1 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The Silicon Valley and the internet gave me superpowers. 2 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Tools to go to battle with, 3 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 a suit to take bullets with 4 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and a giant signal in the sky that told me when it was time to fight. 5 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Now, I can't actually prove any of this. 6 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I am not "scientist," 7 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I don't have "facts." 8 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 In fact, my Rotten Tomato score is running around 50 percent right now, 9 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 so I'm not sure why they let me in. 10 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 (Laughter) 11 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 But if we're talking about colliding with a power 12 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that's bigger than us, 13 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 then I'm in the right place, 14 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 because this last year, 15 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I had an interesting year with a movie called "Crazy Rich Asians" that I did -- 16 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 (Applause and cheers) 17 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Thank you. 18 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And if we're talking about connection specifically today, 19 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 then I know my story is only possible 20 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 because of a collection of connections that happened throughout my life, 21 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 so hopefully by telling a little bit of my story, 22 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 it will help someone else find their path a little sooner than I did. 23 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 My story begins when I opened the holy book for the first time ... 24 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 the holy book of gadgets, of course, 25 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "Sharper Image." 26 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 (Laughter) 27 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Yes, those who know. 28 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It was a magical magazine of dreams 29 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and had things in there that you knew could not possibly exist, 30 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but it was right there -- 31 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 you could order it -- 32 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 come in the mail. 33 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And some things that probably should have never existed, 34 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 like "Gregory," a lifelike, portable mannequin 35 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 who deters crime by his strong, masculine appearance. 36 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 (Laughter) 37 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 This is a real thing, by the way. 38 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 But my eyes were set on the Video Edit Sima II. 39 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It was so cool at the age of 10. 40 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 You could connect all your VHS players together 41 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and cut something together, 42 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 so I called my parents and convinced them to buy this for me. 43 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 But before I get into that, 44 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 let me give you a little rundown about my parents. 45 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 They came to the United States when they were young, 46 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 they're from Taiwan in China 47 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and they settled in Los Altos, California -- 48 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 the Silicon Valley before the Silicon Valley -- 49 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and they started a restaurant called Chef Chu's. 50 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 50 years later, today, they still work at the restaurant, 51 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 they're still there, 52 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and I grew up there. 53 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And it was great. 54 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Talk about connection -- 55 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 this place was a hub of connection. 56 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 People coming there to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, business deals, 57 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 eating, drinking -- 58 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 connection, 59 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and I got to grow up in that environment. 60 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And my parents always said, "America is the greatest place in the world." 61 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 If you love anything, you can work hard and accomplish anything you want. 62 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So, they raised five all-American kids. 63 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I am the youngest -- 64 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 you can see I'm the one with the eyes closed there -- 65 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and they named actually my sister and I, Jennifer and Jonathan, 66 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 after Jennifer and Jonathan Hart from that TV show "Hart to Hart." 67 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 (Laughter) 68 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So that's how much they loved America, apparently. 69 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And they thought that we were The Kennedys -- 70 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 my mom specifically -- 71 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 so she dressed us up all the time like each other 72 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and she put us in etiquette classes, 73 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 ballroom dance classes, 74 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 made sure that we had the right dental plan -- 75 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 (Laughter) 76 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 This is a real picture of me. 77 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 That is not fake. 78 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Thank God for that one. 79 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And I was in charge of the video camera every time we went on vacations, 80 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 so I would collect all these videos and nothing to do with it. 81 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Thus, the Sima Video Edit 2. 82 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So I convinced them to get it for me, 83 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and I spent all night trying to wrangle 84 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 all the VCRs from my brother's and sister's room, 85 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 tangled in wires, 86 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and now I had something to show them. 87 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So I brought them into the living room one night, 88 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 it was probably 1991, 89 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 somewhere around there, 90 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and I sit them down in the living room, 91 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 my heart was pounding, 92 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 my breaths were deep -- 93 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 sort of like right now -- 94 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and I pressed play 95 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and something extraordinary happened actually. 96 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 They cried. 97 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And cried. 98 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 They cried not because it was the most amazing home video edit ever, 99 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 although it was pretty good, 100 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but because they saw our family as a normal family that fit in 101 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and belonged on the screen in front of them, 102 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 just like the movies that they worshipped and the TV shows that they named us after. 103 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And I remember as the youngest of these five kids 104 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 feeling heard for the first time. 105 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 There was this place where all these things in my head 106 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 could go into the great, electric somewhere-out-there 107 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and exist in escape, 108 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and I knew from this moment on, 109 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I wanted to do this for the rest of my life, 110 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 whether I was going to get paid for it or not. 111 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And so I had this passion and now I needed some tools, 112 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and my dad went to work. 113 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He continued to brag about my home video editing skills 114 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to the customers at Chef Chu's, 115 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and luckily this is the Silicon Valley, 116 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 so they're working on stuff, 117 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 hardware and software -- 118 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 these are all engineers -- 119 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and they offered to give me things for digital video editing. 