WEBVTT 00:00:00.925 --> 00:00:05.877 The Silicon Valley and the internet gave me superpowers, 00:00:05.877 --> 00:00:08.975 tools to go to battle with, 00:00:08.975 --> 00:00:11.872 a suit to take bullets with 00:00:11.872 --> 00:00:16.270 and a giant signal in the sky that told me when it was time to fight. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:17.251 --> 00:00:20.481 Now, I can't actually prove any of this. 00:00:20.903 --> 00:00:22.904 I am not "scientist," 00:00:22.904 --> 00:00:24.356 I don't have "facts." 00:00:25.199 --> 00:00:28.538 In fact, my Rotten Tomato score is running around 50 percent right now, 00:00:28.538 --> 00:00:30.251 so I'm not sure why they let me in. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:30.251 --> 00:00:31.284 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:00:31.649 --> 00:00:35.273 But if we're talking about colliding with a power 00:00:35.273 --> 00:00:36.756 that's bigger than us, 00:00:36.756 --> 00:00:38.395 then I'm in the right place, 00:00:38.395 --> 00:00:39.809 because this last year, 00:00:39.809 --> 00:00:43.519 I had an interesting year with a movie called "Crazy Rich Asians" that I did -- NOTE Paragraph 00:00:43.519 --> 00:00:44.523 (Applause and cheers) NOTE Paragraph 00:00:44.523 --> 00:00:45.764 Thank you, thank you. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:46.532 --> 00:00:49.670 And if we're talking about connection specifically today, 00:00:49.670 --> 00:00:52.175 then I know my story is only possible 00:00:52.175 --> 00:00:56.201 because of a collection of connections that happened throughout my life, 00:00:56.201 --> 00:00:58.916 and so hopefully by telling a little bit of my story, 00:00:58.916 --> 00:01:02.241 it will help someone else find their path a little sooner than I did. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:02.712 --> 00:01:08.329 My story begins when I opened the holy book for the first time ... 00:01:08.329 --> 00:01:10.073 the holy book of gadgets, of course, 00:01:10.073 --> 00:01:11.094 "Sharper Image." NOTE Paragraph 00:01:11.094 --> 00:01:12.091 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:01:12.091 --> 00:01:13.571 Yes, those who know. 00:01:13.772 --> 00:01:17.163 It was a magical magazine of dreams 00:01:17.163 --> 00:01:20.943 and had things in there that you knew could not possibly exist, 00:01:20.943 --> 00:01:22.048 but it was right there. 00:01:22.048 --> 00:01:23.100 You could order it -- 00:01:23.100 --> 00:01:24.101 come in the mail. 00:01:24.101 --> 00:01:26.785 And some things that probably should have never existed, 00:01:26.785 --> 00:01:30.052 like "Gregory," a lifelike, portable mannequin 00:01:30.052 --> 00:01:32.891 who deters crime by his strong, masculine appearance. 00:01:32.891 --> 00:01:33.891 This is a real -- NOTE Paragraph 00:01:33.891 --> 00:01:34.892 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:01:34.892 --> 00:01:36.480 This is a real thing, by the way. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:36.480 --> 00:01:37.480 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:01:37.480 --> 00:01:41.560 But my eyes were set on the Video Edit Sima 2. 00:01:41.766 --> 00:01:44.267 This thing was so cool at the age of 10. 00:01:44.497 --> 00:01:47.415 You could connect all your VHS players together 00:01:47.415 --> 00:01:48.707 and cut something together, 00:01:48.707 --> 00:01:51.635 so I called my parents and convinced them to buy this for me. 00:01:51.635 --> 00:01:52.945 But before I get into that, 00:01:52.945 --> 00:01:55.338 let me give you a little rundown about my parents. 