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Most True Detective fans still consider the first season the best, but it turns out that making the celebrated debut season of the HBO show wasn’t always sunshine and roses for best friends and co-stars Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey.
In the latest episode of Ted Danson’s Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast, Harrelson recalled that he wanted to “punch” McConaughey after he went the method route for his disillusioned detective Rust Cohle, a philosophically pessimistic character heavily inspired by Thomas Ligotti’s non-fiction book The Conspiracy Against the Human Race.
“When we were shooting, he was Rust Cohle,” Harrelson said. “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.”
The conflict between the EDtv duo didn’t stop at McConaughey’s method approach to playing Cohle, though, as Harrelson also felt that audiences expected their onscreen partnership to bring in the laughs. In that respect, McConaughey simply wasn’t playing ball, and Harrelson finally made his thoughts clear during one particular rehearsal session.
“I’m just kind of being stoic Rust Cohle,” McConaughey explained. “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.’”
After trying to convince McConaughey that their True Detective dialogue needed more back-and-forth jokey banter, Harrelson was surprised when McConaughey didn’t agree, which only infuriated him further. “It’s fucking not funny, and I hate it,’” Harrelson reportedly said, but McConaughey had “a hunch” that Cohle’s complete lack of engagement in Detective Marty Hart’s comedic jibes might actually end up being funny after all.
Harrelson admitted that McConaughey was “totally right” about the situation, with Hart’s frustrated nagging against Cohle’s consistently listless demeanor being one of the funniest elements of that onscreen partnership.
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