Matthew McConaughey was brought up with his two brothers by his mother Mary, now 84, along with his late father. But despite the actor being 47 years old and living independently, he admits he’s still scared of her mother’s confident, commanding attitude. According to Matthew, this all stems from the fact that she was once his teacher and was quite intimidating.

He confessed on the Fitzy and Wippa Show: “She’s 84, but she’s still spry.”

And the star refuses to answer to abbreviations or nicknames pertaining to his Christian name, such as Matt or Matty, as his former teacher and mom discouraged him from doing so.

He added: “I answered to Matt one time when I was in kindergarten, when my Mom was my teacher. My buddy goes, ‘Hey Matt! Wanna play on the monkey bars?’ and I said, ‘Yeah,’ and ran to the monkey bars … and next thing I know I feel a hand on my shoulder pull me back and body slam me to the ground – and it was my mother.

She says to me, ‘What’s your name?’ and I said, ‘Matthew …’ and she goes, ‘Why did you answer to Matt?’ And I said, ‘I don’t know, I knew he was talking to me!’

Then she said ‘Don’t you ever answer to that again – I named you Matthew on purpose.’ So if anyone calls me ‘Matt’ I know they either don’t know me well or they’re jacking with me.”

And apparently the Sing actor’s wife, Camila Alves, shares his mother’s genes on being strict as she had previously confirmed to be a “strict but fun” parent.

“I am a strict parent that also has fun. A combination of both. I think it’s very important to teach kids manners, respect others. I can get very, very silly and I think that if you set the basis, then you can go and be free and have fun and go crazy, but they’re always going to remember that base core value that you taught them,” she said at the time.