00:01:55.338 --> 00:01:58.123 They came to the United States when they were young, 00:01:58.123 --> 00:01:59.925 they're from Taiwan in China 00:01:59.925 --> 00:02:02.908 and they settled in Los Altos, California -- 00:02:02.908 --> 00:02:05.198 the Silicon Valley before the Silicon Valley -- 00:02:05.198 --> 00:02:08.445 and they started a restaurant called Chef Chu's. 00:02:08.703 --> 00:02:11.438 50 years later, today, they still work at the restaurant, 00:02:11.438 --> 00:02:12.485 they're still there, 00:02:12.485 --> 00:02:13.586 and I grew up there, 00:02:13.586 --> 00:02:14.592 so it was great. 00:02:14.592 --> 00:02:15.771 Talk about connection -- 00:02:15.771 --> 00:02:17.583 this place was a hub of connection. 00:02:17.583 --> 00:02:22.059 People coming there to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, business deals, 00:02:22.059 --> 00:02:23.279 eating, drinking -- 00:02:23.279 --> 00:02:24.284 connection. 00:02:24.284 --> 00:02:26.284 And I got to grow up in that environment. 00:02:26.418 --> 00:02:29.717 And my parents always said America is the greatest place in the world. 00:02:29.717 --> 00:02:30.787 You can -- 00:02:30.787 --> 00:02:34.943 if you love anything, you can work hard and you can accomplish anything you want. 00:02:35.150 --> 00:02:38.033 So, they raised five all-American kids. 00:02:38.706 --> 00:02:39.904 I am the youngest -- 00:02:39.904 --> 00:02:43.493 you can see I'm the one with the eyes closed there -- 00:02:43.493 --> 00:02:46.625 and they named actually my sister and I, Jennifer and Jonathan, 00:02:46.625 --> 00:02:49.895 after Jennifer and Jonathan Hart from that TV show "Hart to Hart." NOTE Paragraph 00:02:49.895 --> 00:02:52.203 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:02:52.203 --> 00:02:54.579 So that's how much they loved America, apparently. 00:02:55.164 --> 00:02:57.590 And they thought that we were The Kennedys -- 00:02:57.590 --> 00:02:58.703 my mom specifically -- 00:02:58.703 --> 00:03:01.354 so she dressed us up all the time like each other 00:03:01.354 --> 00:03:04.864 and she put us in etiquette classes and ballroom dance classes, 00:03:04.864 --> 00:03:08.574 made sure that we had the right dental plan -- NOTE Paragraph 00:03:08.574 --> 00:03:10.270 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:03:10.270 --> 00:03:11.675 This is a real picture of me. 00:03:11.675 --> 00:03:12.682 That is not fake. 00:03:12.682 --> 00:03:13.986 Thank God for that one. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:14.716 --> 00:03:18.129 And I was in charge of the video camera every time we went on vacations, 00:03:18.129 --> 00:03:21.306 so I would collect all these videos and had nothing to do with it. 00:03:21.306 --> 00:03:23.852 Thus, the Sima Video Edit 2. 00:03:24.213 --> 00:03:25.961 I convinced them to get it for me, 00:03:25.961 --> 00:03:28.690 and I spent all night trying to wrangle 00:03:28.690 --> 00:03:30.983 all the VCRs from my brother's and sister's room, 00:03:30.983 --> 00:03:31.982 tangled in wires, 00:03:31.982 --> 00:03:33.757 and now I had something to show them. 00:03:33.757 --> 00:03:36.057 So I brought them into the living room one night, 00:03:36.057 --> 00:03:38.186 it was probably 1991, somewhere around there, 00:03:38.186 --> 00:03:40.074 and I sit them down in the living room, 00:03:40.074 --> 00:03:41.585 my heart was pounding, 00:03:41.585 --> 00:03:42.974 my breaths were deep -- 00:03:42.974 --> 00:03:44.473 sort of like right now -- 00:03:44.473 --> 00:03:45.974 and I pressed play 00:03:45.974 --> 00:03:49.264 and something extraordinary happened actually. 