In the days since Joe Biden named Ketanji Brown Jackson as his nominee to the Supreme Court, we’ve been learning more about her. If confirmed, Jackson would be the first Black woman appointed to the court, as well as the first former public defender. Everything that’s come out about her reputation paints her as a dedicated, driven professional, as well as a person who values friendships and knows how to cultivate a community. (This interview with Jackson’s college friends and roommates in The 19th is fantastic.)
Through all of Jackson’s many accolades and accomplishments, there’s one element of her background that feels especially delightful, and that’s her history as a theater kid.
According to the AP, while she studied government at Harvard, she was also involved in the school’s drama and musical theater programs, and was even paired up as scene partners with Matt Damon once. (Jackson assumed he probably wouldn’t remember her, and the news outlet writes: “He does not, Damon confirmed through a representative, but added: ‘That’s so cool!’”)
A profile in Intelligencer features interviews with some of Jackson’s friends and classmates from her youth, who say that she was known as a great actor even then. “She could write and give a speech that would leave the audience clapping, but she could do a dramatic play or a humorous one and she was outstanding in all those things,” said one high school classmate. “I remember people, when she would do the dramatic interpretation, which is the sort of serious plays, literally people crying who watched her because she was so good. … And, of course, people dying with laughter when she did the humorous ones.”
Jackson even did improv at Harvard, and was a member of the school’s improv troupe, On Thin Ice. There’s something so fantastic about knowing a (hopeful) Supreme Court Justice used to do improv. Sure, it suggests that she’s quick on her feet, creative, and outgoing. But moreover, it speaks to her vulnerability. To do improv, you have to be willing to embarrass yourself because as anyone who’s done (or watched, to be honest) improv can tell you, it is often deeply, deeply embarrassing.
If you want to see Jackson in theatrical action, here’s a video of her partaking in a 2016 fundraiser with Washington DC’s Shakespeare Theatre Company, presiding over the trial of Friar Laurence from Romeo and Juliet:
Amazingly, that appears to be Brett Kavanaugh sitting next to her. Life imitating art imitating life.
(image: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
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