Matthew McConaughey needed 'liquid courage' to land a date with his wife, Camila Alves

Matthew McConaughey is one of Hollywood’s smoothest and most charismatic stars, but even he got nervous asking out his now wife, Camila Alves.

The Oscar-winner met the model at a bar in Los Angeles back in 2006 and revealed the tequila he was drinking at the time helped him talk to her at the time.

"We met over margaritas almost two decades ago. I saw Camila from across the bar and didn’t think 'who is that?', I thought 'What is that?'. Tequila gave me the liquid courage to call her over and we’ve been together ever since,” he told Australia's Stellar magazine.

The couple hit it off and married in 2012, welcoming three children, Levi, Via, and Livingston.

Camilla previously revealed their romance almost faltered after McConaughey introduced her to his mother Mary Kathlene 'Kay' McCabe, explaining her now mother-in-law put her through hell by continually calling her by his ex-girlfriend's name.

"She did all these things when I first came in the picture, right? She was really testing me. I mean, really testing me,” she said on Southern Living's 'Biscuits Jam' podcast. “She would call me by all of Matthew's ex-girlfriends' names, she would start speaking Spanish with me in a very broken way, kind of putting [me] down a bit. I mean, all kinds of stuff."

Camilla has since gone on to forge an "amazing relationship" with Kay, adding on the podcast, "I have so much respect for her. She has so much respect for me, it can get tricky sometimes. We always end with a good laugh and a joke."

McConaughey later defended his mom's tough treatment of Camila insisting it was all part of his family's "rites of passage."

He told ET Canada, "My family is big on rites of passage and initiation, and you don’t get into the McConaughey family easily. We test you. And even in our own family with my brothers, and mother is one of us.”

He continued, "Oh, my family, we humbly wait, we make you cry, and then we pick you up and make your favorite drink. So there are initiations, rites of passage that my family’s always enjoyed."