00:03:49.749 --> 00:03:50.833 They cried. 00:03:51.723 --> 00:03:52.724 And cried. 00:03:52.731 --> 00:03:56.281 They cried not because it was the most amazing home video edit ever -- 00:03:56.281 --> 00:03:57.757 although it was pretty good -- NOTE Paragraph 00:03:57.757 --> 00:03:58.944 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:03:58.944 --> 00:04:04.253 but because they saw our family as a normal family that fit in 00:04:04.253 --> 00:04:06.504 and belonged on the screen in front of them, 00:04:06.504 --> 00:04:10.873 just like the movies that they worshipped and the TV shows that they named us after. 00:04:11.525 --> 00:04:13.876 I remember as the youngest of these five kids 00:04:13.876 --> 00:04:15.717 feeling heard for the first time. 00:04:15.871 --> 00:04:18.407 There was this place where all these things in my head 00:04:18.407 --> 00:04:20.977 could go into the great, electric somewhere-out-there 00:04:20.977 --> 00:04:22.041 and exist and escape, 00:04:22.041 --> 00:04:23.538 and I knew from this moment on, 00:04:23.538 --> 00:04:25.609 I wanted to do this for the rest of my life, 00:04:25.609 --> 00:04:27.775 whether I was going to get paid for it or not. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:27.775 --> 00:04:30.132 So I had this passion and now I needed some tools, 00:04:30.132 --> 00:04:31.571 and my dad went to work. 00:04:31.571 --> 00:04:35.143 He continued to brag about my home video editing skills 00:04:35.143 --> 00:04:37.101 to the customers at Chef Chu's, 00:04:37.101 --> 00:04:39.143 and luckily this is the Silicon Valley, 00:04:39.143 --> 00:04:41.240 so they're working on stuff, 00:04:41.240 --> 00:04:42.388 hardware and software -- 00:04:42.388 --> 00:04:43.718 these are all engineers -- 00:04:43.718 --> 00:04:47.505 and they offered to give me things for digital video editing. 00:04:47.505 --> 00:04:50.140 This is like the mid-'90s, early '90's, 00:04:50.140 --> 00:04:52.723 where this stuff didn't exist for kids like me. 00:04:52.981 --> 00:04:57.254 So I'd get these beta software and hardware from places like HP and Sun 00:04:57.254 --> 00:04:59.991 and Russel Brown at Adobe. 00:05:00.375 --> 00:05:02.071 And I had no manual, 00:05:02.071 --> 00:05:04.803 so I'd figure it out and I fell in love with it even more. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:04.866 --> 00:05:08.970 I went to USC School of Cinematic Arts and started to go there, 00:05:08.970 --> 00:05:12.581 and my mom and dad would always call me randomly and remind me 00:05:12.581 --> 00:05:16.485 that I've got to do movies about my Chinese heritage. 00:05:16.895 --> 00:05:20.340 That China was going to be a huge market for movies one day -- 00:05:20.340 --> 00:05:21.912 I was like, "Yeah right, guys" -- NOTE Paragraph 00:05:21.912 --> 00:05:23.426 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:05:23.426 --> 00:05:24.898 Always listen to your parents. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:24.898 --> 00:05:28.093 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:05:28.093 --> 00:05:31.000 I wanted to be Zemeckis, Lucas and Spielberg. 00:05:31.000 --> 00:05:34.190 The last thing I wanted to talk about was my own cultural identity, 00:05:34.190 --> 00:05:35.455 my ethnicity. 00:05:35.797 --> 00:05:37.786 And honestly, I had no one else to talk -- 00:05:37.786 --> 00:05:40.528 there was no one at school that I could really open up to, 00:05:40.528 --> 00:05:42.539 and even if I did, like, what would I say? 00:05:42.539 --> 00:05:44.765 So I ignored it and I moved on with my life. