For many, the biggest shocker at the 2014 Emmys was that Matthew McConaughey didn't walk away with Best Lead Actor in a Drama Series for HBO's True Detective. It turns out, however, that his loss was not the actor's most controversial experience with an award.

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Recently McConaughey talked a little about his early award experiences on NBC's The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (featured below) and revealed that a lot of his early childhood was in fact a lie.

Fallon happened to have a photo of the True Detective star as an eight-year-old boy proudly holding a trophy as the winner of Little Mr. Texas, but according to McConaughey that's not exactly what happened.

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"I've been telling people I'm Little Mr. Texas, that's what I'm told. My mother has told me I'm Little Mr. Texas, there's proof," explained the actor, gesturing to the photo. "Six years ago, at 39 years old, I decided, well, let me zoom in on this picture. I look at the trophy. It says Runner Up Little Mr. Texas."

McConaughey went on to explain that he called his mother up to tell her, but she remained adamant that he had "won." Apparently the real winner had come from a wealthy family and the actor's mother had considered the boy's fancy three-piece suit to be "cheating" and, therefore, McConaughey deserved to win.

"This is consistent behavior by my mother, who is now 82," noted McConaughey, adding that his mother did something similar, though certainly more controversial, when he was entering a fifth grade poetry contest.

After writing and revising his entry three times, the actor took the poem to his mother who told him it was all right. She then pulled out a book and showed him a famous poem by a classic poet. Her son admitted that he liked the poem, but was confused when she told him to just put his name on that one and hand it in.

"'Look,' she said, 'Don't complicate this. Do you understand the poem?' I said, 'Yes ma'am,''" explained McConaughey. "She said 'Do you like the poem?' I said 'yes ma'am.' She said, 'Then it's yours.'"

"So I wrote it," declared McConaughey to a hysterical and horrified Fallon, "And I won."

"My first two trophies are runner-up and plagiarism," laughed the actor, who eventually grew up and went on to win an Oscar for Dallas Buyers Club. He was amazed at his mother's own dedication to her son, though it seems like he would have preferred to know the truth about Little Mr. Texas from the beginning.  

He won't get a second chance at The Emmys for True Detective as he won't be returning for Season 2, but the actor has no regrets about not coming back.  

The new season, which takes place in California, will star Colin Farrell (Minority Report, Saving Mr. Banks) and Vince Vaughn (Into the Wild, Wedding Crashers).

True Detective returns to HBO for a second season mid-2015.

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