Speaker 1 (00:00):
... for this degree. Ladies and gentlemen, Dr. Hugh Jackman. So now to say a few words to you, I present once again Dr. Hugh Jackman.
Hugh Jackman (00:31):
Wow. G'day, Ball State. How you doing? It's a little cold out there. Right? We're going to do some jumping jacks. You want to stand up? You're all good. It's all good with me. Wow, this is fantastic, Dr. Jackman, Dr. J, if I may. Thank you so much to President Mearns. Can I just check? Everyone can hear me? You got me out the back. We're all good? I know you guys can hear me. I got you. In the third row. All good? Okay. Just want to check.
(01:18)
Thank you to President Mearns for the invitation to speak today. Brian Gallagher, the Chair of the Board of Trustees, and all of the other trustees. A special congratulations to Rick Hall for receiving the President's Medal of Distinction last night and also leading my own private security team from here on in. To all the distinguished faculty and dedicated staff, and finally, thank you and congratulations to the graduating class of 2026.
(01:58)
Now, I've been asked countless of times to give a speech like this over the years and I have always said no because the money just was never really good enough. No, because I never felt ready. "Give me a few more years," I would think to myself. You only really get one shot in a roughly 10 minute, although let's be honest, anybody who knows me knows this is probably going longer than 10 minutes. Right, Dr. Foster?
(02:33)
But you get this short window to summarize the meaning of life, how to live it to its fullest, and then that lives online forever. It's a lot of pressure. And also, I don't know you guys, I'm a graduation speech junkie. I love them. David Foster Wallace, classic. Roger Federer, Tim Minchin, Jim Carrey.
(02:54)
And I have probably listened to the Wear Sunscreen Graduation Speech, which Baz Luhrmann turned into a number one hit at least 150 times, and that is a fictitious speech and still I love it. And by the way, wear sunscreen, although you're probably good today.
(03:12)
So following it all, their footsteps were super intimidating. And why do I love them? Well, 'cause I am someone who was always looking for guidance. I was brought up in the church. I was taught that God would show me the path. I just had to ask for guidance and have the courage to follow it.
(03:35)
So, this is a true story. I used to pray every single night as I went to bed. I used to say, "Dear God, I don't care. I literally don't care what you want me to do. Just make it really, really clear to me what that is. What is your will?"
(03:49)
I feared I would get it wrong, that I would make a wrong turn and it set me up for a feeling or feeling anxiety at turning points, especially like the on that you guys are looking at right now. Everything to me mattered a lot.
(04:07)
Now, my definition and my understanding of God, as it does, has evolved through the years, but in actuality in many ways that prayer was answered and is still being answered. I'm going to give you a couple of examples a little later on.
(04:23)
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. President Mearns or Mearnsie, as I like to disrespectfully call him, he asked me after my first trip here with Sutton, it was an unforgettable time.
(04:50)
It was incredibly fulfilling. It was an exciting week with many of the students, and I see so many. I'm so proud of you guys. I am so proud of you. And when Mearnsie asked me front door at Bracken House in September, I just said yes, because it felt right.
(05:08)
And maybe also at the very young age of 57, I finally realized I will never reach that point where I know everything, and neither does anybody else up on this stage. Sorry, everybody. Neither do your parents, not even Mearnsie.
(05:29)
They may have a good sense, because like me, they have all fallen in more potholes than you have at this point in your life. But any sense of really knowing is going to come from you, and even you will feel unsure a lot. Trust me. So I'm sure a lot of you are worrying about what's next. "What's the plan? I don't want to get it wrong."
(05:51)
And maybe you're hoping that Hugh Jackman is going to lay out a clear, effective eight point plan to success. "Want the career of your dreams? Here is how you get it." I could cherry-pick some stories that illustrate that, "With strong goal setting, hard work, and just a touch of luck, you too will reach the top," but I'm here to tell you that life just doesn't work out like that. Well, certainly not for me.
(06:18)
For most of my life, I just didn't know. And I don't mean a 22 or 27, I mean six months ago, I mean yesterday. So let me illustrate. I had acted in some capacity from when I was six years old, all amateur. I did plays, musicals, concerts. I did it all. I loved it. Did I ever think I would do it professionally? Never.
(06:45)
In fact, at one point I did hand in a headshot to a modeling agency at age 19 because my mate was making a lot of money doing some modeling. And I was told very bluntly by the head of the agency that the camera did not love me, that I was not photogenic, and to move on to other things. By the way, that comment stuck with me long into my film career. So just be careful what you let in. It made me feel like I didn't belong for a long time. Anyway, here's the true story. You want the true story of how I got into acting? Say yes.
Crowd (07:20):
Yes.
Hugh Jackman (07:21):
Great. I was finishing a liberal arts degree in communications, majoring in journalism. Yeah. Doing the bare minimum to get a degree. Ooh. No, don't cheer that. Your parents are here. Come on, guys. Keep it together. So this is how they did it in Australia. It's different to here, but I needed 24 units in my final year to graduate. I had mistakenly only signed up for 22, so I needed to find a very, very small minor elective subject that would get me across the finish line.
(08:01)
My friend told me that the easiest class was Theater Appreciation. "Man, it's awesome. There's no homework. There's no exam. As long as you just show up for 10 weeks, you pass." "Done. Sign me up." I was so unengaged. And by the way, that was typical of all my schooling up to that point. I was so unengaged. I didn't turn up until the fourth week because I knew that you were allowed to miss three classes and still pass.
(08:31)
Come on, man. But I feel you. I showed up week four, only to find out for the first time in the course's history the teacher had decided to do a play. I practically crawled under my desk, but he had cast the play by random ballot, and yes, I got the lead. The lead. I went up to the professor at the end of the class. I begged him to let me out.
