Matthew McConaughey

Matthew McConaughey admits to being ''p***ed off'' with his good pal Lance Armstrong.

The 43-year-old 'Mud' actor has revealed he was very surprised to learn that about the disgraced cyclist - who was recently found to have been engaged in a huge doping scandal and stripped of all the titles he won from 1999 to 2005 - but now feels sorry for his friend and is relieved he never confided in him.

He told MTV News at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah: ''My first reaction was I was p***ed off. I was mad. I then got kind of sad for him. First off, I had a part of me that took it kind of personally, which I think a lot of people have.

''For him, it was impersonal because he was living a lie. It was a whole unanimous facade he had to carry around.

''What I realised is that those of us that took that personally, like, 'Oh, he lied to me,' it's not true. What I mean by this is, what was he supposed to do? Call me to the side and go, 'Hey man, I did it but don't tell anybody.' Then I would have really had a reason to be p***ed off at him, going, 'You want me to walk around holding this?'''

The father-of-three - who is married to model Camila Alves - has been good friends with Lance for years and they have often been spotted working out together near their nearby homes in Austin, Texas.

It was previously reported that Matthew - who is still in the process of regaining weight after dropping to 135 pounds for his role as a HIV patient in the upcoming movie 'The Dallas Buyers Club' - was among those being considered to play the cyclist in a movie about his life.

However Matt Damon is now reportedly first in line to star in the biopic, which will be made by J.J Abrams' production company, Bad Robot, along with Paramount Pictures, who just closed a deal to acquire the rights to the forthcoming book 'Cycle Of Lies: The Fall Of Lance Armstrong' by Juliet Macur.

© Bang Showbiz