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№ 2004.015 — University of Wisconsin — Commencement address
Bradley Whitford
Field: arts
Actor Bradley Whitford, a Madison native, addresses graduates with humor about the awkwardness of commencement speeches before sharing six life principles drawn from his acting career, framed as 'Everything I Need to Know in Life I Learned on My Way to a Humiliating Audition.' He urges graduates to fall in love with their work, prepare diligently yet stay open to surprise, listen, and take action rather than remaining passive. He closes with a call to civic participation, democracy, and gratitude for the generations whose efforts made the graduates' achievements possible.
Key moments
- 01 Joking about being a less prestigious speaker than President Bush at Concordia College
- 02 Presenting six acting-derived life principles, including loving the process and taking action
- 03 Quoting Nelson Mandela on fear of our own power
- 04 Urging civic participation and democracy, citing George McGovern on patriotism
- 05 Closing metaphor of sitting in the shade of trees planted long ago
Transcript
The full transcript is hosted by the original publisher. Commencement Archive links to the source rather than republishing copyrighted text.
Read the full transcript at source →Provenance
Imported from NPR commencement archive; cross-referenced with Open Commencement DB
NPR archive last updated in 2015; destination availability has not been exhaustively rechecked | Open Commencement DB transcript; not independently verified against the original recording