Matthew McConaughey Shared the Wild Story of When He Saved His Infant Son From a Mountain Ram

It’s kind of hard to picture actor Matthew McConaughey, who is best known for seeming at least a little stoned in all of his movies, springing into action to do just about anything. But during a game of “True Confessions,” with Jimmy Fallon and Roots MC Black Thought, McConaughey told a pretty amazing and true story about saving his six-month-old baby from a mountain ram in a rather unexpected way.

The game is pretty simple, each player has to write down a story that may or may not be true. They read their story out loud and then the other players have to guess if it’s a lie or not. Objectively, when McConaughey read his story, it seemed plausible that he saved his child from a mountain ram during a picnic at the Grand Canyon. What seemed less plausible though, was that he did so by throwing the six-month-old 15 feet up in the air and into his wife’s arms.

While Black Thought presumed it was a lie, because it seriously sounds like one, Fallon couldn’t shake his suspicion that the story was true. When the buzzer rang to signal the end of McConaughey’s story, and after a little fake out, the actor admitted that the whole thing was totally true. Apparently, his dog BJ was antagonizing the ram first.

“I back up to the edge after I’ve gotten rid of the dog and gotten rid of my son, and I grab this little branch behind me, and I get behind it, and it’s like this cherry bush about as thick as my pinky. And I’m like ‘This is not gonna save me at all,’ McConaughey explained. “I squared off and tried to go as Yoda as I could with this ram and just say ‘Not me, whatever it is.’ He was kicking dirt and everything. He hops off the ledge, swings back around…His harem was on the other side so we were actually between him and all his ladies.”