Denzel Washington’s Fall Forward speech, given as the Commencement Address at the University of Pennsylvania Monday, May 16, 2011.
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Speech Transcript
President Gutmann; Provost Price; Board Chair Cohen; fellow honorees; and todayâs graduates:
Iâm honored and grateful for the invitation today.
Itâs always great to be on the Penn campus. Iâve been to a lot of basketball games at the Palestra because my son played on the team. Coach didnât give him enough playing time, but weâll talk about that later. No, Iâm very pleased with the progress Coach Allen has made and I wish them success in the future.
Iâd always get a warm welcome hereâexcept on the few occasions when Iâd wear my Yankees cap.
Itâs like taking your life in your hands. People would say: âWe love you Denzel. But you walking around with that hat onâŚwe donât care who you are.â
So youâll be happy to see that Iâm not wearing my Yankees cap today.
But I am wearing my Yankees socks, my Yankees t-shirt, and my Yankees underwear.
Still, Iâll be honest with you: Iâm a little nervous. Speaking at a graduation of this magnitude is a little overwhelming.
This is out of my comfort zone.
Dress me up in army fatigues. Throw me on top of a moving train. Ask me to play Malcolm X, Rubin Hurricane Carter, Alonzo from Training Day: I can do all that.
But a commencement speech? Itâs a very serious affair. Different ballgame. Thereâs literally thousands and thousands of people here.
And for those who sayâyouâre a movie star, millions of people watch you speak all the timeâŚ
⌠Yes, thatâs technically true. But Iâm not actually there in the theaterâwatching them watching me.
Iâm not there when they cough⌠or fidget⌠or pull out their iPhone and text their boyfriend⌠or scratch their behinds.
From up here: I can see every single one of you. And that makes me uncomfortable.
So please, donât pull out your iPhone and text your boyfriend until after Iâm done.
But if you need to scratch your behinds, go right ahead. Iâll understand.
Thinking about the speech, I figured the best way to keep your attention would be to talk about some really juicy Hollywood stuff.
I thought I could start with me and Russell Crowe getting into some arguments on the set of American GangsterâŚ
⌠but no. Youâre a group of high-minded intellectuals. Youâre not interested in that.
Or how about that âprivateâ moment I had with Angelina Jolie half naked in her dressing room backstage at the Oscars?⌠Who wants to hear about that?
I donât think so. This is an Ivy League school. Angelina Jolie in her dressing roomâŚ?
No, this is Penn. That stuff wouldnât go over well here. Maybe at Drexelâbut not here. Iâm in trouble now.
I was back to square oneâand feeling the pressure.
So now youâre probably thinkingâif it was gonna be this difficult, whyâd I even accept todayâs invitation in the first place?
Well, you know my son goes here. Thatâs a good reason. And I always like to check to see how my moneyâs being spent.
And Iâm sure thereâs some parents out there who can relate to what Iâm talking about!
And there were other good reasons for me to show up.
Sure, I got an Academy Award⌠but I never had something called âMagic Meatballsâ after waiting in line for half an hour at a food truck.
True, Iâve talked face-to-face with President Obama⌠but I never met a guy named âKweederâ who sings bad cover songs at Smokes on a Tuesday night.
Yes, Iâve played a detective battling demons⌠but Iâve never been to a school in my life where the squirrel population has gone bananas, breaking into the dorm rooms and taking over campus. I think Iâve even seen some carrying books on the way to class!
So I had to be here. I had to come⌠even though I was afraid I might make a fool of myself.
In fact⌠if you really want to know the truth:
I had to come⌠exactly because I might make a fool of myself.
What am I talking about?
Well, here it is:
Iâve found that nothing in life is worthwhile unless you take risks.
Nothing.
Nelson Mandela said:
âThere is no passion to be found playing smallâin settling for a life thatâs less than the one youâre capable of living.â
Iâm sure in your experiencesâin school⌠in applying to college⌠in picking your major⌠in deciding what you want to do with lifeâpeople have told you to make sure you have something to âfall back on.â
But Iâve never understood that concept, having something to fall back on.
If Iâm going to fall, I donât want to fall back on anything, except my faith. I want to fall⌠forward.
At least I figure that way Iâll see what Iâm about to hit.
Fall forward.
Hereâs what I mean:
Reggie Jackson struck out twenty-six-hundred times in his careerâthe most in the history of baseball.
But you donât hear about the strikeouts. People remember the home runs.
Fall forward.
Thomas Edison conducted 1,000 failed experiments. Did you know that?
I didnât eitherâbecause #1,001 was the light bulb.
Fall forward.
Every failed experiment is one step closer to success.
Youâve got to take risks. And Iâm sure youâve probably heard that before.
But I want to talk about why itâs so important.
Iâve got three reasonsâand then you can pick up your iPhones.
First⌠you will fail at some point in your life. Accept it. You will lose. You will embarrass yourself. You will suck at something. There is no doubt about it.
Thatâs probably not a traditional message for a graduation ceremony. But, hey, Iâm telling youâembrace it.
Because itâs inevitable.
And I should know: In the acting business, you fail all the time.
Early in my career, I auditioned for a part in a Broadway musical. A perfect role for me, I thoughtâexcept for the fact that I canât sing.
So Iâm in the wings, about to go on stage, but the guy in front of me is singing like Pavarotti and I am just shrinking getting smaller and smaller…
So I come out with my little sheet music and it was âJust My Imaginationâ by the Temptations, thatâs what I came up with.
So I hand it to the accompanist, and she looks at it and looks at me and looks at the director, so I start to sing and theyâre not saying anything. I think I must be getting better, so I start getting into it.