(09:04)
He dismissively looked at me and said that if I had showed up for the first three weeks, he might have listened to me, and then he just walked out. So now, I am the lead in a play. It is my worst nightmare. I think you're probably guessing where this story is going. I spent 90% of my final year on that play, and other classes we did, not my major, not the other 22 units.
(09:30)
We ended up touring the play to a local university and we were housed with acting students who were there. 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 had just spent three years of my life doing the wrong degree. How did I know? I felt it in my body, that I had found my calling.
(09:56)
So I was like, "Okay, time to pivot." And here's where things get a little nutty. I auditioned for a one-year acting course at the Actor Center in Sydney. There were 20 spots. I didn't get in, but when one of the students didn't accept the offer, I was offered another audition, a callback. I turned up, there were about eight of us vying for this last position and I got it.
(10:21)
I was so happy. I was so excited when I received my acceptance letter, only to read the last line which instructed me to turn up on day one with a check for $3,500. Now remember, this is 1924, okay? But to me, at that point, it might as well have been a million dollars, 'cause I just finished a degree where my father had helped me and I didn't have the courage to ask him for $3,500, so I ripped up the acceptance letter, put it in the trash, started to contemplate what my next move was. Clearly, the signs were that acting was not meant to be.
(11:02)
The very next day I received a check in the mail. Remember, it's 1924. Checks, you know what checks are, but I received a check in the mail from my grandmother's will for $3,500. Yeah. I just stared at the check. It all just seemed surreal. I grabbed the acceptance letter out of the trashcan and started my journey as an actor. And my experience at that school, remember, Mr. What's the Least Amount I Can Do to Pass? He was gone.
(11:36)
I ended up studying acting for four years and I never missed a class, not one. A sign, a guiding hand, an answered prayer? I think so. Some would insist it was a pure coincidence. Who knows? But wherever they come from, are the signs always that obvious? No. In fact, usually they're quiet, subtle, and even more often disguised as failure. Let me give you an example where it felt like failure to me.
(12:15)
I was offered a movie. I'm not going to tell you which one because I did end up doing it, and stop Googling right now. But when I read the script, I just felt I wasn't right for it. I felt it, but it was this big opportunity on paper. It was one that I should be thrilled to do, and it was a huge step for my career. So, I went against that feeling and I made the movie.
(12:40)
And I remember sitting at that premiere and my palms started to sweat. People were laughing right at the point where they were not meant to be laughing. The movie was not a hit. The promised franchise never materialized, but I learned a painful lesson in listening to that voice inside. And actually, I can see now that that ended up creating space for something else.
(13:07)
Years before, I was offered a musical in Australia called The Boy From Oz, the president was talking about, and I turned it down, because at the time I'd been in two big musicals and I was struggling to get acting auditions for plays, movies, television. So I said, "Even though this feels great to me, I don't think it's the right strategic move to do another musical right now." So I said, no.
(13:31)
Well, when I finally saw that production in Australia, my palm started to sweat, every bone in my body wanted to be up there on that stage. I was watching one of the greatest roles I have ever seen being played by someone else, even though it had been offered to me two years before. Again, I felt the pain of not having listened to that voice inside, and right then and there, I told myself that I would always listen to my gut from that moment on.
(14:05)
So when they called about doing the show on Broadway two years later, I said yes straight away on the phone. Then I called my agent to tell him what I'd done. And even though a lot of people in the business told me not to do it, I listened to my voice, to that voice inside.
(14:21)
Now, yes, apart from winning the Tony for that role, by the way, that's not the reason I'm telling the story. To this day, The Boy From Oz is one of the great projects I've ever been involved with. I'm proud of what we did of the role I played that I said yes, even though people said, "Don't do it." And when Steven Spielberg, forgive me, let me just pick that one up.
(14:49)
Got to pause on Stephen Spielberg. When he came and saw it one night, I got a call from him saying, "We want you to host the Oscars." And I did. Our minds, our brains, they want to plan. They have all sorts of good reasons to follow apart because it makes sense, but if we are listening, if we open our hearts, that voice inside is trying to show us something a little more magical, a little more mysterious, surprising.
(15:20)
Sometimes it's loud and clear, $3,500, but sometimes it's quiet and subtle. So how will you know? How do you trust that intuition? Well, first of all, let's throw away perfect. Okay? Can we do that? Let's throw that away. And let's also embrace that even the mistakes may turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to us. But if it scares you, probably a good sign.
(15:50)
If it excites you a very good sign. And if you weren't sure you were going to make a dime doing it but you still want to pursue it, amazing sign. Your body knows, the goosebumps, the tingle. Where in your body do you feel that? And when you feel it, trust it. My life has not gone the way I thought it would.
(16:14)
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, but 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, including saying yes to Mearnsie at his front door last September.
(16:40)
My favorite line from any movie is from Chariots of Fire. The movie is based on the true story of two runners for Great Britain at the Olympics in 1924. One of the runners, Eric Liddell, was born to missionary parents in China, and was about to embark with his sister on his own missionary work for the church, but he gets an opportunity to run for his country.
(17:08)
His sister takes him on a walk in the Scottish Highlands and turns to him and says, "Why are you doing this running, Eric? You have more important work to do for God. We need to start that work now." And Eric looks at his sister and says, "But I feel God's pleasure when I run."
(17:31)
What brings you pleasure? What is going to fuel you when you have to work unbelievably hard, which you will? You're welcome, parents. 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?
(17:52)
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.
(18:09)
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. Thank you.