the exact same. It's just like the, like a land cruiser, floating across the top of the, top of the floor. So she looked almost as good as Denzel Washington. If you look better than Denzel. So I follow her, go over, she goes and sits down next to these two girls on this red couch, and I got her in mine. I'm now, when she moved across, I remember standing up and saying to myself, what is that? I didn't say, is that? I said, what is that? And she sat down and I tried to catch her eye and I'm kind of waving.

Really? Yeah. You're making a move. I'm making a direct move. And as I'm waving and not catching her eye and now I know her well enough to know, she probably saw me, wasn't going to give me the, I ain't catching your eye, waving me across her. Because what I heard in my ear was my mom, who wasn't there physically, but my mom saying to me, this is not the kind of girl you wave across the room, dumb ass. Get your ass up and go, introduce you. yourself to which I did. I introduced myself and as I was introduced myself and inviting her to come to the table, I thought, oh, invite her two friends as well. Good move. Good move, right? Of which I did. So therefore, she came over solo. I said, now Youngstader, she came over,

sat down right next to me. I made her a margarita. Music's pumping. It's now close to two in the morning. I'm speaking fluent Spanish. Better Spanish than I've ever spoken. But she's speaking. Portuguese, so she speaks Portuguese. All right. She's speaking Portuguese. Wait, wait, I laughed to. Is that correct? That's correct. Oh, that's fantastic. But it didn't say music meter, much more than English is. It's definitely different. I've learned that. Yeah, yeah. Spanish and very much. Very different, but much more closer to the music meter of love. Yes, yes, I'm understanding her Portuguese better than I ever have since. The 19 years. Okay. We're sipping margaritas.

When she talks, I'm leaning in my ear, here. When I'm talking, she's leaning in over here. The language, it's working. I remember my buddy comes up and goes, hey, we got to go. And he said, I didn't even look at him. He just said, I put my right hand up in his face. And I go, five minutes. Five minutes.

And we talk five more minutes. I invite her to come over to my house and me and my two friends to have one more drink. She says, no. It's all right. I'll walk you to your car. walk her to her car she gets the spot she's like I parked it right here where is it it's toad oh yes all right but you had it looked like oh that's terrible I'm so sorry well you know we could so we'll give you a lift we'll give you a lift but come on my house for a drink and then

I'll have my driver take you home my driver that doesn't hurt doesn't hurt no that's that's pretty cool doesn't hurt right So come back over. She has another drink. We have two buddies. We're all laughing. We've got music on. Having a good time.

We're all laughing at another. She's really cool, really fun. She says, I'm ready to go. So I'll walk her out to the driveway. A driver left. Now, you're on camera. He didn't get a little message from you. Are you telling the truth?

Get out of here now. See, that's what I'm wondering. What? Are you telling the truth that he left or did you give him a little? Did you tell him, get out of here? He wasn't in the driveway where he was supposed to be. Wow, he avoided that question.

This has probably been a question lingering all these years. So, come on back and say, we'll call a cab. Well, up in the mountains, up in the Malibuque Canyon, sometimes at Laurel Springs. It's tough to get reception for a cab. You can take the guest bedroom. Takes the guest bedroom. Cut to.

I get kicked out of that bedroom twice that night and finally go to sleep. And the next morning, I'm the last one up, 10.45 a.m. And as I'm coming down out of my bedroom, I got a spiral staircase that comes down on the ground floor. Then you walk down this foyer past a big fish tank. And then there's in the middle of the next room is a big kitchen island. And as I'm coming down the stairs, I hear this laughter and this conversation going on between these two guys and this woman, my two friends and Camilla. that it's they're covering each other's sentences they're like saying one word that's calling back a joke like that happened either last night or the night before it's like friends that have known

each other a while they're a hooting and going on like old buddies and I'm coming down and as I walk holding court I see that same turquoise dress on those same caramel shoulders same dress from last night I went oh that's another plus this is not a little girl who thinks wearing the dress from last night as a walk of shame. No, this is a woman. That's what I wore here. That's what I was wearing. And it's what I'm wearing out of here the next day. Yes, I'm here. Owning that. She's holding court. My two buddies, or got the shirts off, drinking on her shoes, eating pancakes and stuff. And I hear this conversation going on like old buddies. And I walk in. And she just, oh, hey, and continues the conversation. I'm like, wow, that's got some woman's got

presents. Okay, I'll give you a ride to the pound and go pick up your car. Or on the way to the car it was an hour drive i had this album of this artist a reggae artist i produced named mishka and i put it in and the album's 55 minutes long it was an hour drive we listened to the entire album it didn't say a word to each other the entire time nor did either one of us feel like we needed to say something in between songs that's very cool and we've all been there we're like here's the science i got to feel a space didn't feel like we need to feel space we get there and we get there We get her car, drop her off. She's there about to get in her car.

