Edward Norton had the opportunity to verify an old family rumor thanks to the program ‘Finding Your Roots’. The actor of ‘Knives in the Back: The Mystery of the Glass Onion’ confirmed that he is related to Pocahontas, the famous 17th century Powhatan woman who married English colonist John Rolfe in 1614 during a recent episode of host Henry Louis Gates Jr.
On the show, which has also claimed that Bill Maher and Bill O’Reilly are cousins, and that Larry David and Bernie Sanders are related, Norton explained that he thought it was a family tradition and Gates replied that it was “absolutely true” and contextualized the statement:
“John Rolfe and Pocahontas were married on April 5, 1614. Shakespeare died in 1616, just to put this in perspective. Pocahontas died sometime in March 1617 in Grave’s End, England, and John Rolfe died around March 1622 (Norton responds:) “This is as far back as it will go, unless you’re a Viking. It makes you realize what a small part of the whole human story you are.”
Through a direct paper trail leading to Pocahontas and John Rolfes’ 1614 marriage certificate, @EdwardNorton learns that his family lore appears to be true. His 12th great-grandmother is Pocohantas!
Tune in TOMORROW night on @PBS at 8/7c for the Finding Your Roots premiere!! pic.twitter.com/54sTTt2YKY
—Henry Louis Gates Jr. (@HenryLouisGates) January 2, 2023
Norton’s other distant relatives also include a Civil War soldier who wrote to Abraham Lincoln and a 19th century union activist. He is also related to a third great-grandfather named John Winstead, who is reported to have owned slaves during an 1850 North Carolina census.
“The short answer is these things are uncomfortable, and you should be uncomfortable with them, everyone should be uncomfortable with it. It is not a judgment on you and your own life, but it is a judgment on the history of this country and it must be recognized first and foremost, and then it must be faced.”
Norton currently plays billionaire tech “genius” Miles Bron in ‘Glass Onion’ and some fans of the film have found similarities in a promotional photo with the plane of the “invention” with that of the con artist Elizabeth Holmes, to which the actor has confirmed on twitter, joking, saying that the photo they used as a reference was very similar.
Well-spotted but our reference photo was actually this one:
😘 (took a lot of tries to get that weird ‘crossed eye while trying to project seriousness’ just right!) https://t.co/Q0otwAN0mT pic.twitter.com/8YhbDyGjEQ— Edward Norton 🌻🇺🇦 (@EdwardNorton) January 4, 2023