Dennis Quaid presents to Ryan Merriman

Now, presenting this young Hollywood Award is one of our most versatile and talented leading men. He's the star of movies like Breaking Away, The Big Easy, and most recently, In Good Company, and he's a winner of the Independent Spirit Award for supporting actor from for the film Far from Heaven, among many other outstanding roles. He also made his directorial debut directing Ryan in the TNT original film, Everything That Rises. This guy is insanely cool. Please welcome Dennis Quaid. Hello sports fans. I, I first directed Ryan about seven or eight years ago. It was my first directing gig. Uh, he was about 13, 14, looked like he was 11, I think. He's a lot bigger now.

Anyway, um, we had a lot of veteran actors in the movie and we were looking for somebody to play my son, and it was a real critical role. And I looked at a lot of uh, kids who grew up in LA, and they all would have been good if I'd been doing a a skateboard movie, but this was took place in Montana on a ranch. And Ryan came in and he was from Oklahoma. And I asked him if he could ride a horse, and he gave the right answer every actor should give, which is like the wind. And I asked him if he could twirl a rope and he said, sure. And but damned if uh, he didn't learn to twirl a rope, and he gave a really great performance and he was there every day and he comes from a great family.

He's a great person. He's a really great actor up and coming. So it's my pleasure to give this award to Ryan Merriman. Well, first off, I want to thank Dennis for uh, taking a shot with me. I really appreciate it. Uh, I want to thank God for all the blessings in life and in business. Uh, I want to thank the young Hollywood Awards for honoring me tonight. Uh, my family and uh, De Niro and Pesci for Raging Bull. That's it. Thanks guys. Appreciate it.