PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Denzel Washington confessed to a bit of stage fright in his latest role: Commencement speaker at the University of Pennsylvania.
Addressing about 5,000 graduates at the Ivy League
school in Philadelphia on Monday, the Oscar- and Tony-winning actor said the
academic ceremony was "a little overwhelming and out of my comfort
zone."
And that was his reason for accepting the
invitation to speak, he said.
"I had to come exactly because I might make a
fool of myself," said Washington. "I've found that nothing in life is
worthwhile unless you take risks. Nothing."
The 56-year-old star of "Malcolm X" and
"Philadelphia" delivered a humorous speech with a sobering truth:
Failure is inevitable. Yet instead of having something to fall back on, he
said, graduates should "fall forward" — learn from their mistakes and
keep going.
Thomas Edison had countless failed experiments
before succeeding with the light bulb, he said.
"Do you have the guts to fail?"
Washington said. "If you don't fail, you're not even trying."
One of his earliest failures was as a pre-med
student at Fordham University in New York, he said. He changed to pre-law, then
journalism, and was close to flunking out before switching to drama and getting
his degree.
Washington described a second failure about 30
years ago at a miserable tryout for a Broadway musical. Then last year, on the
same stage as that audition, Washington won a Tony award for his work in
"Fences."
The speech resonated with new grad Adam Shore, a
21-year-old physics major from the Philadelphia suburb of Dresher, Pa.
"No one ever tells a graduating class, 'You're
going to fail.' But it was very important for everyone to hear that,"
Shore said. "You can't go ... thinking you're going to succeed in every
way. You have to be realistic."
Washington also teased the crowd at Franklin Field
by alluding to Hollywood gossip, such as alleged arguments with Russell Crowe
on the set of "American Gangster" and an encounter with a partially
clothed Angelina Jolie in her dressing room. Washington and Jolie co-starred in
"The Bone Collector."
But then he demurred.
"You're a group of high-minded intellectuals,"
he said, tongue-in-cheek. "You're not interested in that."
Washington endeared himself to some students by
peppering the speech with references to favorite local hangouts. His son
Malcolm just finished his sophomore year on campus, and Washington often
traveled to see him play on Penn's basketball team.
"The coach didn't give him enough playing
time," Washington said, drawing laughs. "We'll talk about that
later."
Washington received an honorary doctorate at the
ceremony. In granting the degree, Penn President Amy Gutmann said that his
moving performances have "entertained us, inspired us and often
enlightened us." She also praised his off-screen work with charities and
social causes, including the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
Other honorary degree recipients included author
Joyce Carol Oates, husband-and-wife journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl
WuDunn, cellphone entrepreneur Mo Ibrahim, Nobel laureate Ei-ichi Negishi and
sociology scholar Renee C. Fox.
Copyright
2011 The Associated Press.
(AP
Photo/Matt Rourke)
