NEED TO KNOW
Jessica Chastain has some big ambitions once she graduates from Harvard University.
Over the summer. PEOPLE confirmed that the 48-year-old Oscar winner was attending Harvard University to study a Master’s degree in public administration at the iconic university’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
During a Tuesday, Sept. 2 appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Chastain — who previously graduated from The Juilliard School, where she studied acting — opened up about why she went back to school for “the sexiest degree ever.”
“I was just wanting to learn new things. And you know what? My favorite class ended up being quantitative methods, which is like statistics,” she admitted. “And at Juilliard, you know, we never… As theater nerds we never got to learn stuff like that. So I am a secret nerd. I got the hots for, like, scatter graphs and, like, bell curves.”
Host Jimmy Fallon then asked Chastain if she had already graduated from Harvard, and she explained that she had two semesters left to finish the “mid-career program.”
Her goal upon graduation: “My goal is to take over the world,” she joked.
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Chastain went on to open up about how her college experience differed from the typical Harvard student’s saying, “My dorm was the Charles Hotel.”
“My RA was housekeeping,” she continued teasing.
While Chastain is working on a Master’s degree, she has already received an honorary doctorate from Juilliard in May 2024.
“Dr. Chastain has a nice ring to it 🎓,” Chastain wrote on Instagram at the time about the exciting development, adding, “Thank you @juilliardschool for this honor and for the custom hat 🙃 congrats class of 2024!”
The actress — who is from Sacramento, Calif. — was the first person in her family to go to college, a decision that she reflected on while giving a speech at the 38th Annual American Cinematheque Awards in December 2024.
“I was the first in my family to not get pregnant as a teenager, the first to finish high school and the first to attend college,” she said. “And attending the Juilliard School didn’t just change my life. It showed my family that a different path was possible.”
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Saying that she was “determined” to make her own way, Chastain explained that “theater became [her] lifeline,” which helped her succeed.
“It was a way to feel seen, to use my voice and to break free from the expectations that had bound my family for generations,” she shared.
