Acting is about being someone you’re not and being believable. Most of what we know about actors in their real lives is the scandal: who they just broke up with, who they’re cheating on their spouse with, what kind of drugs they take, what they did on their latest drunken binge, and how many millions they spent on their latest home.
But many actors have a serious side; they may have gone to college, they may even have graduated – many from real schools, not an online PhD program. Many studied fields other than acting.
Ashton Kutcher often plays silly roles, most recently an immature billionaire on Two and a Half Men. But, according to Classes and Careers, at one time he studied biochemical engineering at the University of Iowa; he hoped to find a cure for his brother’s heart problem.
Emma Watson, the brainy know-it-all Hermione in the Harry Potter movies, is quite possibly as brainy in real life. She is an Ivy-Leaguer, enrolling at Brown in 2009. She had to take time out to finish the last Harry Potter movie, and went to Oxford. But, she is planning to return to Brown. No big deal.
Reese Witherspoon also played an academically gifted role in Legally Blonde, which seems to fit her quite nicely. In real life she attended Stanford, not Harvard, where she studied English literature, though only for one year.
Natalie Portman did go to Harvard and graduated in 2003. She also became the first Harvard graduate to win the Academy Award for Best Actress, according to the Harvard Crimson. Portman was an excellent student, earning, for example, an A+ for a paper on lie detection in a seminar called Neuropsychology and the Law.
Brad Pitt once aspired, according to biography.com, to be an advertising art director, completing most of a journalism degree at a school that is well-known for that major, the University of Missouri Columbia. Apparently he realized, just before graduation, “I can leave,” and packed up his Datsun and headed for Hollywood.
Denzel Washington is another actor who studied journalism, graduating with a degree from Fordham University in 1977. He fell in love with acting during a summer job at a Boys’ Club camp, where he participated in a variety show.
Ashley Judd was seen cheering for the University of Kentucky basketball team along its road to the national title this year. UK is in fact the school she attended until 1990, and then finally graduated from in 2007. She majored in French, with anthropology, art history, theater, and women’s studies as minors.
Kevin Costner doesn’t come across as an intellectual giant as Robin Hood, but he went to college as well, getting a degree in business in 1978 from California State University at Fullerton.
Lisa Kudrow, who played dumb Phoebe on Friends, went to prestigious Vassar College and received a Bachelor’s degree in Psychobiology.
So not only are these actors impressive on the silver screen, but they appear to have considerable command over the Ivory tower. True class-acts and perhaps an example for youth, these actors are setting the bar for success.