In the current era of divisive politics, John McCain’s pallbearers may serve as a model for a bipartisan future. Former Democratic vice president Joe Biden; onetime Republican, now independent New York mayor Michael Bloomberg; and famed Hollywood liberal Warren Beatty will be among the pallbearers for the late senator’s memorial this Saturday at the Washington National Cathedral. Beatty may seem like an unlikely addition, but the self-proclaimed “liberal Democrat” and Republican Senator were longtime friends. According to a 2008 piece in The Atlantic, the pair’s friendship goes back before McCain’s 2000 bid for president.

“I think I’ve made it clear that I’m a liberal Democrat,” Beatty told the magazine at the time. “And I have never found that to . . . I consider my friendships to be friendships. Let me say this a better way. I don’t think that political ideology is necessarily germane to friendships.”

At one point in 2005, Beatty told The New Yorker that John Kerry had hoped Beatty could possibly convince McCain to serve as his running mate. According to speechwriter Mark Salter, McCain reportedly told Kerry, “If you’re hit by a lightning bolt and I become president, the people who voted for you will feel betrayed.”

“I thought he might do it,” Beatty said at the time. “Of course, I’m a fantasist by trade. With John’s personality, he would be able to say what he wanted to say, and to do quite a bit. Whether that would be good for John Kerry was less clear.”

In 2008, The Atlantic called Beatty to discuss a rumor that claimed McCain had told the actor that he had voted for Kerry instead of the candidate he campaigned for, George W. Bush. Beatty was quick to dismiss the claim.

“It seems to me that the reason why people are doing this is to attempt to dramatize some sort of duplicity in a man who . . . I’ve known John McCain for a long time,” he said. “He always said he was a conservative. He was a conservative. He is a conservative. It seems that people should take John McCain for what he says he is.”

McCain’s memorial will also include eulogies from a number of politicians from both sides of the aisle including George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Henry Kissinger, and members of the McCain family. At present, notably absent from the docket is Donald Trump, who often publicly butt heads with the senator. It’s been reported that before his death, McCain requested that Trump not attend or speak during the service.