Tuesday, January 15, 2013

To the Movie Fans Out There

Dear students, 

If you are movie fans and you have seen any of Jodie Foster´s films, you may enjoy  this post; otherwise, take it as a listening exercise or as an example of a speech given from the heart. 

Jodie Foster is an American actress, director and producer, who got the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award at the Golden Globes ceremony last Sunday: she is 50 years old but she has been working as an actress since she was 3 years old and this was a prize for her work all those years. 

Jodie Foster is an educated and knowledgeable person: she got a bachelor´s degree for literature from Yale university in 1985 and an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts (from Yale, too) in 1997; she speaks several languages: she is very fluent  at French but can understand German, Spanish and Italian; in short, a learned person.

Listen to her speech in the video below while you read the transcript


Transcript: 

Thank you. Well, for all you SNL fans, I’m 50! I’m 50! You know, I need to do that without this dress on, but you know, maybe later. What do you say? I’m 50. You know, I was gonna bring my walker tonight, but it just didn’t go with the cleavage. Robert [Downey Jr.], I wanna thank you for everything, for your bat-crazed, rapid-fire brain, the sweet intro. I love you and Susan, and I am so grateful that you continually talk me off the ledge when I go on and foam at the mouth and say, “I’m done with acting, I’m done with acting, I’m really done, I’m done, I’m done!” Trust me, 47 years in the film business is a long time, you just ask those Golden Globies because, you crazy kids, you’ve been around here forever, you know? Phil, you’re a nut. Aida, Scott, thank you for honoring me tonight. It is the most fun party of the year, and tonight I feel like the prom queen. Thank you.

Looking at those clips—you know, the hairdos and freaky platform shoes—it’s like a home movie nightmare that just won’t end, and all of these people sitting here at these tables, they’re my family of sorts. Fathers, mostly. Executives, producers, directors, my fellow actors out there. We’ve giggled through love scenes, we’ve punched and cried and spit and vomited and blown snot all over one another, and those are just the costars I liked. But, you know, more than anyone else I share my most special memories with members of the crew. Blood-shaking friendships, brothers and sisters, we made movies together, and you can’t get more intimate than that.

Looking at those clips—you know, the hairdos and freaky platform shoes—it’s like a home movie nightmare that just won’t end, and all of these people sitting here at these tables, they’re my family of sorts. Fathers, mostly. Executives, producers, directors, my fellow actors out there. We’ve giggled through love scenes, we’ve punched and cried and spit and vomited and blown snot all over one another, and those are just the costars I liked. But, you know, more than anyone else I share my most special memories with members of the crew. Blood-shaking friendships, brothers and sisters, we made movies together, and you can’t get more intimate than that.

There is no way I could ever stand here without acknowledging one of the deepest loves of my life, my heroic co-parent, my ex-partner in love but righteous soul sister in life, my confessor, ski buddy, consigliere, most beloved BFF of 20 years, Cydney Bernard. Thank you, Cyd. I am so proud of our modern family, our amazing sons, Charlie and Kit, who are my reason to breathe and to evolve, my blood and soul. And boys, in case you didn’t know it, this song, like all of this, this song is for you.


This brings me to the greatest influence in my life, my amazing mother, Evelyn. Mom, I know you’re inside those blue eyes somewhere, and that there are so many things that you won’t understand tonight, but this is the only important one to take in: I love you, I love you, I love you. And I hope that if I say this three times, it will magically and perfectly enter into your soul, fill you with grace, and the joy of knowing that you did good in this life. You’re a great mom, please take that with you when you’re finally OK to go. You see, Charlie and Kit, sometimes your mom loses it too.
I can’t help but get moony, you know, this feels like the end of one era and the beginning of something else. Scary and exciting, and now what? Well, I may never be up on this stage again, on any stage for that matter. Change, you gotta love it. I will continue to tell stories, to move people by being moved, the greatest job in the world. It’s just that from now on I may be holding a different talking stick, and maybe it won’t be as sparkly, maybe it won’t open on 3,000 screens, maybe it will be so quiet and delicate that only dogs can hear it whistle. But it will be my writing on the wall: “Jodie Foster was here, I still am, and I want to be seen, to be understood deeply, and to be not so very lonely.” Thank you, all of you, for the company. Here’s to the next 50 years.

2 comments:

  1. Alejo Reija Chao29 January, 2013

    Wow, I didn't know Jodio Foster but I like the speeche so much. Looking for examples of speeches I remembered one of one of my favourites films which, athough you don't like sports very much, it's really exciting.
    It's an Al Pacino speech from "Any given Sunday". I looked for one with subtitles because in english is better than in spanish.

    Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aor6dFeOwjA

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...