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:45.014 --> 00:05:47.080 Cut to 15 years later, 00:05:47.080 --> 00:05:48.227 I made it in Hollywood. 00:05:48.227 --> 00:05:50.042 I got discovered by Spielberg, 00:05:50.042 --> 00:05:53.568 I worked with The Rock and Bruce Willis and Justin Bieber. 00:05:53.568 --> 00:05:58.037 I even came to the TED stage to present my dance company LXD, 00:05:58.037 --> 00:05:59.399 and it was great. 00:05:59.743 --> 00:06:01.168 And then a couple years ago, 00:06:01.168 --> 00:06:03.436 I felt a little bit lost, creatively. 00:06:04.008 --> 00:06:05.889 The engine was going down a little bit, 00:06:05.889 --> 00:06:08.710 and I got a sign ... 00:06:08.710 --> 00:06:11.607 I heard from voices from the sky ... 00:06:11.607 --> 00:06:13.189 or more it was like, birds. 00:06:13.413 --> 00:06:14.612 OK, fine, it was Twitter. 00:06:14.612 --> 00:06:15.711 And Twitter -- NOTE Paragraph 00:06:15.711 --> 00:06:17.563 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:06:17.563 --> 00:06:19.135 It was Constance Wu on Twitter, 00:06:19.135 --> 00:06:20.884 it was Daniel Dae Kim, 00:06:20.884 --> 00:06:23.276 it was Jenny Yang, who's here today, 00:06:23.276 --> 00:06:24.383 it was Alan Yang -- 00:06:24.383 --> 00:06:27.764 all of these people who were writing their frustrations 00:06:27.764 --> 00:06:30.071 with representation in Hollywood. 00:06:30.433 --> 00:06:31.750 And it really hit me. 00:06:32.043 --> 00:06:34.545 I thought these things but never really registered -- 00:06:34.545 --> 00:06:35.921 I was really focused on -- 00:06:35.921 --> 00:06:37.618 and I felt lucky to be working, 00:06:37.618 --> 00:06:38.932 and so then I realized -- 00:06:38.932 --> 00:06:40.620 yeah, what is wrong with Hollywood? 00:06:40.620 --> 00:06:41.953 Why aren't they doing this? 00:06:41.953 --> 00:06:45.895 And then I looked at myself in the mirror and realized I am Hollywood. 00:06:45.895 --> 00:06:46.899 I literally -- 00:06:46.899 --> 00:06:48.930 I popped my collar before I came out here, 00:06:48.930 --> 00:06:50.494 that's how Hollywood I am. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:50.494 --> 00:06:51.486 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:06:51.486 --> 00:06:52.494 Is it still up? 00:06:52.494 --> 00:06:53.493 OK, good. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:53.493 --> 00:06:54.983 (Applause) NOTE Paragraph 00:06:56.932 --> 00:06:59.382 For all these years I felt I had been given so much, 00:06:59.382 --> 00:07:02.966 and what was I giving back to the film business that I loved? 00:07:03.557 --> 00:07:04.715 I felt lucky to be here, 00:07:04.715 --> 00:07:07.924 but at this moment, I realized that I was not just lucky to be here, 00:07:07.924 --> 00:07:09.787 I had the right to be here. 00:07:09.787 --> 00:07:11.461 No, I earned the right to be here. 00:07:11.461 --> 00:07:12.807 All those sleepless nights, 00:07:12.807 --> 00:07:14.711 all those parties I missed on Fridays, 00:07:14.711 --> 00:07:18.370 every friend and girlfriend I lost because I was editing -- 00:07:18.370 --> 00:07:22.103 I earned the right to be here not just to have a voice but to say something, 00:07:22.103 --> 00:07:23.491 and say something important, 00:07:23.491 --> 00:07:25.493 and I had, actually, the power -- 00:07:25.493 --> 00:07:29.523 the superpower to change things if I really, really wanted to. