True Detective had a lot of success after its inaugural run with many talented actors attached, and yet people still yearn for Season 1. While it can still be easily streamed via HBO Max subscription, it seems people want more of Matthew McConaughey's Rust Cohle and Woody Harrelson's Marty Hart. Before McConaughey started rumors that the characters may get back together, the duo went into how filming that dynamic impacted their personal friendship.
Harrelson and esteemed Emmy winner Ted Danson brought McConaughey on as a guest for their podcast Where Everybody Knows Your Name, which led the White Men Can't Jump star to recall his initial distaste for the specific way McConaughey played his chain-smoking investigator. Harrelson even said he wanted to punch his buddy in the face, mainly because the entire time they were on set, he wouldn't break character to fall back into his usual personality. As Harrelson put it:
When we were shooting, he was Rust Cohle. There [were] so many times I wanted to punch this motherfucker in the face. I'm so pissed at him 'cause he's in his character.
Fortunately, Matthew McConaughey didn't let his acting partner's angst rattle him, and continued to embody Rust Cohle during and between scenes the way he saw fit. The result was a critically acclaimed season that, more than 10 years later, still stands the test of time as one of the best modern crime television stories.
McConaughey remembered Harrelson's frustration during production, and even recalled a conversation they had about Marty and Cohle's dynamic. Although his paraphrasing of Harrelson's words at the time are far more eloquent and verbose than simply stating the wish to smack his co-star in the face. As McConaughey put it:
We're sitting there. We're about to start shooting, and we were rehearsing. And I'm just kind of being stoic Rust Cohle and everything. Woody goes, like, 'Hey man, I need to talk to you about something.' He goes, 'The way you and I work, McConaughey, I hit you the ball [and] you hit back, I hit it back to you. We volley [and] we play. ... Man, that's us. It's dramatic, but it's also comedy. 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 and hits the backstop and comes to a rest. And you’re just staring at me still. He’s fucking not funny, and I hate it.’
McConaughey went on to point out that when watching True Detective, however, Marty's reaction to Cohle's bizarre behavior or cryptic sayings becomes a source of comedy in the series. It had me wondering if Woody Harrelson's actual frustration with his friend in as much on the screen as Marty's own emotions, which I think is what the actor was getting at.
This isn't the first time that either actor has spoken about this, as Harrelson told the same story back in 2022. I think it's funnier to hear it a second time years later, because it adds authenticity to how angry Harrelson was at the time.
Those waiting to see Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey get back together for another project are in luck. The duo is slated to star in an Apple TV+ series, Brother From Another Mother, though it's been a while since we've seen updates on it. In the time since its announcement, we've learned that the actors may actually be related, but that's not what the show is about. It may be a while before we learn more about it, as development paused in 2025 after Deadline reported the showrunner exited. Could it be because a True Detective reunion is on the way?
All we know right now is that True Detective Season 5 is coming to HBO in 2027. I can't wait to see who is ultimately involved in the next chapter of the true crime series, and if we will get a callback to the actors who first got the show rolling.
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