Translator: Tanya Cushman Reviewer: Peter van de Ven
On the road to embodying your potential,
sometimes we're lucky enough to have someone point it out to us:
"Hey, you're tall and fast.
Bet you'd be good at basketball."
But often our most important journeys
begin with no roadmap, no guide book, no cheer squad.
Just you and your own heart, beating much too fast for sanity.
From the age of nine, I wanted to be an actor.
That's why I started learning accents,
just in case I ever play someone from Rochester,
or Roma.
But at one point, I realized if I'm wanting to be an actor,
that means I am not an actor yet.
Okay.
What would it mean to be an actor?
To live by my craft,
creating meaningful art with inspiring people.
If I wanted to do that, I had to make the space for it.
So, I quit my box-office job and put on my first one-woman show:
"Amy Walker, Inside Out."
With the revenue I made, I moved to a city,
started auditioning and got an agent,
and started auditioning
for every meaningless commercial and industrial that came my way.
This is my craft, apparently.
Because people told me,
"You just have to take any job; you know, you've got to be seen."
But I didn't think Steven Spielberg would be sitting on his couch one night
and go, "Wait, that relieved-looking woman in the Pepto commercial,
(Laughter)
she's the one to star in my next inspiring film."
(Laughter)
No, if I wanted to work with the Jane Campions
and the several amazing Stevens of the film world,
I'd have to show them
I'm just as passionately dedicated to honing my craft as they are.
Is that all? Great.
How do we do that?
Well, start with what you have, kid.
A videographer had filmed my first one-woman show,
so I put clips of it on YouTube.
Started making some other videos and building a kind of online showreel.
I had an idea to show some more range,
just in case a casting director happened on my site.
I thought, "Why don't I introduce myself
in a bunch of different accents in a single take."
21 sounded like a kind of catchy number.
So, I posted my video "21 Accents," having no idea of what would happen.
The video went viral
and caught the attention of the Today Show, NPR, Inside Edition,
Radio New Zealand, Australia,
schools putting it in their curricula;
I was whirlwind.
And at four a.m., I would wake up and have these ideas,
just soul-fire streaming through me,
for more videos, monologues, songs, musings on being human.
Suddenly, I was connecting to people all over the world
who were inspired by these little videos I was creating in my kitchen.
And then a funny thing happened:
Even though a big part of me was still waiting to be discovered,
to be given the opportunity
to make the sort of films that I wanted to make,
an idea came for exactly the sort of film I longed to make.
Only I didn't think I could do it.
So, I called my friend Marilee, more of a writer than myself,
and I said, "Marilee, you need to write a script for a film called 'Connected.'
It's a comedy-drama
about a diverse family struggling to stay connected in the internet age."
She said, "Okay."
So, we started hashing it out over Skype and email -
she was in China at the time -
and both of us felt like we were observers,
simply peering in the windows at a family whose story already existed.
It was a thrill to be co-writing.
Yeah, I'd been writing all my life,
and I'd even written three or four screenplay attempts,
but I wasn't a writer, right?
And then Marilee got busier with her family, her new baby,
and one day she said,
"Amy, I think you just need to finish this yourself."
She gave me the opportunity to expand my identity,
to include screenwriter,
something that was always on my "maybe, someday" list.
And you know, the moment she said it, I knew I could do it.
The screenplay practically flew from my fingers to the page.
She read it. Our friend Sandra read it.
And both of them said,
"This is exactly what families are going through right now.
The world needs to see this film."
Well, I'd always wanted to have a production company, someday, maybe.
And so, we co-founded SoulFire Films.
I contacted an executive producer
who had approached me previously about starring in a couple of his films,
and the first thing he said to me was
"Are you going to direct this? Because I think you should.
The way you wrote it, clearly you have a very strong vision for this film."
"Well, I, you know, dreamed of directing it,
maybe, someday, you know, but I didn't think that I could.
I mean, I've only directed theater before."
He said, "You know the first guy to climb Everest?
Do you think he should have backed down just because he'd never done it before?
All you need is a really great team,
some sherpas,
you'll be fine."
(Laughter)
So, opportunity number two:
Believe that I can direct the film of my dreams.
Thank you, Mark.
He also said, "If you raise the money yourselves,
you can retain control of the financial - of the creative -
creative control,
you know, of the creative integrity of the film,
and this was important to us.
So, we found opportunity number three:
While looking for the right producers to partner with,
begin producing the film of your dreams.
Okay ...
we had the script green-light tested;
it got the green light for marketability.
So we created a prospectus, a budget
and started pitching it to people with money,
on the basis of how much more money it would make them.
This felt pretty awful.
We wanted a way for anyone to be able to help make the film.
At the time, "21 Accents," the little video,
had received somewhere over 4 million views on YouTube.
And a woman observed,
"If just one out of every four of those people gives you one dollar,
you could make the film."
Well ...
that means we wouldn't have to get a million dollars from one person.
And if we could just inspire the hearts of a global community to give one dollar,
they could help make a movie,
and we could give them credit in the film as a producer.
And so we founded the Connected Film Project
as a way of inviting the world to collaborate.
But as the implications of micro-giving started to sink in,
we realized we have a larger goal.
It's not enough to make our dream come true.
When the film is completed and released,
we plan to utilize what we built and learned to help others.
Any revenue from the film that would normally go back to investors
will go forward to create the SoulFire Project,
an organization dedicated to empowering others
to manifest the dreams of their soulfire
through micro-giving - small gifts of time and resources.
Over the past three years,
I've had the fortune of working
with a very strong core team of people around the world
who help run the Connected Film Project.
Three of them are here today,
and I will get to meet them for the first time
after working together for over two years via Skype and email.
So, we'll get to connect in a new way.
Every day, I am humbled
by the way people around the world are believing this film into being.
It's not always easy.
When you're constantly expanding the bounds of what you think is possible,
there will be doubt.
Every time I make a major decision for the film
or even post a little video that I'm inspired to share,
part of me worries, what if they don't get it?
What if they hate it? Or they think I'm crazy.
Or they get offended somehow
by something that was intended to be a respectful exploration.
But then I think about letters people have written me,
about how some little video I made in my kitchen
or a hotel bathroom
helped him grieve the loss of his son,
helped her come out to her family,
and helped him forget for two hours the chronic pain he feels constantly.
When doubt creeps in, I ask myself,
"What if this small act could help even one person?
Would you deny them that
just because you're afraid of what people will think of you?"
Each of you has the potential to give something truly unique to the world.
And the world needs it;
we need what you have to give.
Yes, on the road to embodying your potential,
you will face dangers unknown and hardships unnumbered,
according to "The Labyrinth."
(Laughter)
The path might not be linear;
it may look more like a Twister board,
where you're asked to put your left hand on green,
when you already have your right hand red, your left foot blue,
your right foot yellow and your left buttock on puce.
(Laughter)
But the choice is this:
We can live our lives trying to identify everything in the world that we're not,
or ...
step by step,
we can expand our identity to embody the potential of who we are,
and when we see that magnificence reflected in the world around us,
we empower others to embody their potential
because we are all connected.
Thank you.
(Applause)