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This happened when I was in New York to attend the N.Y. FILM CRITICS AWARDS Ceremony. The day before the ceremony, I was asked to be a presenter and give a speech for Christopher Doyle who was to receive an award for cinematography.
"Will you give a speech about Chris' life and add a few jokes too?", was the request. You should have seen who was following me! There was Hilary Swank, who was to be a presenter for Clint Eastwood. I was next to the last.
The ceremony was going gung ho and I was trying to rehearse the speech I had prepared the night before, over and over in my head. When I stood on the stage and faced the audience, I felt the friendly warmth from them.
There was a red carpet, and flash bulbs were popping outside, but inside though, it was a black tie occasion and there was only the official camera man. One can feel the love and mutual respect for each other's accomplishments. That calmed me, and I thought "I should just tell them the wonderful and great time I had with my friend. That's all." Right then, I felt peaceful.
I was here for Chris, my dear friend, and I decided that I was going to speak from my heart. I won't be using my prepared speech. I was not going to use the speech writer's words like the others. When I started my speech, to my surprise, the words came out smoothly. I even threw in some jokes! When I was finished, I was showered with 'NICE SPEECH!' by everyone.
There was a full course dinner that night, but for the life of me, I cannot recall if I had chicken or beef. I didn't have a drop of wine until then, so I said "AT LAST, I can drink now!" and downed one. I guess I took a gamble, because if I had messed it up, there might not be another invitation for Japanese.
<Today, you will see Sanada Hiroyuki where the red carpets are rolled. Too many Japanese have the inferiority complex because they lack the skill to speak, so no matter how much they want to be walking on the red carpet, they won't. And here he is, with no help from the translator, speaking English with ease.>
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