Denzel WashingtonGraduation Speech

Adopted from 2011 Pennsylvania Commencement speech

http://gradspeeches.com/2011/university-of-pennsylvania/denzel-washington

President Gutmann,Provost Price, Board Chair Cohen, fellow honorees beautiful, andtoday’s graduates, I’m honored and grateful for the invitationtoday. It’s always been great to be on the Penn campus. I’ve beento a lot of basketball games at the Palestra because my son playedon the basketball team. Yeah that’s right; he played on thebasketball team. Coach didn’t give him enough playing time butwe’ll talk about that later.

I’d always get a warmwelcome when I come to Pennsylvania, when I come to Philadelphia.Still, I’ll be honest with you, I’m a little nervous. I’m not usedto speaking at a graduation of this magnitude.

Thinking about thespeech, I figured the best way to keep your attention would be totalk about something really, like, juicy Hollywood stuff. I thoughtI could start with me and Russell Crowe getting into some argumentson the set of American Gangster, but no.

You’re a group ofhigh-minded intellectuals, you’re not interested in that or maybenot. I thought about a private moment I had backstage with AngelinaJolie half naked in her dressing room after the Oscars but I said,“No I don’t think so this is an Ivy League school. Angelina Joliehalf naked in her dressing room, who wants to hear about that? Noone, no one, no one, this is Penn. That stuff would never go overwell here.

So now you’reprobably thinking if it was going be this difficult, why’d I evenaccept today’s invitation in the first place? I had to comebecause I’ve found that nothing in life is worthwhileunless you take risks, nothing.

Nelson Mandela said,“There is no passion to be found playing small, in settling for alife that’s less than the one you’re capable of living.” I’m surein your experiences in school, in applying to college, in pickingyour major, in deciding what you want to do with life.

Reggie Jackson struckout twenty-six-hundred times in his career, the most in the historyof baseball. But you don’t hear about the strikeouts. Peopleremember the home runs.

Thomas Edisonconducted 1,000 failed experiments before inventing the light bulb.Did you know that?

I’ve got three reasons:

First, youwill fail at some point in your life. Accept it. Youwill lose. You will suck at something. There is no doubt about it.That’s probably not a traditional message for a graduation ceremonybut hey, I’m telling you, embrace it because it’s inevitable. And Ishould know, in the acting business, you fail all the time.

Early on in mycareer, I auditioned for a part in a Broadway musical. A perfectrole for me, I thought, except for the fact that I can’t sing. So,I’m about to go on stage but the guy in front of me is singing likePavarotti and I am just shrinking getting smaller and smaller. Sothey say, “Thank you very much, thank you very much; you’ll behearing from us.” So I come out with my little sheet music, so Istart to sing, but after the first verse, the director cuts me off:“Thank you. Thank you very much, you’ll be hearing from me.” So Iassumed I didn’t get the job, but the next part of the audition, hecalled me back.

The next part of theaudition is the acting part of the audition. I figure, I can’tsing, but I know I can act.

So they paired mewith this guy and again I didn’t know about musical theater. Myline was “Hand me the cup.” and his line was “Well, I will hand youthe cup my dear, and it will be there to be handed to you.”

I said, “Okay. ShouldI give you the cup back?” “Oh yes you should give it back to mebecause you know that is my cup and it should be given back to me!”I didn’t get the job. But here’s the thing, I didn’t quit. I didn’tfall back. I walked out of there to prepare for the next audition,and the next audition, and the next audition. I prayed and Iprayed, but I continued to fail, and I failed, and failed but itdidn’t matter because you know what?

There’s an old saying, you hang arounda barbershop long enough, and sooner or later you will get ahaircut.

Last year I did a playcalled Fences on Broadway and I won a Tony Award. And I didn’t haveto sing, by the way. It was at the same theater where I failed thatfirst audition thirty years prior. The point is, and I’ll pick upthe pace, every graduate here today has the training and the talentto succeed but do you have guts to fail?

Here’s mysecond point about failure, if you don’t fail, you’renot even trying. My wife told me this great expression, “To getsomething you never had, you have to do something you neverdid.”

