Translator: Catherine Dean Reviewer: Denise RQ
When I was offered the chance to come and do a presentation,
to come and talk to you,
at first, I refused thinking that as I'm young,
it wasn't really my place to broadcast a message.
It's true, it's better to let a professional do it,
someone who has experienced very interesting things,
and who will have enough distance to talk about their experiences.
And then, I thought that the lack of distance could be a strength.
The transition to working life for young people,
young people's ambition,
young people's failures and perseverance,
are topics that affect my acquaintances every day,
and me, too, for that matter,
because, I know, it doesn't look like it, but I am young.
(Laughter)
When I arrived, you thought, "Ah! Another old man!"
But no! I'm joking.
Here, in Canada anyway, there is a fantastic young man,
more than that even, it's Xavier Dolan.
So, I think you all know him for his filmography, among other things.
He hugely helped and inspired me, without him even knowing it.
Firstly, of course, for his filmography
but also for a little sentence he said when he received his award,
the Jury Prize of the Cannes Film Festival in 2014,
"I think everything is possible
for those who dream, dare, work, and never give up."
It's so simple, but this little sentence, even though it's simple,
filled me with optimism, recharged my brain,
because Xavier Dolan proves every single day
that we can do things for good reasons
before even being able to legally watch porn,
he proves that filming and production isn't only for old bearded man
- and on my part, it was thrilling, because I didn't have a beard -
and he also proves that age doesn't guarantee genius;
and let me tell you that it felt good.
We also have to tell ourselves one thing,
and that's that this little sentence can have an huge impact,
and this was the case for me.
I think everything is possible for those who dream, dare, work, and never give up.
This is awesome!
I think everything is possible, everything is possible,
for those who dream, dare, work, and never give up.
This means that if you work, dare, and dream,
everything is possible.
Good, right?
Me, it boosted me, it energized me.
First of all, to dream; it's the genesis. Everything is possible when we dream.
Dreams help create ambition,
and for this ambition to solidify, to strengthen,
we need to believe in our dreams.
So, it creates a kind of circle;
yes, that's how I draw a circle, it's a bit ridiculous,
especially since I do it for a long time.
It creates a sort of circle
that may seem easy to do, but it's not quite so easy.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry once said,
"Make your life a dream, and a dream, a reality."
So, let's get things clear straight away, there are dreams we have when we sleep,
like the one where I kiss Julia Roberts,
and the dreams we have when we're awake, projection.
It's what we do when we're lost, when we look into the distance,
when we smile like idiots because we're imagining a bright future.
I'm talking about that dream.
For this dream to become an ambition, it's up to the person themselves to say
that yes, it's possible it won't just be a dream for all our lives.
And secondly, it's also, up to this person's acquaintances
to condition, motivate them, and to tell them,
"Yes, mate, it'll take work, but you can do it."
And, as I told you before, to go from dream to ambition
I believe it just takes a little spark.
I believe it takes self-confidence to help create this little spark.
You know this better than me,
self-confidence, often takes nothing at all.
I remember a teacher in high school who was called Mister Lacombe,
quite a stocky guy, 2 meters and 5', with a small beard,
he was a maths teacher,
and he would say at the start of the year, "Try to solve this problem."
And then after three months, I don't know why, he started to say,
"We'll see how long it takes you to find the solution."
And in hindsight, because despite my young age,
I can look back at my years in high school with hindsight,
I remember that we didn't experience the exercises in the same way.
In the first case, Mr Lacombe spoke of a problem,
in the second, he spoke of a solution.
In the first case, he asked us to try,
in the second, he says that we will succeed.
It's really simple, it's true.
Thanks for interacting.
But, in any case, it's really motivating.
Dreams are the genesis, ambition is the driving force,
and to create your action plan, you must, wait, this is planned,
"Dare."
It's timed! It's not easy to dare.
And I'm not sure if it's in man's nature to dare.
I think man is easily pleased, this is my view,
and it's dangerous.
It can't just be the elite that dares, otherwise it's not fun.
Everyone can and must dare, in their own time,
however they want, with their own means.
For example, daring to say no to, "We will do your parents' job,"
if we don't want to,
is already a hard and substantial thing to do.
Besides, about this, just a little interlude here,
for parents, if there are any here, who tend to want to impose
their passions and their work on their children,
you know the film "Billy Elliot"?
Watch it.
There, I'm just saying...
Watch it,
enjoy it or not, it doesn't matter, understand the message, that's all.
