Supreme Court actress? Matt Damon recalls being drama class classmates with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson
TheGrio...
Before she became a Supreme Court Justice and he an Academy Award-winning actor and star of “The Odyssey,” the pair shared a few scenes at Harvard.
Long before Ketanji Brown Jackson took to the bench and became the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court, she took a few drama classes at Harvard University. Known for taking a few improv classes and flourishing in improv comedy, Jackson happened to be part of the same class as future Academy Award winner Matt Damon.
During a promotional stop for “The Odyssey,” Damon and co-star Anne Hathaway were shown a clip of a February interview Jackson conducted with “CBS Mornings.”
Damon immediately laughed when he realized his former college classmate was Jackson.
“Matt Damon and I were in a drama class together,” Jackson said at the time. “And we were paired for a scene just in class, not on the stage. But at that time, he was already well-known; people were thinking he might be a big actor. When I see him on screen, I’m like, ‘I know that guy!’”
Damon took the moment in stride.
“I can’t believe she would say ‘I know that guy’ when she’s a Supreme Court Justice!” he gushed to reporter Adriana Diaz. “It’s amazing.”
When asked if he remembered Jackson from Harvard, Damon admitted he remembered the class but didn’t put it together that he and Jackson were scene partners until he heard her voice.
“I was like, ‘Oh my God!’” he explained. “And then I’m running around telling my kids, I’m like, ‘You know who I did a scene with?’ When she was confirmed, it was like … it was amazing.”
Of course, Damon and Jackson have gone on to bigger things since that class at Harvard, but Damon always brags that he happens to know a Supreme Court Justice. The class wasn’t just home to Jackson and Damon. Ben Affleck came in once to read scenes with Damon from the film that eventually became their 1997 Oscar winner, “Good Will Hunting.”
“So that class was the place to be,” Hathaway joked.
The two stars are part of Christopher Nolan’s latest epic, “The Odyssey,” which also stars Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy. Nyong’o, as well as rapper Travis Scott, received backlash for their appearances in the film, specifically for being Black in a fictional Greek mythology story.
In an interview with Elle, she defended her casting and her portrayal of Helen, writing, “You can’t perform beauty. I want to know who a character is. What is beyond beauty? What is beyond looks? That’s the thing about doing such a well-known text, which has been studied and interpreted and derived from. The research could be endless. The good thing about working with a writer like Chris is that it’s on the page. The investigation starts with the pages you’re given. That’s what I based it on.”