You’ve invested a lotin your education and people invested in you. And let me tell you,the world needs your talents, man, does it ever. I just got backfrom Africa a couple of days ago. It’s a beautiful country, butthere are places with terrible poverty that need help. And Africais just the tip of the iceberg. The Middle East needs your help.Japan needs your help. Alabama and Tennessee need your help. Theworld needs a lot and we need it from you, we really do, we need itfrom you the young people. So get out there. Give it everythingyou’ve got whether it’s your time, your talent, your prayers, oryour treasures.

Now here’s mylast point about failure, sometimes it’s the best wayto figure out where you’re going. Your life will never be astraight path. I began at Fordham University as a pre-med student.That lasted until I took a course called “Cardiac Morphogenesis.”I

couldn’t read it; Icouldn’t say it; I sure couldn’t pass it. Then I decided to gopre-law, then journalism. With no academic focus, my grades tookoff in their own direction down. I was a, 1.8 GPA one semester, andthe university very politely suggested it might be better to takesome time off. I was 20 years old, at my lowest point.

The summer of thatyear, while working as a counselor at a YMCA camp in Connecticut;we put on a talent show for the campers. After that show, anothercounselor came up to me and asked, “Have you ever thought ofacting? You should. You’re good at that.”

When I got back to Fordham that fall Ichanged my major once again, for the last time.

To conclude what Imean refers to taking risks or being willing to fail. Becausetaking a risk is not just about going for a job. It’s also aboutknowing what you know and what you don’t know. It’s about beingopen to people and ideas. And I can’t think of a better message aswe send you off today, to not only take risks, but to be open tolife, to accept new views and to be open to new opinions, to bewilling to speak at commencement at one of the country’s bestuniversities even though you’re scared stiff. While it may befrightening, it will also be rewarding because the chances youtake, the people you meet, the people you love, the faith that youhave that’s what’s going to define you.

So members of theclass of 2011, this is your mission. When you leave the friendlyconfines of Philly, never be discouraged. Never hold back. Giveeverything you’ve got. And when you fall throughout life and maybeeven tonight after a few too many glasses of champagne, rememberthis, fall forward.

Congratulations, I love you, God blessyou; I respect you.

1. Kairos: Is this speech powerful consideringthe rhetorical situation (the time/ place) it was delivered? Why doyou think so? Where else could this speech have the sameeffect? Explain (3p)
2. Ethos: How is the speaker establishing hiscredibility as a speaker and the credibility of his argument/ hisclaims? Explain referring to the speech(3p)
3. Decorum (as a part of Ethos, decorum meansto fit into expectations of the audience) Well,knowing that Denzel Washington is a famous actor, and being invitedto do graduation speech, we/ the audience surely expects him todeliver a“brilliant”/good speech, at least to present his speech with confidence, andyet he starts the speech confessing how unorganized, unprepared,and unconfident he feels.

Why do you think he doesso? What do we expect from a graduation speaker, from afamous actor and how do you feel as an audience seeing himunprepared? Does he fit into “our” expected confidentspeaker framework by the end of his speech atleast? State your thoughts about all these that canrefer to “decorum”-fitting into the expectations of theaudience. (3p)

4. Pathos: How is the author appealing to hisaudiences’ emotions? What kind of emotions is the author evoking inhis audience (state at least 2 emotions and refer to the speechvideo or the transcript to support your claim with factsfrom the speech) What can you say about humor he uses, do you thinkit is effective? Explain! (3p)
5. Logos: how is his speech logical? Explainreferring to the speech. Also, consider the structure of the speechand comment how this can make his speech logical.(3p)
6. Rhetorical Tenses: (Past, Present,Future): The speaker refers to his past, he alsois speaking of the present, and surely“teaches”lifelessons for the future. In fewsentences, state how effective do you think this changes of tenseswithin the speech are? Provide just your thoughts/ comments /opinion on this and refer to specific examples from the speech thatcan relate to these 3 tenses. (3p)