Monday, January 28, 2019

Alan Alda at the Screen Actors Guild Awards Reminded Us to Understand One Another


To a massive ovation, Alan Alda gave a brief acceptance speech when he received his well-deserved Life Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild. Smiling, looking frail, speaking firmly but gently, slowly, and with dignity, he said one of the most important things one could ever hear: that an actor’s job is to help us understand one another.

“This comes at a time,” he says, “when I’ve had a chance to look back on my life and to think about what it means to be an actor.”  His saw an actor’s job as “to get inside a character’s head, to search for a way see a life from that person’s point of view, another person’s vision of the world.”

He related the point to our political and cultural divisions: “It may never be more urgent to see the world through another person’s eyes when the culture is divided so sharply.”

He received the honor; he explained why the honor was so important. He was right, of course; we need to bridge the divides. We don’t have to agree with one another, but we need to understand. Epideictic speech at its best.

Alan Alda has, by the way, a long history of giving superb speeches, and his speech transcripts over the years have been included in speech anthologies.

P.S. Never forget how important good delivery is. Alda spoke conversationally, warmly, and with emphasis. He didn’t yell; he didn’t mumble; he paused frequently, made eye contact, and connected deeply with his audience.  For more about epideictic speech, search in the box to the right.




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