120 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 This is like the mid-'90s, early '90's, 121 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 where this stuff didn't exist for kids like me. 122 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So I'd get these beta software and hardware from places like HP and Sun 123 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and Russel Brown at Adobe. 124 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And I had no manual, 125 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 so I'd figure it out and I fell in love with it even more. 126 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I went to USC School of Cinematic Arts and started to go there, 127 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and my mom and dad would always call me randomly and remind me 128 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that I've got to do movies about my Chinese heritage. 129 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 That China was going to be a huge market for movies one day -- 130 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I was like, "Yeah right, guys" -- 131 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 (Laughter) 132 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Always listen to your parents. 133 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 (Laughter) 134 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I wanted to be Zemeckis, Lucas and Spielberg. 135 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The last thing I wanted to talk about was my own cultural identity, 136 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 my ethnicity. 137 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And honestly, I had no one else to talk -- 138 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 there was no one at school that I could really open up to, 139 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and even if I did, like, what would I say? 140 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So I ignored it and I moved on with my life. 141 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Cut to 15 years later, 142 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I made it in Hollywood. 143 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I got discovered by Spielberg, 144 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I worked with the Rock and Bruce Willis, 145 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Justin Bieber -- 146 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I even came to the TED stage to present my dance company LXD, 147 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and it was great. 148 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And then a couple years ago, 149 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I felt a little bit lost, creatively. 150 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The engine was going down a little bit 151 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and I got a sign -- 152 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I heard from voices from the sky -- 153 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 or more it was like, birds. 154 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 OK, fine, it was Twitter. 155 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And Twitter -- 156 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 (Laughter) 157 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It was Constance Wu on Twitter, 158 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 it was Daniel Dae Kim, 159 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 it was Jenny Yang, who's here today, 160 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 it was Alan Yang -- 161 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 all of these people who were writing their frustrations 162 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 with representation in Hollywood. 163 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And it really it me. 164 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I thought these things but never really registered -- 165 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I was really focused on -- 166 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and I felt lucky to be working, 167 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and then I realized -- 168 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Yeah, what is wrong with Hollywood? 169 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Why aren't they doing this? 170 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And then I looked at myself in the mirror and realized I am Hollywood. 171 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I literally -- 172 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I popped my collar before I came out here, 173 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that's how Hollywood I am. 174 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 (Laughter) 175 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Is it still up? Still up? 176 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 (Applause) 177 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And for all these years I felt like I had been given so much, 178 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and what was I giving back to the film business that I loved? 179 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And I felt lucky to be here, 180 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but at this moment, I realized that I was not just lucky to be here, 181 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I had the right to be here. 182 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 No, I earned the right to be here. 183 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 All those sleepless nights, 184 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 all those parties I missed on Fridays, 185 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 every friend and girlfriend I lost because I was editing -- 186 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I earned the right to be here not just to have a voice but to say something, 187 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and say something important, 188 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and I had, actually, the power -- 189 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 the superpower to change things if I really, really wanted to. 190 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 All those -- 191 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 you know, when you try to tell stories about yourself 192 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and people who look like you and look like your familiy, 193 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 it can be scary, 194 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and all those feelings of being alone came back. 195 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 But the internet is what told me -- 196 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 sent the sign that there was going to be a whole army waiting for me 197 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to support me and to love me for it. 198 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And so I found Kevin Kwan's amazing novel, "Crazy Rich Asians" 199 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and we went to work. 200 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We put this movie together. 201 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 All-Asian cast -- 202 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 the first all-Asian cast in 25 years with a contemporary story -- 203 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 (Applause) 204 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 When we started it was not a guarantee at all. 205 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 There was no comp for this kind of movie. 206 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Every time we did surveys and stuff, 207 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 the audiences weren't going to show up. 208 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 In fact, even in our test screenings where you give free tickets to people 209 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to watch your movie, 210 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 we had a one to 25 ratio, 211 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 meaning after 25 asked, only one person said yes, 212 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 which is super low for these types of things. 213 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Asian people who knew the book didn't trust Hollywood at all, 214 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Asian people who didn't know the book thought the title was offensive, 215 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and other people who weren't Asian just didn't think it was for them. 216 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So we were pretty screwed. 217 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Luckily, Warner Brothers didn't turn away from us. 218 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 But then the electric somewhere struck again. 219 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And this army of Asian-American writers, reporters, bloggers 220 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 who over the years had worked their way up through their respective publications, 221 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 went to work, unbeknownst to me. 222 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And they started to post things. 223 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Also, some tech founders out here started to post stuff on social media, 224 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 write stuff about us in articles in the "LA Times," 225 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 in "The Hollywood Reporter" and "Entertainment Weekly." 226 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Grassroots uprising of making ourselves news. 227 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 One amazing thing to witness. 