When you think of Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, odds are your mind doesn't go straight to ''serial-killer drama'' — on TV, no less. But two of the big screen's biggest stars will kick off the first season of HBO's gritty, atmospheric anthology crime series True Detective, playing mismatched homicide cops — Martin Hart (Harrelson), a family man with some dark secrets, and Rust Cohle (McConaughey), a pessimistic loner — on the hunt for a mysterious ritualistic murderer in the backwoods of Louisiana. We talked to the boys about working in TV, and whether there may be a comedy in their future.
EW: How did you guys get involved in True Detective? Had you been looking for a TV project?
McCONAUGHEY: My agent goes, ''Man, there's this HBO series. It's really quality. Have a look at it.'' I read two episodes, and it was hot s---. It was obvious the writer, Nic Pizzolatto, had a clear identity where you're like, ''This thing knows what it is.'' I met Nic and the director [Cary Fukunaga] in Austin and said, ''I'm in.''
HARRELSON: Before I read it, they told me, ''Matthew is doing this show.'' I said, ''What? Matthew is doing a show?'' That just didn't seem possible. Then I'm like, ''Well, this thing must be unbelievable.''
EW: This season is your characters' story, and next season will be a different story with a totally new cast. Was that part of the appeal of this — that it's a finite thing?
MCCONAUGHEY: I suppose. I wouldn't have said, ''Yeah, I'll commit to six months every year.'' I wouldn't have been ready for that.
HARRELSON: And that will be the appeal for the next two actors who do it.
