|
|
|
|
|
|
Ron Howard
Oscar for Best Director
The environment, particularly on The Andy Griffith Show , was really wonderful and very inclusive. And if there's any reason that I like reaching out and talking to people about what I do, it's because that was very much the environment on The Andy Griffith Show . The actors were really allowed to participate, to contribute. And even as a kid -- I'm talking about six, seven, eight years old -- I was allowed to raise my hand and offer up a point of view about a scene, or changing a line of dialogue, or making something a little bit more natural. I was allowed to participate. And, you know, imagine the sort of self esteem that goes along with being accepted by a bunch of adults. It was extraordinary.
View Interview with Ron Howard
View Biography of Ron Howard
View Profile of Ron Howard
View Photo Gallery of Ron Howard
|
|
Ron Howard
Oscar for Best Director
Creative undertakings: putting on shows, working in groups on projects, school projects, research projects, making films or videotapes. I always think that they're, in a way, a kind of better model for how to get things done in life than, for example, playing sports. I used to play and coach kids, and I love sports. I love athletic endeavors. But the fact is, that that always boils down to split-second reaction time and dedication. Preparation and then execution -- split second execution. And most human endeavors don't depend on that. They depend on a more methodical, careful consideration of all the possibilities. And then the dedication, and the execution. I always think that creative projects are actually a better training ground for getting things done in the real world, in real life.
View Interview with Ron Howard
View Biography of Ron Howard
View Profile of Ron Howard
View Photo Gallery of Ron Howard
|
|
John Hume
Nobel Prize for Peace
John Hume: The subjects that I specialized in eventually, when I got to university, and got my degree in, were French and history, so that I became a very fluent speaker of another people's language. And, of course, that obviously developed my whole concept of diversity, and of the actual diversity of the world and it made a big -- and of course, my history, as well. Obviously, your education does develop your philosophy, and central to my philosophy, of course, is the whole concept of respect for diversity. The realization is that difference is of the essence of humanity. There's not two people in the whole world who are the same, and when you look at conflict, no matter where it is, what's it about? It's about difference, whether it's religion, race, or nationality, and the answer to difference, as I have kept saying, is to respect, not to fight about it because difference is an accident of birth. Not one of us chose to be born into any particular community. Therefore, when I see a divided community like our own, I would say to people on the other side of that community, if you had been born into the other community, would you be fighting with what is now your old community and vice versa?
View Interview with John Hume
View Biography of John Hume
View Profile of John Hume
View Photo Gallery of John Hume
|
|
Jeremy Irons
Award-winning Stage and Screen Actor
I remember particularly when the principal -- a great man called Nat Brenner who is sadly now dead, a great man of the theater -- he was talking to us, and he was asking people why they wanted to become an actor and what they had been doing. And there were people, they had done -- they'd sold ice cream in Mongolia, they'd made ballet shoes in Brisbane, they had done extraordinary things. He said, "What have you done?" I said, "Well, I haven't done anything really. I sing a bit." He said, "Why do you want to be an actor?" I said, "I don't know. I just think it's quite nice." Anyway, he talked to me. I think he saw the window that I was and took me on. But as I say, in the two years I learned various skills. I learned a little bit about the theater, about styles, about how to speak, how to stand, how to sing -- not using my nose like Bob Dylan, but actually sing -- using my diaphragm. And at the end of the two years, five of us were chosen to go down into the theater, into the Bristol Old Vic company itself.
View Interview with Jeremy Irons
View Biography of Jeremy Irons
View Profile of Jeremy Irons
View Photo Gallery of Jeremy Irons
|
| |
|