228 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And the swell of support turned into this conversation online 229 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 between all these Asian Americans where we could actually debate and discuss 230 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 what stories we wanted to tell, 231 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 which stories should be told or not, 232 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 what kind of -- 233 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 are we allowed to make fun of ourselves? 234 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 What about casting? 235 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 What are we allowed to do? 236 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And we didn't agree -- 237 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and we still don't, 238 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but that wasn't the point. 239 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The point was the conversation was happening. 240 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And this conversation stream became an infrastructure. 241 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It took all these different groups who were trying to achieve the same thing 242 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and put it all together in this connective tissue. 243 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And again, not perfect, 244 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but the start of how we determine our own representation on the big screen. 245 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It became more physical when I went to the movie theater. 246 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I'll never forget going opening weekend, 247 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and I went into the theater, 248 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and it's not just Asians -- 249 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 all types of people -- 250 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and I go in and sit down, 251 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and people laughed, 252 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 people cried, 253 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and when I went into the lobby, 254 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 people stayed. 255 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It's like they didn't want to leave. 256 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 They just hugged each other, 257 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 high-fived each other, 258 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 took selfies, 259 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 they debated it, 260 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 they laughed about it. 261 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 All these different things. 262 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I had such an intimate relationship with this movie, 263 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but I didn't understand when we were making it, 264 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 what we were making until it was happening, 265 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that it was the same thing that my parents felt when we watched our family videos 266 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 in our living room that day. 267 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Seeing ourselves on the screen has a power to it, 268 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and the only way I can describe it is pride. 269 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I have always understood this word intellectually -- 270 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I've probably talked about this word, 271 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but to actually feel pride -- 272 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and those of you who have felt it know -- 273 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 it's like you just want to like, touch everybody and grab and run around. 274 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It's like a very -- 275 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I can't explain -- 276 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 it's a very physical feeling, 277 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 all because of a long pattern of connection. 278 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Film was a gift given to me, 279 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and through the years I've learned a lot of things. 280 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 You can plan, you can write scripts, you can do your story boards, 281 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but at a certain point, 282 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 your movie will speak back to you, 283 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and it's your job to listen. 284 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It's this living organism and it sort of presents itself, 285 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 so you better catch it before it slips through your hands, 286 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and that's the most exciting part about making movies. 287 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 When I look at life, it's not that different actually. 288 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I've been led through these sort of breadcrumbs of connections 289 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 through people, 290 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 through circumstances, 291 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 through luck. 292 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And it changed when I realized that once you start listening 293 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to the silent beats and the messy noises around you, 294 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 you realize that there's this beautiful symphony already written for you. 295 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 A direct line to your destiny. 296 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Your superpower. 297 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Now, film was a gift given to me, 298 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 sort of spurned on my parents and supported by my community. 299 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I got to be who I wanted to be when I needed to be it. 300 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 My mom posted something on Facebook the other day 301 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 which is usually really bad things to say out loud -- 302 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 scary, she should not have a Facebook, but -- 303 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 (Laughter) 304 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 she posted this thing, 305 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and it was a meme, 306 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 you know, one of those funny things, 307 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and it said, "You can't change someone who doesn't want to change, 308 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but never underestimate the power of planting a seed." 309 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And as I was doing the finishing touches on this talk, 310 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I realized that all the powerful connections in my life 311 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 were through generosity and kindness and love and hope. 312 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So when I think about my movies "Crazy Rich Asians" and "In the Heights" 313 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 which I'm working on right now -- 314 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 (Applause and cheers) 315 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 yes, it's a good one. 316 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 All I want to do is show joy and hope in them, 317 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 because I refuse to believe that our best days are behind us, 318 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but in fact, around the corner. 319 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Because you see love -- 320 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 love is the superpower that was given to me. 321 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Love is the superpower that was passed onto me. 322 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Love is the only thing that can stop a speeding bullet 323 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 before it even exits the chamber. 324 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Love is the only thing that can leap over a building 325 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and have a whole community look up into the sky, 326 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 join hands, 327 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and have the courage to face something that's impossibly bigger than themselves. 328 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So I have a challenge for myself and for anyone here. 329 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 As you're working on your thing, 330 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 on your company, 331 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and you're forging this thing into life, 332 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and you're making the impossible possible, 333 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 let's just not forget to be kind to each other, 334 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 because I believe that is the most powerful form of connection 335 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 we can give to this planet. 336 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 In fact, our future depends on it. 337 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Thank you. 338 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 (Applause and cheers) 339 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Thank you. 340 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 (Applause)