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:31.871 --> 00:07:33.892 When you try to tell stories about yourself 00:07:33.892 --> 00:07:36.561 and people who look like you and look like your familiy, 00:07:36.561 --> 00:07:37.561 it can be scary, 00:07:37.561 --> 00:07:39.875 and all those feelings of being alone came back. 00:07:39.875 --> 00:07:41.559 But the internet is what told me -- 00:07:41.559 --> 00:07:44.821 sent the sign that there was going to be a whole army waiting for me 00:07:44.821 --> 00:07:46.760 to support me and to love me for it. 00:07:47.115 --> 00:07:51.386 And so I found Kevin Kwan's amazing novel, "Crazy Rich Asians" 00:07:51.386 --> 00:07:52.402 and we went to work. 00:07:52.402 --> 00:07:54.274 We put this movie together. 00:07:54.792 --> 00:07:55.918 All-Asian cast -- 00:07:55.918 --> 00:07:59.012 the first all-Asian cast in 25 years with a contemporary story -- NOTE Paragraph 00:07:59.012 --> 00:08:02.427 (Applause and cheers) NOTE Paragraph 00:08:02.427 --> 00:08:06.700 But when we started it was not a guarantee at all. 00:08:07.290 --> 00:08:09.299 There was no comp for this kind of movie. 00:08:10.175 --> 00:08:11.909 Every time we did surveys and stuff, 00:08:11.909 --> 00:08:13.820 the audiences weren't going to show up. 00:08:13.820 --> 00:08:17.345 In fact, even in our test screenings where you give free tickets to people 00:08:17.345 --> 00:08:19.088 to watch your movie, 00:08:19.088 --> 00:08:21.068 we had a one to 25 ratio, 00:08:21.068 --> 00:08:23.396 meaning after 25 asked, only one person said yes, 00:08:23.396 --> 00:08:25.524 which is super low for these types of things. 00:08:25.622 --> 00:08:28.565 Asian people who knew the book didn't trust Hollywood at all, 00:08:28.565 --> 00:08:32.273 Asian people who didn't know the book thought the title was offensive, 00:08:32.273 --> 00:08:36.402 and other people who weren't Asian just didn't think it was for them. 00:08:36.402 --> 00:08:38.431 So we were pretty screwed. 00:08:39.128 --> 00:08:41.607 Luckily, Warner Brothers didn't turn away from us. 00:08:41.607 --> 00:08:44.110 But then the electric somewhere struck again, 00:08:44.110 --> 00:08:49.972 and this army of Asian-American writers, reporters, bloggers 00:08:49.972 --> 00:08:55.005 who over the years had worked their way up through their respective publications, 00:08:55.005 --> 00:08:56.951 went to work, unbeknownst to me. 00:08:56.951 --> 00:08:58.495 And they started to post things. 00:08:58.633 --> 00:09:02.366 Also, some tech founders out here started to post stuff on social media, 00:09:02.366 --> 00:09:05.904 write stuff about us in articles in the "LA Times," 00:09:05.904 --> 00:09:08.663 in "The Hollywood Reporter" and "Entertainment Weekly." 00:09:08.663 --> 00:09:14.202 It was like this grassroots uprising of making ourselves news. 00:09:14.659 --> 00:09:16.583 One amazing thing to witness. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:17.527 --> 00:09:23.256 And the swell of support turned into this conversation online 00:09:23.256 --> 00:09:27.346 between all these Asian Americans where we could actually debate and discuss 00:09:27.346 --> 00:09:28.943 what stories we wanted to tell, 00:09:28.943 --> 00:09:30.653 what stories should be told or not, 00:09:30.653 --> 00:09:31.649 what kind of -- 00:09:31.649 --> 00:09:33.610 are we allowed to make fun of ourselves? 00:09:33.610 --> 00:09:34.864 What about casting? 00:09:34.864 --> 00:09:36.234 What are we allowed to do? 00:09:36.234 --> 00:09:37.554 And we didn't agree -- 00:09:37.554 --> 00:09:38.944 and we still don't, 00:09:38.944 --> 00:09:40.661 but that wasn't the point. 00:09:40.661 --> 00:09:42.985 The point was the conversation was happening. 00:09:43.389 --> 00:09:47.219 And this conversation stream became an infrastructure. 