Imagine going to your graduation ceremony and Hugh Jackman shows up. Well, that’s exactly what happened to Arts graduates at Ball State University in the US over the weekend, with the Australian actor delivering the keynote speech.
While Jackman was seen on Channel Nine’s Today this morning talking all things Sheep Detectives (the new Babe meets Knives Out who-done-it film) releasing May 7 in Australia, his press tour hasn’t stopped the actor from celebrating becoming an honorary doctorate of arts, with his partner Sutton Foster an adjunct professor in the theatre department at the university in Indiana.
Jackman revealed that he turned down multiple requests throughout the years to speak at events such as this, because he “never felt ready.”
Now, the actor is urging students to find comfort in the discomfort, embrace uncertainty and failure, and follow what energises them — life lessons that highlight just how ‘unready’ everyone feels… even award-winning actors.
Accept uncertainty
The opening and main message in Hugh’s speech was about accepting uncertainty.
“Give me a few more years, I would think to myself,” he said. “You get this short window to summarise the meaning of life, how to live it to its fullest, and then that lives online forever. It’s a lot of pressure.”
“So why did I say yes now? I don’t know. In fact, if I could give a title to this speech, it would probably be, I don’t know.”
“Because it felt right, and maybe also at the very young age of 57, I finally realised I will never reach that point where I know everything, and neither does anybody else up on this stage… any sense of really knowing is going to come from you, and even you will feel unsure a lot.”
Trust your intuition
Hugh’s advice on trusting your intuition came after recalling how he fell into the theatre and acting world in the first place.
After starting university studying a degree in communications, admitting to just doing what he could to scrape by (which he, of course, does not condone now), the actor ended up falling in love with theatre after being assigned the lead for a ‘theatre appreciation’ elective he did to because it was deemed the easiest topic to gain credits.
“The moment I walked inside that house and was greeted by those actors, every cell in my body was telling me I had found my tribe, and that I just spent three years of my life doing the wrong degree,” he admitted in the speech. “How did I know? I felt it in my body that I had found my calling”
This intuition has followed him throughout his life.
“I learned a painful lesson in listening to that voice inside,” he said. “Every time I’ve listened to my heart, that small voice inside that was and is still guiding me, then I have known I was on the right path.”
Failure and mistakes are part of the path
It’s a given, but putting it in practice is difficult, Hugh explained.
“Let’s also embrace that even the mistakes may turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to us,” Hugh said to the crowd, which was met with applause.
“A lot of the best things that have ever happened to me have been mistakes or failures or random classes I joined to get me across the finish line.”
So, if you’re looking for a sign to fail (or have failed recently), rest assured that you’re on the right track.
Follow what energises you and own it in life
To conclude his speech, the actor encouraged the graduates to follow what energises them in life.
“What brings you pleasure? What is going to fuel you when you have to work unbelievably hard, which you will,” he asked.
“When you have to face fear and doubt and loneliness and failure, which you will. What lights you up? What is burning inside of you? The great Joseph Campbell said there is perhaps nothing worse than reaching the top of the ladder and discovering you’re on the wrong wall.
“Your heart, the little voice inside, will tell you what the right wall is, what the right ladder is for you. I wish every single one of you a life of adventure, surprise, delight, bold, glorious failures and successes, great friendships and love.
“And above all, the deep satisfaction that you are living your own life, yours, because no one can take that away from you.”
What great advice to take into the week, the year, and life itself.
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