I get her number. And she comes down for a kiss, she turned her cheek right at the last second. I come over, I catch a quarter bit of lip. Ooh, quarter lip. Quarter lip. Quarter lip. Q L. Come on.

I ask her out that night. Yeah. She says, I can't. I said, come on. Why? She goes, it's my father's birthday. I'm like, oh, it's because of history. Family.

Yeah, yeah. These things, you know, got all this stuff going on for her that she cares about. I got nothing to do with me. I'm becoming more and more attracted to her for these reasons. I keep asking her out. About a week later, she says, yeah. She comes over. I cook her dinner and makes more of those margueries.

We have a great night, dance all night, and that's been, that was our first date. And that's the only woman I've dated since or 19 years. Well done, bud. Thank you. So hold it. Next year is 20 years. Yeah. 2026 because that was 2016.

That'll be 20 years. We didn't get married. We've only been married 13. Hold it. I thought you got married. Remember we, no, no, no. We'd known each other 19. We had Levi and Vita before we were married.

What? We had Levi and Vita before we were married. You had children in sin out of red light. Speaking of according to Ma'am, Mike, your best friend, yes. You love this story. I get home, we're staying in it. We've moved into a double white out in Paradise Cove, and I get home one night. And we've been trying, we've been trying to have kids, and I get home.

And all of a sudden I smell, walking through, I smell cheeseburgers. And she walks up and hands me a double marguerite in like, whoa, what's going on? And my favorite meal and everything, what's going on? And she gives me this gift, and I open it up in this treasuredick, and it was a picture of this. The sonogram. Yeah. Oh, wonderful. Oh, my God, we cry, laughing.

I said, I gotta call my mom. Got to call my mom. Get out the phone, put it on and speak a poem. Mom, my mom, you there? She's, yeah, yeah, I'm here. She's here. She says, hi, Ms. McConaughey. All right, can you hear us all good?

We got some great news to share with you. Oh, I can't, I love good news. Tell me what it is. I said, okay. Mom, guess what? Camilla's pregnant. Crickets. Crickets.

All of a sudden. Oh, no. Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no, Matthew. This is so out of order. This is not how I taught you. Oh, no. Oh, Matthew.

Oh, this just breaks my, and I'm going, whoa. And I'm about to go down and take her off speakerphone, but I'm like, in deep enough with Camilla, and I'm like, uh-uh, this is my mother. Let's let it ride. And mom just goes on and on and on and on about how this is the worst thing I'm so sorry. I can't believe. geez, do I have, I got to go, and hanged up the phone.

Wow. And I look at each other and we're like, whoa, better get that bottle and let's pour another straight one here. Good, gosh, that did not go out. I thought it was going to go. But it's very clear with Camilla that you were on her side. There was, that you hadn't been impacted by your mother like, oh, dear. No, no, no, no, no, no.

Camilla and I were locked. We're good. Yeah, that's great. Five minutes later, phone rings. My mom. Yeah, Mom. Hey, can put me on speakerphone, Matthew. All right, you're on speakerphone.

Camilla, are you there? Yeah, Camilla, come in. Yes, Mr. Conno, I'm here. All right, can y'all both hear? Yeah, Mom, we hear you just fine. Okay, listen up. I would like to put some white out over that last conversation. In the past five minutes, I started thinking how selfish that was of me to not be happy for y'all.

But if y'all are happy, I should be happy for y'all. Now, that is not my place to come in here. and say that shouldn't be done, and that's not how you should have done it. So I would like to put some white out over that, and we forget that was ever said. I'm very happy. That's mom. That's fantastic. Whiteout.

Incredible. Wide out. What, she just worried about me and a grandmother probably? No, no, no. It was a direct reaction of, you know, our... But was it because you weren't married? Yeah, because we weren't married. Oh, oh, wow.

Out of order. That's a little old-fashioned of her. I don't think of her is old-fash. Well, my God, but, yeah, I mean, she's extremely progressive, but, I mean, at the same time, that's how we were raised. Yeah, yeah. It was no question about it. Yeah.