On my small scale, I remember, a few years ago,
I dared to skip school and to go against my parents
to go and interview celebrities in Paris.
Now, it seems laughable, but at the time, it was something.
Daring to move beyond your world, discovering new things,
for young people, is complicated but necessary.
My world, at the time, and that of many young people today,
amounted to school, home, bus, Internet,
Facebook, Twitter, SnapChat, Instagram, YouPorn,
Uh, YouTube!
Sorry, I don't know...
YouPorn? Don't know what it is. Is it a cooking website?
I don't know what it is, it just slipped out like that.
Daring to discover, daring to experiment,
daring to have confidence,
daring to take the journey we want for ourselves,
is to difference ourselves from others.
Daring, is to put ourselves in danger. Daring is to lose our grounding.
Whereas doing nothing, is to be sure of what we'll do tomorrow.
And to dare, there is a great advantage, it's courage.
As the famous French jazzman Claude Nougaro once said,
"I have the heart but not the stomach."
Stomach, we need some to dare.
Let's use the analogy of Tony, that friend we all had in school,
I think you had him.
Tony was that stylish guy, a little bigger than the rest,
who listened to rock music, who had a Mohican and a gold chain.
We all hated him. Why?
Because he went out with all the girls, while we spent our evenings on YouTube.
So, what were we afraid of? Of the unknown, of girls.
We were afraid to talk to her,
of being turned down, of being mocked at school.
I left high school a long time ago, around two weeks,
and it's now obvious to me that Tony was right.
We should surpass and jump this barrier that was only psychological,
and dared to say, "Hi, Melanie!"
Yes, I had braces at the time. "Hi Melanie, it'th Panayotich."
"No, I'm not new here,
we've sat nexth to each other in class for two years."
"I wanted to thay: you look a lot like Julia Roberths."
Yes, that was my pick-up line.
I thought that telling a girl she looks like Julia Roberts
was to get on her good side. but no, it's not a problem.
In any case, flirting, it's something you have to "work" on.
Did you see that? The transitions aren't bad!
(Laughter)
I'm working on it.
"To work" -
what will be determinant, is to not work.
Everybody does it.
It's to know why we work, what's the meaning behind it all.
I think that finding a goal for all these efforts is a priority.
I'm not talking about the "work" we do at the weekend
to earn a bit of cash.
No, I'm talking about the work that has a deep meaning.
The one that will bring you experience and self-confidence.
It won't necessarily have a tangible or direct impact
on your bank account,
but that will give you something even more important.
From the age of 12 to 15, I carried out a dozen interviews.
At the start, it was limiting.
I didn't go out with friends at the weekend,
because I had some editing to do.
I went to bed late, because I had editing to do.
I didn't have a girlfriend, because I didn't know how to flirt.
But it also brought me various skills, some were technical:
how to use a camera, edit, mix, calibrate,
some were social:
becoming more tactful with people, more self-confident,
expanding my address book.
I made a lot of friends with whom I still work with today.
It also taught how to deal with stress,
how to deal with big responsibilities, to acquire a sense of priorities.
For example, when I received my first actor's wage,
yes, I'm sometimes an actor.
When I get my first actor's wage, without hesitation I bought myself a Mac,
to go on YouTube in the evenings,
and a some editing software, to practice editing.
And it was from that moment
that I started to direct all my choices, even the simplest ones,
according to my passion and my work.
It wasn't limiting, it was a pleasure.
Working, finding a goal behind all this, is crucial, I think.
Working in class, okay, why not?
But if we knew why we work in class in school,
if we knew it wasn't necessarily time
we were spending on things that don't really interest us,
but if we tell ourselves that it's for our future,
we won't see it as a waste of time.
We see this as something to help us build a bright future.
Now, we've dreamt, we've dared,
we've worked, there's one thing left to do,
but it's not the least, it's, "Don't give up."
We encounter, and it's normal,
on our journey, more and more obstacles that weaken the little flame inside us.
Obstacles, small or big.
Me, I don't have much experience,
so I haven't experienced or encountered any big obstacles yet.
Touch wood, I'll never encounter any big ones.
But for now, I have encountered small ones.
And these obstacles weaken this small flame inside us,
that told us, "Yes, of course you can become a surgeon!"
"Of course, you can become, a basketball player, a doctor, a physio!"
"You can be an extra in a Julia Roberts film
to try to kiss her at the end of filming!" Sorry, that for me, was my passion.
Julia Roberts is magnificent.
The danger is that this small flame will go out,
and that we'll forget our dream.
