--- title: Matthew McConaughey Told a Jimmy Fallon His Ram Story description: Matthew McConaughey told a hilarious story about the time he saved his son from a ram. canonical: https://time.com/5392960/matthew-mcconaughey-on-jimmy-fallon/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-09-12T15:05:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:54:48.444Z og:title: Matthew McConaughey Tells a Wild Tale About a Ram og:description: Any father would do it to save his kid og:url: https://time.com/5392960/matthew-mcconaughey-on-jimmy-fallon/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Matthew McConaughey Tells a Wild Tale About a Ram twitter:description: Any father would do it to save his kid twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Join Matthew McConaughey for the Tale of the Time He Saved His 6-Month Old Kid From a Ram by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Sep 12, 2018 3:05 PM UTC by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Sep 12, 2018 3:05 PM UTC _The Tonight Show_ game “True Confessions”, where contestants read a statement about themselves that is either true or a lie, usually results in a lot of laughter (like when [Tina Fey and Amy Poehler](http://time.com/3958557/amy-poehler-tina-fey-true-confessions-jimmy-fallon/) faced off). When [Matthew McConaughey](http://time.com/collection-post/3881954/matthew-mcconaughey-graduation-speech-university-of-houston/) played on Tuesday night, though, he earned gasps with a wild tale of heroism in the face of an angry sheep. In the game in McConaughey, host Jimmy Fallon, and The Roots’ Tariq Trotter took turns revealing random facts about their lives while the others tried to determine what was true and what was a complete fabrication. [McConaughey](http://time.com/70802/matthew-mcconaughey-2014-time-100/)‘s story involved a mountain ram, the Grand Canyon, and throwing his 6-month-old child 15-feet up in the air. According to McConaughey, who is a master storyteller, he was picnicking with his family and their dog at the Grand Canyon when an “alpha” mountain ram joined them. While his wife, Camila Alves, managed to get away, McConaughey, his dog, and their six-month old son were trapped. [McConaughey](http://time.com/4448621/rio-2016-olympics-matthew-mcconaughey/) decided the only course of action was to toss the dog to his wife—and then the baby, too. “I had to, after I had already got rid of the dog, I had to launch Levi through the air for my wife to catch so we didn’t get rammed off the edge,” he explained. With his family and dog safe, he turned to calm the ram with some of that famed McConaughey charm. “I squared off and tried to go as Yoda as I could with this ram and just say, ‘Not me, whatever it is,’” he recalled. The story sounds too cinematic to be true, but McConaughey says it actually happened. Watch the clip and see if you believe him or if he delivered yet another [Oscar-worthy](http://time.com/5185761/matthew-mcconaughey-oscars-2018-internet-reactions/) performance. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5392960/matthew-mcconaughey-on-jimmy-fallon/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5392960/matthew-mcconaughey-on-jimmy-fallon/"},"headline":"Join Matthew McConaughey for the Tale of the Time He Saved His 6-Month Old Kid From a Ram","datePublished":"2018-09-12T15:05:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:54:48.444Z","description":"Matthew McConaughey told a hilarious story about the time he saved his son from a ram.","url":"https://time.com/5392960/matthew-mcconaughey-on-jimmy-fallon/","keywords":["Newsfeed","jimmy fallon","Matthew McConaughey","The Tonight Show","Late Night Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5392960/matthew-mcconaughey-on-jimmy-fallon/","name":"Join Matthew McConaughey for the Tale of the Time He Saved His 6-Month Old Kid From a Ram"}}]}] ```