‘Contagion’ writer talks Kamala Harris connection to Matt Damon’s role

Matt Damon’s character in the pandemic thriller Contagion has a name that should sound familiar to viewers in 2024 — and that familiarity isn’t a total coincidence.

Screenwriter Scott Z. Burns explained how he named Mitch Emhoff, the Minnesota father played by the Good Will Hunting actor on an episode of the Hollywood Gold podcast. “Here’s a weird Emhoff story: the reason the Emhoffs are named that is…” he said. “For a while when I directed commercials, the woman who was my executive producer was named Kerstin Emhoff.”

Kerstin Emhoff went on to executive produce a wide array of feature films, including documentaries like Manhunt: The Search for Bin Laden and horror movies like The Monster. Her biggest claim-to-fame, though, comes from one key relationship from her past. “She was married to a guy named Doug Emhoff,” Burns said. “They got divorced and, as we now know, Doug Emhoff is married to Kamala Harris, which is just a bizarre coincidence.”

Kerstin Emhoff was married to Doug Emhoff, who previously worked as an entertainment lawyer, from 1992 to 2008. After her ex-husband remarried in 2014, the producer supported Harris’ campaign for the vice presidency in 2020, ultimately attending her inauguration in January 2021. This year, she’s continually supported Harris’ bid for the presidency and fawned over her kids Ella and Cole on the campaign trail.

Harris discussed her coparenting relationship with the producer in an Elle essay in 2019. “Kerstin and I hit it off ourselves and are dear friends,” she wrote. “She and I became a duo of cheerleaders in the bleachers at Ella’s swim meets and basketball games, often to Ella’s embarrassment. We sometimes joke that our modern family is almost a little too functional.”

Elsewhere in the Hollywood Gold episode, Burns reflected on the discomfort he felt after viewers made strange comments about Contagion‘s prescience in the wake of Covid-19. “It got very uncomfortable for me on social media for a while, because, you know, people started writing to me, accusing me of being Nostradamus or working for the CIA,” he said. “And at one point, it got really disturbing, so I left.”

What puzzled Burns even more was the media framing him as an authority on public health, despite being a screenwriter and not a scientist. “The other part, which was probably even more uncomfortable, is every once in a while, I would get a phone call from CNN or MSNBC, and people would ask if I would come on and talk about the movie and the pandemic,” he remembered. “I would say, ‘Okay, I’ll do that, but I’m not an expert. And you really need to hear medical advice from a doctor, not a screenwriter. Like, that’s insane that you are even asking me.'”

Burns said media outlets weren’t excited about hearing from doctors. “They would say, ‘But we’ve heard from doctors,'” he remembered. “These segment producers would go, ‘Yeah, but it’s just really exciting for people to hear from you.’ I’m like, that’s not — I mean, I wrote a movie. I’m not an oracle.” 

The screenwriter ultimately decided to bring a medical professional with him to each of his Covid-inspired media appearances. “I made it kind of a rule,” he said. “I always brought someone who knew this world.”

Listen to the full Hollywood Gold episode above.