11 February 2017, Pasadena, California, 2017
[Winner, Most Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture]
Thanks writers of Fences
Without commitment, you’ll never start, but more importantly, without consistency, you’ll never finish. It’s not easy. If it were easy there’d be no Kerry Washington. If it were easy there’d be no Taraji Henson, (corrects himself) P Henson, it it were easy there’d be no Octavia Spencer. But Not only that, if it were easy there’d be no Viola Davis. If it were easy there’d be no Mykelti Williamson, no Stephen McKinley Henderson, no Russell Hornsby, if it were easy there’d be no Denzel Washington.
So, keep working, keep striving, never give up, fall down seven times, get up eight.
Ease is a greater threat to progress than hardship.
Ease is a greater threat to progress than hardship.
So keep moving, keep growing, keep learning.
See you at work.
Related content: Denzel Washington, UPenn Commencement, 'Fall forward', 2011
"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? It’s a very serious affair. Different ballgame. There’s literally thousands and thousands of people here."