It’s been 25 years since Baylor’s campus was featured in this Natalie Portman film

We almost let 2025 slip by without recognizing it as the 25th anniversary of a VERY important Baylor milestone… Yes, it has now been a quarter-century since Where the Heart Is was released in theaters, starring Baylor’s beautiful campus (and also Natalie Portman and Ashley Judd).

If you weren’t a student at the time, this might be a little piece of BU trivia for you… But Baylor’s campus is very clearly the setting for the film’s climactic scene, in which (spoiler alert) Portman’s character confesses her love for her boyfriend, setting the stage for the pair to live happily ever after. Take a look for yourself:

Yes, that’s Carroll Science, Old Main and Burleson that are all quite recognizable as the camera swirls around the movie’s main characters. (Other scenes filmed in and around Pat Neff Hall and Armstrong Browning Library.) In the movie, Baylor stands in for real-life Bowdoin College, located in Maine. The scenes were shot during the summer of 1999, with Baylor students filling in as extras in the background.

Co-producer Susan Cartsonis told The Baylor Lariat that the studio chose to film at Baylor because “Baylor has the kind of old-fashioned brick buildings that are reminiscent of New England colleges, which is what we were trying to duplicate.”

Baylor’s part in the film has become one of those unexpected campus moments, the kind that slips into conversation years later. It’s not a major chapter in Baylor history, but it is a memorable one, and a reminder that even everyday corners of campus have stories tucked into them — some academic, some historic, and some just plain fun.

Sic ’em, Bears!