Laura Dern Said She Saw Baby Yoda at a Basketball Game—and I Believe Her

As we hurtle deeper into collective brain damage, one question echoes en masse through our midst, a desperate and yearning cry: “have you ... seen ... Baby Yoda?”

This inquiry was most recently posed to Laura Dern on the red carpet for the Gotham Awards, where she received the 2019 Actress Tribute. Though Dern played Admiral Holdo in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, she did not have the honor of sharing the screen with the Baby Yoda puppet, who made his debut in the new Disney+ series The Mandalorian.

Anyway, a Variety reporter threw it out there, possibly hoping for something as bizarre as when German director Werner Herzog, after being asked if he’d seen Baby Yoda earlier this month by the same outlet, called the puppet “heartbreakingly beautiful” and said it moved him to tears. And the gamble paid off! Dern offered up a beautifully mystifying response to the increasingly confused reporter.

“Yes I did,” she said, matter-of-factly. “I think he was at a basketball game. That’s all I’m gonna say.”

Dern continued: “I think I saw him at a basketball game.” And then, as if it clarified anything, added with a nod, “It was NBA.”

It was NBA! Please, let your brain marinate in this clip:

Now, there is the possibility that she misheard the reporter and thought he was talking about an actual human being and not an animatronic green puppet. (I’d like to believe she was doing an elaborate improvised bit about seeing Baby Yoda sitting courtside.) In any case, Laura Dern has given us a new mantra for the ages. Your boss is grilling you during a meeting? Your significant other is pissed off during an argument and demanding you say something, anything? Stay calm and collected, look them in the eye confidently, and then: "I think he was at a basketball game. That's all I'm gonna say."

Originally Appeared on GQ