00:09:47.219 --> 00:09:50.854 It took all these different groups that were trying to achieve the same thing 00:09:50.854 --> 00:09:54.262 and put us all together in this connective tissue. 00:09:54.908 --> 00:09:56.248 And again, not perfect, 00:09:56.248 --> 00:10:00.391 but the start of how we determine our own representation on the big screen. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:01.852 --> 00:10:04.581 It became more physical when I went to the movie theater. 00:10:05.054 --> 00:10:07.712 I'll never forget going opening weekend, 00:10:07.712 --> 00:10:09.081 and I went into the theater, 00:10:09.081 --> 00:10:10.368 and it's not just Asians -- 00:10:10.368 --> 00:10:11.544 all types of people -- 00:10:11.544 --> 00:10:12.751 and I go in and sit down, 00:10:12.751 --> 00:10:14.495 and people laughed, 00:10:14.495 --> 00:10:16.353 people cried, 00:10:16.353 --> 00:10:19.154 and when I went into the lobby, 00:10:19.154 --> 00:10:20.326 people stayed. 00:10:20.809 --> 00:10:22.642 It's like they didn't want to leave. 00:10:22.858 --> 00:10:24.609 They just hugged each other, 00:10:24.609 --> 00:10:25.707 high-fived each other, 00:10:25.707 --> 00:10:26.710 took selfies, 00:10:26.710 --> 00:10:27.711 they debated it, 00:10:27.711 --> 00:10:28.773 they laughed about it. 00:10:28.773 --> 00:10:30.058 All these different things. 00:10:30.468 --> 00:10:33.704 I had such an intimate relationship with this movie, 00:10:33.704 --> 00:10:36.350 but I didn't understand when we were making it 00:10:36.350 --> 00:10:39.960 what we were making until it was happening -- 00:10:39.960 --> 00:10:45.059 that it was the same thing that my parents felt when they watched our family videos 00:10:45.059 --> 00:10:46.630 in that living room that day. 00:10:46.836 --> 00:10:50.240 Seeing us on the screen has a power to it, 00:10:50.240 --> 00:10:52.666 and the only way I can describe it is pride. 00:10:53.097 --> 00:10:56.618 I have always understood this word intellectually -- 00:10:56.618 --> 00:10:58.754 I've probably talked about this word, 00:10:58.754 --> 00:11:00.744 but to actually feel pride -- 00:11:00.744 --> 00:11:02.731 and those of you who have felt it know -- 00:11:02.731 --> 00:11:07.087 it's like you just want to like, touch everybody and grab and run around. 00:11:07.087 --> 00:11:08.523 It's like a very -- 00:11:08.523 --> 00:11:09.560 I can't explain -- 00:11:09.560 --> 00:11:11.407 it's just a very physical feeling, 00:11:11.407 --> 00:11:15.428 all because of a long pattern of connection. NOTE Paragraph 00:11:16.631 --> 00:11:19.161 Film was a gift given to me, 00:11:19.161 --> 00:11:21.717 and through the years I've learned a lot of things. 00:11:21.717 --> 00:11:24.809 You can plan, you can write scripts, you can do your storyboards, 00:11:24.809 --> 00:11:26.930 but at a certain point, 00:11:26.930 --> 00:11:29.206 your movie will speak back to you, 00:11:29.206 --> 00:11:31.437 and it's your job to listen. 00:11:31.744 --> 00:11:34.427 It's this living organism and it sort of presents itself, 00:11:34.427 --> 00:11:37.172 so you better catch it before it slips through your hands, 00:11:37.172 --> 00:11:39.723 and that's the most exciting part about making movies. 00:11:39.723 --> 00:11:42.315 When I look at life, it's not that different actually. 00:11:42.315 --> 00:11:46.595 I've been led through these sort of breadcrumbs of connections 00:11:46.595 --> 00:11:47.774 through people, 00:11:47.774 --> 00:11:48.963 through circumstances, 00:11:48.963 --> 00:11:50.254 through luck. 00:11:50.578 --> 00:11:55.164 And it changed when I realized that once you start listening 00:11:55.164 --> 00:11:57.690 to the silent beats and the messy noises around you, 00:11:57.690 --> 00:12:01.479 you realize that there's this beautiful symphony already written for you. 00:12:01.898 --> 00:12:04.168 A direct line to your destiny. 