By the way, we're going to have to wrap this up because we're just... You got to go bang a drum? I got to go banging drum, and we're going to the thing. We're going to bang drums together. One look. I'm a drum banger. Are you a drum banger? Well, not real drum drums, but, you know, manly man groups. Oh, oh.

That kind of drumming years ago. One last question. One last question. I really want to get into this. No, you know, I love your, I love your poetry. Did you rub meat? Did you have the meat rub? No.

I'm just asking. Oh, you mean like a. Oh, you think, why do you think that way, dude? Come on. I saw almost went to a really bad place, but we do edit this shit. So, you know, anyway, I love you, I love your prayer, I love your poetry, and you tell stories beautifully. He's one of the great stories.

You are a great story, so forgive me if you already have, do you write film scripts? No. Well, may I suggest why not? He should. Because you're an amazing storyteller. He really is. You're fun. By the way, the greatest story ever told is a story he tells, which is in Greenlights,

another one of his number one New York Times, Best Star Books. And it's, it is when he was in Australia, if you haven't, I'm not going to make presumptions and I don't want you to answer, but if you haven't read or listened to him doing Green Lights, you've got to listen to this story of him in Australia. I call it the greatest story ever. I will. I get it. It is, it's a masterpiece of storytelling.

Anyway, go ahead. So you should write something for us? I mean, I'm writing it in, like, there's stories in Green Lines, and I'm like, I just don't really, I'm not enjoying put them in the script for them. But that could be it. That could be a script. Well, we have, I've worked on scripts about that year. Oh. And they were good.

They weren't as good as. that 43-minute story hotel. Right, right, right, right. They weren't as good as what really happened. But it's a massive black comedy. Oh, my God, that's great. That goes really, really sideways and wonderful ways. Matthew.

You go. I like to talk. You've enjoyed words. For the duration of you stay here in Australia, you learn to appreciate fine wines, fine cheeses, and not to voice your opinion for the masses. don't voice my opinion for the masses what the fuck is that okay that sounds important he's like 18 he's 18 years old father that I was staying with oh that's great no you're 7 how old were you I'm 18 18 18 weeks out of high school don't voice your what opinion for it you're not

to voice your opinion for the masses so I take it he didn't have a podcast that guy no What's he thinking now? He has to have heard all this now. He has to have heard the story and all of that has got to have gotten back to him. And I wonder what he's thinking now. Can't wait to meet you. I think I've seen him since.

He usually comes on something I want to do some Australian press. Really? He'll show up. So he don't mind. He likes it. I don't know. I don't know. I was reasonable.

and I changed some names. I think he's going to figure out that was him, dude. Hey, really fun. See, what he does is he lives his life and he meets everybody and hangs out. For some weird reason, I don't. So I really love that I got to hang out with you for an hour. I really appreciate it. I enjoy hanging out with you.

I don't know you well, but I like you more every time we hang out. So we'll have more. Okay. Next time we're all in L.A., we go over to his place, Rustic Canyon, one of the nicest. Sit around and love it over there. Have a fire. It's great. It's great.

You'd love my wife, too. Well, obviously, way more than you. Talking about better half, it's better three-quarters, you know what I mean? Easily, hands down. You'll take a second look at me once you meet her. You'll go, oh, all right. Yeah, how did this out here? Maybe he's all right.

This is really, yeah, bottom-heavy ticket. Anyway, love you, brother. I love you too, man. Yeah, no, I was talking to him, dude. I understand. I shouldn't have put the two. I don't know why you tapped me. I'm talking to him. Oh, yeah, I'm sorry. Love you, man. Thanks for coming.

Thanks for doing. Thanks for asking me. I know you're a busy guy. You honor us by coming, seriously. Thank you all for hanging, man. for our show this week. Special thanks to our friends at Team Coco. If you enjoyed this episode, send it to someone you love. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app and maybe give us a great rating and review on Apple Podcasts if you're of a mind. If you like watching your podcasts, all our full-length episodes are on YouTube. Visit YouTube.com slash Team Coco. See you next time,

where everybody knows your name. You've been listening to Where Everybody Knows Your Name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson sometimes. The show is produced by me, Nick Leow. Our executive producers are Adam Sacks, Jeff Ross, and myself. Sarah Federovich is our supervising producer. Engineering and Mixing by Joanna Samuel with support from Eduardo Perez. Research by Alyssa Grawl.

Talent booking by Paula Davis and Jane Boutista. Our theme music is by Woody Harrelson, Antoni Yen, Mary Steenbergen and John Osborne.