But after the first verse, the director cuts me off: âThank you. Thank you very much, youâll be hearing from me.â
The next part of the audition is the acting part. I figure, I canât sing, but I know I can act.
But the guy I was paired with to do the scene couldnât be more overdramatic and over the top.
Suffice to say, I didnât get the part.
But hereâs the thing: I didnât quit. I didnât fall back.
I walked out of there to prepare for the next audition, and the next audition, and the next one. I prayed and I prayed, but I continued to fail, and I failed, and I failed.
But it didnât matter. Because you know what? You hang around a barbershop long enoughâsooner or later you will get a haircut.
You will catch a break.
Last year I did a play called Fences on Broadway and I won a Tony Award. And I didnât have to sing for it, by the way.
And hereâs the kickerâit was at the Court Theater, the same theater where I failed that first audition 30 years prior.
The point is, every graduate here today has the training and the talent to succeed.
But do you have guts to fail?
Hereâs my second point about failure:
If you donât fail⌠youâre not even trying.
My wife told me this expression: âTo get something you never had, you have to do something you never did.â
Les Brown, a motivational speaker, made an analogy about this.
Imagine youâre on your deathbedâand standing around your bed are the ghosts representing your unfilled potential.
The ghosts of the ideas you never acted on. The ghosts of the talents you didnât use.
And theyâre standing around your bed. Angry. Disappointed. Upset.
âWe came to you because you could have brought us to life,â they say. âAnd now we go to the grave together.â
So I ask you today: How many ghosts are going to be around your bed when your time comes?
You invested a lot in your education. And people invested in you.
And let me tell you, the world needs your talents.
Man, does it ever.
I just got back from four months of filming in South Africaâbeautiful country, but there are places with terrible poverty that need help.
And Africa is just the tip of the iceberg.
The Middle East needs your help. Japan needs your help. Alabama and Tennessee need your help. Louisiana needs your help. Philadelphia needs your help.
The world needs a lotâand we need it from you, the young people.
So get out there. Give it everything youâve gotâwhether itâs your time, your talent, your prayers, or your treasure.
Because remember this: Youâll never see a U-haul behind a hearse.
You canât take it with you. The Ancient Egyptians tried itâand all they got was robbed!
So what are you going to do with what you have? And Iâm not talking how much you have.
Some of you are business majors. Some of you are theologians, nurses, sociologists. Some of you have money. Some of you have patience. Some have kindness. Some have love. Some of you have the gift of long-suffering.
Whatever it is⌠what are you going to do with what you have?
Now hereâs my last point about failure:
Sometimes itâs the best way to figure out where youâre going.
Your life will never be a straight path.
I began at Fordham University as a pre-med student. That lasted until I took a course called âCardiac Morphogenesis.â
I couldnât pronounce it⌠and I couldnât pass it.
Then I decided to go pre-law. Then journalism.
With no academic focus, my grades took off in their own direction: down.
My GPA was 1.8 one semester, and the university very politely suggested it might be better to take some time off.
I was 20 years old, at my lowest point.
And then one dayâand I remember the exact day: March 27th, 1975âI was helping out in the beauty shop my mother owned in Mount Vernon.
An older woman who belonged to my motherâs church, one of the elders of the town, was in there getting her hair done and kept giving me these strange looks.
She finally took the drier off her head and said something to me Iâll never forget:
âYoung boy,â she said. âI have a spiritual prophecy: you are going to travel the world and speak to millions of people.â
Like a wise-ass, Iâm thinking to myself: âDoes she got anything in that crystal ball about me getting back to college in the fall?â
But maybe she was on to something. Because later that summer, while working as a counselor at a YMCA camp in Connecticut, we put on a talent show for the campers.
After the show, another counselor came up to me and asked: âHave you ever thought of acting? You should. Youâre good at that.â
When I got back to Fordham that fall I changed my major once again âfor the last time.
And in the years that followedâjust as that woman getting her hair done predictedâI have traveled the world and I have spoken to millions of people through my movies.
Millions whoâup âtill todayâI couldnât see while I was talking to them.
But I do see you today. And Iâm encouraged by what I see. Iâm strengthened by what I see. I love what I see.
Let me conclude with one final point. Many years ago I did this movie called Philadelphia. We actually filmed some scenes right here on campus.
Philadelphia came out in 1993, when most of you were probably still crawling around in diapers. Some of the professors, too.
But itâs a good movie. Rent it on Netflix. I get 23 cents every time you do. Tell your friends, too!
Itâs about a man, played by Tom Hanks, whoâs fired from his law firm because he has AIDS.
He wants to sue the firm, but no oneâs willing to represent him until a homophobic, ambulance-chasing lawyerâplayed by yours trulyâtakes on the case.
In a way, if you watch the movie, youâll see everything Iâm talking about today.
Youâll see what I mean about taking risks or being willing to fail.
Because taking a risk is not just about going for a job.
Itâs also about knowing what you know and what you donât know. Itâs about being open to people and ideas.
Over the course of the film, the character I play begins to take risks. He slowly overcomes his fears, and ultimately his heart becomes flooded with love.
And I canât think of a better message as we send you off today.
To not only take risks, but to be open to life.
To accept new views and to be open to new opinions.
To be willing to speak at the commencement at one of the countryâs best universities⌠even though youâre scared stiff.
While it may be frightening, it will also be rewarding.
Because the chances you take⌠the people you meet⌠the people you love… the faith that you haveâthatâs whatâs going to define your life.
So⌠members of the class of 2011: This is your mission:
When you leave the friendly confines of West Philly: Never be discouraged. Never hold back. Give everything youâve got.
And when you fall throughout lifeâand maybe even tonight after a few too many glasses of champagneâfall forward.
Congratulations, I love you, God bless you, I respect you.
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