00:12:04.791 --> 00:12:06.022 Your superpower. NOTE Paragraph 00:12:06.474 --> 00:12:10.645 Now, film was a gift given to me, 00:12:10.645 --> 00:12:15.333 sort of spurned on by my parents and supported by my community. 00:12:15.683 --> 00:12:18.732 I got to be who I wanted to be when I needed to be it. 00:12:19.636 --> 00:12:21.982 My mom posted something on Facebook the other day, 00:12:21.982 --> 00:12:26.077 which is usually really bad things to say out loud -- 00:12:26.077 --> 00:12:28.234 scary, she should not have a Facebook, but -- NOTE Paragraph 00:12:28.234 --> 00:12:29.857 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:12:29.857 --> 00:12:30.954 she posted this thing, 00:12:30.954 --> 00:12:31.947 and it was a meme, 00:12:31.947 --> 00:12:33.676 you know, one of those funny things, 00:12:33.676 --> 00:12:36.776 and it said, "You can't change someone who doesn't want to change, 00:12:36.776 --> 00:12:39.309 but never underestimate the power of planting a seed." 00:12:39.309 --> 00:12:41.910 And as I was doing the finishing touches on this talk, 00:12:41.910 --> 00:12:44.729 I realized that all the powerful connections in my life 00:12:44.729 --> 00:12:50.859 were through generosity and kindness and love and hope. 00:12:51.035 --> 00:12:54.429 So when I think about my movies "Crazy Rich Asians" and "In the Heights" 00:12:54.429 --> 00:12:56.139 which I'm working on right now -- NOTE Paragraph 00:12:56.139 --> 00:12:57.442 (Applause and cheers) NOTE Paragraph 00:12:57.442 --> 00:12:58.776 Yes, it's a good one. NOTE Paragraph 00:12:59.590 --> 00:13:04.238 All I want to do is show joy and hope in them, 00:13:04.238 --> 00:13:07.635 because I refuse to believe that our best days are behind us, 00:13:07.635 --> 00:13:09.655 but in fact, around the corner. 00:13:10.077 --> 00:13:11.383 Because you see love -- 00:13:11.383 --> 00:13:14.099 love is the superpower that was given to me. 00:13:14.324 --> 00:13:18.366 Love is the superpower that was passed onto me. 00:13:19.079 --> 00:13:23.308 Love is the only thing that can stop a speeding bullet 00:13:23.308 --> 00:13:24.880 before it even exits the chamber. 00:13:24.880 --> 00:13:27.373 Love is the only thing that can leap over a building 00:13:27.373 --> 00:13:31.069 and have a whole community look up into the sky, 00:13:31.069 --> 00:13:32.436 join hands, 00:13:32.436 --> 00:13:36.268 and have the courage to face something that's impossibly bigger than themselves. NOTE Paragraph 00:13:37.027 --> 00:13:39.642 So I have a challenge for myself and for anyone here. 00:13:39.773 --> 00:13:42.459 As you're working on your thing, 00:13:42.459 --> 00:13:43.559 on your company, 00:13:43.559 --> 00:13:45.454 and you're forging this thing to life, 00:13:45.454 --> 00:13:48.011 and you're making the impossible possible, 00:13:48.011 --> 00:13:51.925 let's just not forget to be kind to each other, 00:13:51.925 --> 00:13:55.179 because I believe that is the most powerful form of connection 00:13:55.179 --> 00:13:56.682 we can give to this planet. 00:13:56.682 --> 00:13:59.741 In fact, our future depends on it. NOTE Paragraph 00:14:00.069 --> 00:14:01.462 Thank you. NOTE Paragraph 00:14:01.462 --> 00:14:04.009 (Applause and cheers) NOTE Paragraph 00:14:04.009 --> 00:14:05.014 Thank you. NOTE Paragraph 00:14:05.014 --> 00:14:07.301 (Applause)