ACTOR TELLS STANFORD GRADUATES TO SHINE A LIGHT
Emmy winner for NBC’s “This is Us” enthralls crowds with his lively commencement address
Actor Sterling K. Brown urged Stanford University’s 2018 graduates to let their lights shine, not just for themselves, but for the enrichment and empowerment of each other and all those around them.
Brown, a 1998 Stanford graduate and one of the stars of the NBC mega-hit “This is Us,” gave a commencement speech Sunday that was at times self-deprecating, poignant and irreverent — and always entertaining.
His arrival into the stadium with Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne was greeted with applause and shouts of “Randall,” the character Brown plays on “This is Us.” Brown recently made history by becoming the first African-American
to win both the Screen Actors Guild award and Golden Globe for best actor in a dramatic series. In 2016, he won an Emmy for his portrayal of Christopher Darden in “The People vs. O.J. Simpson.” He also has won an Emmy for “This is Us.”
Brown appeared to have won the hearts of the undergraduates and graduates with his first verbal salvo, addressing the assemblage as “Nerd Nation.” He began with a statement, a warning of a sort, that he'd be slipping into “AAVE” during his speech, explaining that while some parts of the world call it Ebonics, on the Farm it is known as AAVE — African-American Vernacular English.
“I also use it, periodically, because sometimes, when driving a point home, I find the King's to be somewhat lacking,” Brown said.
He then asked if they had ever been asked to do something everyone was assured they'd be great at, but which they had serious doubts about. In writing the commencement, Brown said, he had grave doubts and fears because he didn't just want to give a speech, he wanted it to be special for the graduates.
Why, he wondered, would anyone think it a good idea to get “a dude who takes the words of another dude and speaks them for a living?”
“Yo, real talk? I must've started this speech 'bout 5011 times,” Brown said. “Every time I started, it would be ah'ight, but I wanted it to be great. I wanted to give you all something special.”
Those doubts and fears about doing that, he said, allowed him to challenge himself, and to grow, stretch and expand. That allowed him to shine, he said, and those who shine a light, illuminate others.
Brown entered Stanford as a business major in 1994 because, he said, it seemed the prudent thing to do. He loved acting, but he needed to “make bank” to support himself and his family.
In his freshman year, he auditioned for and won the lead in “Joe Turner's Come and Gone.” It was a choice that changed his life, and he eventually changed majors to drama.
His best friend was another business major, Andrew Jacob Daher, who Brown said had an amazingly bright light — so bright it was luminous.
“I remember once freshman year,” Brown said, “somebody tried to put AJD on front street and they said, ‘Yo Andrew, why you always hanging out with all these black people, man?' Sans hesitation, Mr. Phi Beta Kappa in Econ, with his hat pulled real low over his eyes, said ‘Because I'm down.'”
Daher was one of the few people, Brown said, who always did his best, which brought out the best in others.
He has many stories about Daher, Brown said, but he'll never have new ones. The year after graduation, Daher died from multiple traumatic injuries suffered after falling three stories. Whether accidental or not is unknown.
Brown, who named his son after Daher, said his friend showed him how the brilliance of one light can change so many around him, and he feels that presence and love every time he speaks his son's name.
Brown encouraged the crowd not to spend time vilifying those with whom they don't agree. Every time you hear another's opposing viewpoint, he said, it helps focus and refine your own opinions. He has played characters that he did not like, but in order to play them convincingly, Brown said, he had to first understand them.
Don't hate, Brown admonished. “Intolerance,” he said, “is still intolerance, even if it's for the intolerant.”
He also told the audience to celebrate other people's successes as you would your own, and to know that when you succeed, you show others that what is possible for you, is possible for them.
Brown told the graduates to be proud of their Stanford degrees, saying from now on they get to walk around with an S on their chests, so why wouldn't they shine?
“Class of 2018,” Brown shouted, “it is your time now. Do me a favor, will ya? Take your light and show us the way.”
Stanford's 127th commencement was conducted under much cooler temperatures this year — last year, it was 106 degrees, the highest temperature ever recorded in the stadium.
The university conferred 1,747 undergraduate, 2,460 master's and 1,000 doctoral degrees.