When we dreamt of becoming a surgeon,
and we told ourselves, "It's good to be a surgeon."
and we worked to achieve this,
and that we first dared to say, "It's possible."
And we don't have to stop just because we killed a few patients.
That's maybe not a good example.
(Laughter)
It's not a good example, I'm sorry. Although, I like this example.
But, in any case, in order to not abandon,
to maintain this flame of motivation and ambition,
I can suggest a little something that really helped me,
it is to meet your idols,
or the influential people of the world in which you want to enter.
For me, this was this famous young director Xavier Dolan,
who I was lucky enough to meet an hour after his speech,
"I think everything is possible for those who dream, dare ..."
Sorry, I just spit something enormous, it doesn't matter,
we might have to clean up for the next speaker.
And I was lucky enough the meet him an hour after this famous speech.
I saw him in a corridor,
because I was invited to the Cannes Film Festival
after sending two or three emails, about a hundred,
to the accreditation committee,
and they got fed up of receiving so many emails
so they thought, "Go on, we'll invite him."
So, I was lucky enough to bump into him in a corridor an hour after his speech.
I wanted to seem confident, I said, "Hello, Panayotis."
But I was actually thinking, "Fuck, it's Xavier Dolan!
He's less than three metres away, pretend you didn't see him!"
"Hi, hello!"
So I went to see him, and I said to him, "Hello Xavier, Panayotis."
And we had a chat.
For me, it was a superb, a fantastic chat.
I was on a cloud.
For him, it was a mundane chat, but I didn't care.
We chatted for ten minutes,
and I remember that after this rewarding and interesting chat,
he left, and I watched him like an idiot.
I forgot everything I'd just been through,
the small obstacles I'd encountered just before,
meaning failed auditions, not many views for my videos,
videos that weren't even published, problems in school
because I'd skip class to make the videos, etc.
All that, was forgotten, was gone.
I had just one thing in mind,
which was, "It's true, that's why I want to do this job.
This is why I want to do this fucking job."
I had a big smile,
I was all set for another three years
of this infamous journey to achieve my goal!
And, as I'm sort of a pro,
I went after him, and as my goal was for us to become
coworkers or colleagues,
I gave him my business card.
Not really! I took a selfie.
Each to their own, and young people take selfies.
In any case, there's a second thing I want to talk about,
Hello!
You didn't think there was going to be any interaction!
Bad luck, there's no wall here! If I want you to talk, you will!
The other thing that I want to talk about,
it's to deepen your understanding of the area in which you want to evolve.
For me, from the start, I wanted to be an actor,
but I tried a bit of filmmaking, writing skits, staging, etc.
What makes us want to eat cake more
than going back and forth in front of the display case?
There's a last point, yes, there are many in this section,
I thought, "We're going to have loads of points!"
The last little point, that was a huge help for me too,
was to relativize the notions of failure and success.
At the time, and I know many young people who think like this,
I thought that there are two paths:
the path of success and the path of failure.
This is wrong.
I think that there is only one path, that leads, if we persevere,
to success with a capital "s."
This unique path entails small failures, small successes,
small failures, small successes.
You can't stop at the first failure thinking,
"I'm on the path to failure." It's wrong.
You have to carry on, continue.
And on this path, to keep with this almost spiritual metaphor,
we encounter numerous people who help us continue, who hold our hands,
who give, or give back that small spark, and who see it in our eyes.
It's true that success,
can also be felt through other people's eyes.
Creating a gang, a team working with people in perfect harmony,
is something that I was lucky enough to experience.
Let me tell you that when you hang out with bright minds
who have the same ambition as you,
who see this famous path in the same way as you,
it's worth maybe ten bright minds, looking in different directions.
To conclude, I would like to share with you the best advice
that I was given in my life, even though it's been short,
I'm not that old,
but I'm going to say "in my life" just for show.
The best advice I was given in my life,
is not the most academic advice I could have been given,
but it was the one that stuck with me.
When I was eleven or twelve, I interviewed Orelsan,
who is one of the most famous French rappers.
I was super happy, the interview went well.
I just forgot to turn the microphone on.
So half --
Hey! That's enough!
(Laughter)
So half of the interview went straight in the bin.
We were able to retrieve some sound with iPhones,
it was shitty...
I remember that I finished the editing, showed it to my dad.
He looked at me and said, "You flunked it!
Take a breathe, work on it, you'll do better next time."
Thanks for listening to a youngster.
Thank you very much.
(Applause)