00:00 [APPLAUSE]
00:03 Well, I certainly want to thank Variety for this honor,
00:05 and thank all of you for attending.
00:07 I really appreciate that.
00:10 It's a wonderful honor.
00:12 Disney, thank you for this.
00:14 Thank you for your support of the movie
00:16 that we're going to be screening here later, Jim Henson, Idea
00:20 Man.
00:21 And I'm so happy to be sharing the film at this festival,
00:26 a festival which I hold in such high regard.
00:28 So thank you for all of that.
00:32 As I was contemplating--
00:34 I've been here many, many times over the years--
00:37 this particular adventure, and putting myself,
00:41 and the festival, and this moment
00:43 into a kind of a perspective, there
00:46 were a couple of filmmakers who just kept coming to mind.
00:50 And so they're top of my mind.
00:52 Perhaps they're going to be top of yours
00:54 as well, given the circumstances.
00:56 First, George Lucas, who is going to be honored next week,
01:00 I believe, correct?
01:02 And the other is the late, great Roger Corman,
01:06 who we should all take a moment and pay respect to.
01:09 [APPLAUSE]
01:12 But I began realizing that I wouldn't be here at Cannes
01:17 today without both of these gentlemen, these giants.
01:23 So let me just explain quickly.
01:25 So George Lucas really did change my life
01:28 when he cast me in American Graffiti.
01:30 And then due to its blend of accessible nostalgia,
01:39 and humor, character, humanism, the sociopolitical insights,
01:44 and then what is easily forgotten,
01:47 tremendous cinematic innovation, it
01:51 became a uniquely phenomenal success.
01:53 And that success inspired a transformation for me.
01:58 It helped me grow from this child performer who
02:03 had a good career, but was growing out of himself.
02:07 And I suddenly became known as a successful young adult actor
02:13 on the global film stage.
02:17 Now, that also led to my being cast in the series Happy Days,
02:22 which I'll get to in a second.
02:24 But there's another thing about George very significant to me.
02:27 George recognized and supported my ambition to be a filmmaker.
02:31 He knew that I'd already been accepted to USC Film School,
02:34 which was his alma mater.
02:36 And at that time, the idea of somebody somehow graduating
02:42 from American TV sitcoms into becoming a filmmaker,
02:47 well, that was pretty ludicrous.
02:50 No one had ever really done anything like that.
02:52 People didn't take the notion seriously.
02:54 But George did, even then.
02:57 And it meant a great deal to me.
02:58 So more about George in just a second.
03:01 So back to Roger Corman, inarguably a true outlier
03:07 in this medium.
03:08 But because of American Graffiti's success,
03:11 which led to Happy Days' success,
03:13 and because Happy Days was now a number one show,
03:16 and Roger Corman had not a shot in hell
03:19 of getting Henry Winkler to be in a New World picture,
03:24 he reached out to me.
03:26 And he wanted me to star in a car crash
03:28 comedy called Eat My Dust.
03:30 I had this burning desire to be a filmmaker.
03:38 I had a script.
03:40 I had a dream.
03:42 And he wanted me so badly for Eat My Dust
03:45 that I was able to basically leverage him
03:48 into an opportunity to direct my first feature.
03:50 Now, it wasn't that little script that I dreamed of making.
03:54 It was another Roger Corman movie.
03:55 So I acted in Eat My Dust in order
03:58 to get to direct Grand Theft Auto.
04:02 It's a humble beginning, but it was an important beginning
04:05 nonetheless.
04:06 Now, I'm not going to go through the list of young men and women
04:08 that Roger gave a chance to.
04:10 But I was thrilled to join those ranks.
04:12 And I learned lessons from Roger that I still lean on.
04:15 So he will certainly be missed by all of us.
04:18 Now, back to George.
04:20 So eight years after directing me in Graffiti,
04:29 he got a call from Alan Ladd Jr. Alan Ladd Jr.
04:32 had been the one who greenlit Star Wars.
04:35 Ladd, he now had his own production company.
04:37 And he was considering a small comedy.
04:41 It was the idea of this young producer, Brian Grazer.
04:44 It was a movie called Night Shift.
04:46 And it was to be directed by this young actor who
04:50 wanted to direct, who'd done a Corman flick in a couple of TV
04:53 movies.
04:53 And Ladd, he didn't know what to think.
04:56 So Ladd, he called George.
04:59 And he said, do you think this Ronnie Howard could
05:03 handle a major studio film?
05:06 Well, I've never known exactly what was said.
05:08 But shortly after that call, our movie was a go.
05:12 And that partnership with Brian and I
05:15 would lead to the formation of Imagine Entertainment, which
05:19 was born.
05:20 Now, on Willow, which had its exciting premiere here,
05:24 by the way, Lily, my first time here,
05:29 he not only was the first producer and production company
05:32 to give me Final Cut, but he also
05:35 gave Imagine one of its first production
05:37 credits on that feature.
05:38 And 36 years later, Brian, myself,
05:41 Imagine, some of the Imagine team who are here,
05:44 we are more productive than ever.
05:46 And we've also expanded into all different areas,
05:49 branded content, documentaries, along with features,
05:53 and television.
05:54 And we're continuing to have a great creative experience.
05:57 Now look, and here I am as a result of all of that,
06:02 now making documentaries here 36 years later.
06:06 So I'm conveying this because George, Roger, and I--
06:10 and I'm going to include Jim Henson in this as well--
06:13 all share an important quality with this film festival,
06:18 a quality which I, too, have really tried to embody.
06:22 And that is an abject belief that cinema
06:27 is a remarkably exciting and important way
06:31 to serve audiences through all the different genres
06:35 and all the different mediums and platforms and formats.
06:39 And it's to be celebrated.
06:42 But it also is an art form that deserves everything
06:45 that a creative life has to give it.
06:48 Cinema deserves a willingness to take risks, to test waters,
06:55 and then to be brave enough to share what's been creative
07:00 and just see what passionate audiences of film lovers
07:05 will think.
07:07 That's what this festival is.
07:08 It's simple.
07:10 It's human.
07:11 It's thrilling.
07:12 It's terrifying.
07:13 But it's this relationship between audiences
07:16 and filmmakers and those filmmakers' newest works
07:21 that is underlined here and in other festivals
07:23 around the world.
07:24 But year after year, it re-energizes
07:28 and it redefines what cinema of every variety
07:32 can mean to society around the world.
07:34 Roger, George, Jim Henson, they all
07:38 share a dedication to rigorously exploring
07:42 the possibilities of that relationship between creativity
07:45 in cinema and the viewer and the way
07:49 that one can influence the other as we all hold hands
07:54 and look to the future.
07:55 So thank you for this.
07:57 And thank you for being this small part of the festival
07:59 this year.
08:00 Much appreciated.
08:01 [APPLAUSE]
08:04 Have a great night.
08:05 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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