Saturday Night Live opened its 44th season over the weekend with a cold open about Brett Kavanaugh that starred, in an unexpected move, Matt Damon as the Supreme Court nominee/alleged sexual assaulter. The 13-minute sketch also featured Rachel Dratch as Amy Klobuchar, Alex Moffat as Chuck Grassley, and Cecily Strong as Dianne Feinstein, but the majority of the time went to Damon as the emotionally unpredictable, half-screaming, half-crying Kavanaugh delivering such lines as “I’m a ‘keg is half-full’ kind of guy†and “Boys like beer, girls like beer, I like beer. I like beer!â€
The choice to have Damon play Kavanaugh was not something fans might have predicted ahead of time, and as it turns out, Damon’s casting came together without much notice at all. According to a source close to the show, it was reportedly co-head writer Colin Jost’s idea to have Damon play Kavanaugh, and after running it by Damon sometime after midnight on Friday night, Damon agreed to take on the role. Not long later, at 6 a.m. on Saturday morning, Damon flew from California to New York and arrived at SNL’s 30 Rock studio at 4 p.m. to begin rehearsals.
In other words, Damon started prepping his Kavanaugh less than eight hours before it aired on live television. Check out the full Kavanaugh cold open below: