While bragging about one’s unbathing habits feels like a fairly recent celebrity cause célèbre, we should give credit where it’s due, at least when it comes to deodorant. Matthew McConaughey has been leading the anti-antiperspirant pack for decades, even boasting about it in his 2005 People’s Sexiest Man Alive cover story. McConaughey’s deodorant-free lifestyle choice was revisited when Kate Hudson appeared on Watch What Happens Live last week. Host Andy Cohen read a fan question asking if it was true that Kate had begged McConaughey to use a natural salt rock deodorant — because he STANK — while they were filming Fool’s Gold in 2007. Kate responded that not only was it true McConaughey didn’t wear the odor-eliminator, she confirmed that she doesn’t either. I’m formulating a theory on why smell-a-vision was never developed…

Kate Hudson is very familiar with Matthew McConaughey’s scent.

On a July 17 episode of Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, the actress and singer, 45, spoke on swirling rumors about her former costar’s body odor.

“Was that old urban legend true that you forced Matthew McConaughey to wear deodorant while filming Fool’s Gold?” asked host Andy Cohen as he read a fan-submitted question.

“No. He doesn’t wear deodorant — and by the way, I don’t either,” Hudson confessed.
She did, however, admit that she could smell the actor “from a mile [away],” adding they
“got so close” while filming.

The lore seemingly stemmed from the Oscar-winner himself who, in a past interview with Playboy, said Hudson (with whom he also starred in the 2003 film How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days) would “always” ask him to use salt rock, which can help eliminate odors, she’d bring to set. He never obliged.

But all is well because they’re one in the same. “We’re au naturels,” Hudson said with a laugh.

McConaughey is famously known for being anti-deodorant.

In his 2005 PEOPLE’s Sexiest Man Alive cover story, he revealed at the time he hadn’t touched an odor-masking pit product in 20 years because a man should smell like “a man.”

He added that the women in his life, including his mother, had no complaints about his “natural smell” because it’s uniquely his.

Even his Tropic Thunder costar, Yvette Nicole Brown, took it upon herself to get a whiff of the actor so she could form her own opinion on the subject.

“I remember that Matthew McConaughey said that he did not use deodorant and that he didn’t have an odor. So my first thought is, ‘I’m going to get as close as I can to him to see if he’s right,’” she said during a 2021 episode of SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Show.

“He did not have an odor. He smells like granola and good living,” she said. “He has a sweet, sweet scent that is just him and it’s not musty or crazy.”

McConaughey doesn’t have anything to worry about in that department as he’s once said he showers multiple times a day.

[From People]

Shout out to those of you who named Matthew McConaughey in the comments, back when we covered Jimmy Kimmel revealing that “the worst-smelling guests were the best-looking guys.” So McConaughey’s reasons for not donning deodorant were because “a man should smell like a man,” and that his mother said he smelled good naturally. Oh, Matt. While psychologically fascinating, those aren’t the winning arguments you think they are. At least it sounds like he showers. A lot. Sidenote: I love Yvette Nicole Brown for deciding to do her own research on the matter, trusting her nose over someone else’s word. (And McConaughey should totally have paid her for the rights to the slogan, “Like granola and good living,” and adopted it for his brand.) I’ve heard other people claim to be naturally odorless, thus not requiring underarm odor-eliminators. Sadly, I am not one of those chosen few. I don’t leave my home without slapping on deodorant; I wouldn’t inflict that on an unsuspecting world, alright alright alright?

Lastly, conspicuously absent from this reporting is… how does Kate Hudson smell? #SniffTheStars

Photos credit: Can Nguyen / Avalon (Fool’s Gold premiere, 2008), Will Binns, Sophie John, Pacificcoastnews.com / Avalon, Tatiana/Backgrid, IMAGO/RW / MediaPunch / Avalon