Tom Hanks is an (honorary) Harvard graduate!
Hanks, 66, appeared at Harvard University on Thursday to deliver a graduation speech to graduating students in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Ivy League school awarded the actor an honorary doctorate of arts, jokingly for which he received his degree “without a little work, no time in the classroom, not even once in that library.”
“I don’t know much about Latin, I don’t have a real passion for enzymes, and it’s something I scanned public global policy in the paper just before I did Wordle,” he joked to graduates while speaking at Harvard Yard’s Tercentenary Theatre. before he urged the students to stand up against “the indifference of a struggle-weary people.”
In a speech full of references to Superman and other superheroes, Hanks said, “Indifference turns citizens into indentured servants employed by despots and tyrants whose default setting is cynicism, outlawing dissent and banning art, dialogue, and books.”
“Every day, every year, and for every graduating class, there’s an election,” Hanks told the graduating class. “It’s the same choice for all adults who have to decide to become one of the three types of Americans: those who embrace freedom and freedom for all, those who don’t want it, or those who are indifferent. Only the former does the job of creating a more perfect unity, an indivisible nation. Others get in the way.”
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During Hanks’ arrival at college, Harvard also gave him a Harvard-branded volleyball in reference to his 2000 movie. Cast away. Students from the school’s theater group Hasty Pudding put on a series of performances detailing the actor’s key movie credits before his speech.
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Harvard previously announced Hanks as its 2023 keynote speaker in March, and university president Larry Bacow said at the time that the actor “contributes to our national culture and expands our ability to appreciate previously unexamined stories and histories.” “
Jay Connor / SplashNews.com
Hanks and his wife of 35 years, producer and actress Rita Wilson, appeared at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday for the world premiere of the new film. Asteroid City, both appear. The film, directed by Wes Anderson, received a standing ovation of about six minutes after its premiere at the international film festival.
Hanks himself also studied theater at Chabot College and later embarked on an acting career that has spanned over 40 years since then, winning two Academy Awards, after graduating from California State University in Sacramento, California.
Asteroid City It opens in select theaters on June 16, before opening nationwide on June 23.