Woody Harrelson Closes the Door on ‘True Detective’ Return

I was genuinely surprised to learn recently that Ben Affleck and Matt Damon spent most of the last two decades not working together. That has changed more in recent years with movies like The Last Duel, Air, and The Rip hitting theaters/screens, but if you had asked me before that, I would have been sure that they had been steadily appearing together for years. Before I started working on this article, I would have assumed the same about Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey, but they’ve worked together even less!

To date, the duo has only appeared together in EdTV, season one of True Detective, and some 2008 movie called Surfer Dude that I have never heard of (but the name certainly tracks). Perhaps the pair hasn’t found anything else worth re-upping their on-screen partnership until this point. Or, maybe they’d rather not let their careers get in the way of their friendship. That would make sense, because it sure sounds like Woody was getting a bit annoyed with the Lincoln Lawyer last time they teamed up.

“He’s method,” Harrelson recently explained on an episode of Where Everybody Knows Your Name, a podcast he co-hosts with Ted Danson. “When we were shooting, he was Rust Cohle. There [were] so many times I wanted to punch this motherf****r in the face. I’m so pissed at him cause he’s in his character.” McConaughey went on to recall Harrelson pleading with him to give him something more to work with. Woody was expecting a bit more comedy out of True Detective (for whatever reason). Regardless, Matthew stuck to his guns.

Woody would not receive the comedic relief he was expecting. “I remember saying to [McConaughey] before we started filming, I’m like, ‘Dude, people are gonna expect to laugh with us. We gotta throw some jokes in here.’ He’s just like, ‘Mhm.’ I’m waiting for him to say, ‘Yeah, you’re totally, no, none of that.’ He just, ‘Mhm, yeah.’” It is pretty hilarious that McConaughey was basically responding in character, and Harrelson was as well, even if he may not have realized that at the time. Matthew was helping get a performance out of him. But I’m sure it was still frustrating.

Regardless, the show moved forward, and Harrelson has no bones about how it turned out. In fact, he’s so happy with the finished project that he would never want to return to that world. “In fairness, never. No chance,” he noted, while discussing a return to the show. “Because it turned out great. I love that it turned out the way it did, and if anything, doing another season would, I think, tarnish that.” I’m sure he meant doing another season with him and McConaughey, but you can take that explanation however you’d like.

True Detective season one remains one of the few things Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey have ever worked on together, and that feels kind of perfect. It’s a wonderful use of both of their talents and plays on their inherent chemistry in an interesting way. It would be like if Matt and Ben did Good Will Hunting together and then stopped after parodying it in Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back.