Terrence Howard presents to Jeremy Piven

Please welcome back fellow recipient, Terrence Howard. You know, when I was told that I was gonna present an award to Jeremy Piven, you know, for a breakthrough award, it kind of took me a strange. It was a double take. Because, you know, I've been seeing Jeremy for, you know, a good 20 years. I've been a fan of his for the longest time, you know. They have it written here that he was that guy in, um, Say Anything, you know, not that guy but the other guy. But I don't know him as that guy. You know, um, it's interesting because after years go by a new generation comes about and now people are watching HBO and they've seen the Entourage and they know him as Ari Gold.

And it's, it's sad because if that's the only way they know him, they've missed something very powerful and and incredible. Before any of you guys ever knew my name, this man came up to me at, um, King's Row Cafe and said to me, Terrence, um, you have done some incredible work along the way and even though no one has taken notice of you, I've taken notice of you and you keep doing what you're doing. And that gave me so much encouragement. You see, too many people get in this business for the wrong reasons. They want to be famous. Well, I'll tell you that Jeremy Piven is so very famous. We were at the, um, GQ Man of the Year Awards.

And you have Jennifer Aniston, Vince Vaughn, you have Lance Armstrong, all these incredible people in the room, but the editor of GQ Magazine asked Jeremy to speak. You know, tonight, we've got Eddie Griffin right here in a room full of very famous people. But he pointed out Jeremy Piven. He's way past famous, but he's famous for all the right reasons. Because he loves the work. Because he takes seriously the commitment to making true and honest work. He brought Ari Gold to true life. And as today, it is my greatest honor to present this award to Jeremy Piven because he is my hero. How in God's name do I follow that? That was, that was really unbelievably beautiful.

What, what company, what, what an honor, you know, to be in, in the company of Terrence Howard. I meant every word that I said to him because he's the kind of guy you see in a movie and his work is so specific and rich and weighted and you, you just can't wait to see him again. And it, we're working in a time, I think, right now when people are are a little tired of seeing the same four people over and over again and they want to see some other people. And I'm really excited about that because I feel like I've been kicking around for 116 years and I've been on deck and I've just been waiting for my shot and it's fantastic.

So it's, it's a really great honor to uh to uh to get this and I and this role has given me room to play and find that momentum because I'm, you know, just a stage actor from Chicago and I'm you try to get back to that feeling of of how to do it and do it right. And, um, I remember uh when I was a kid, you know, you had to go my my parents are actors and they taught me from the time I was eight years old that that was the training that I got. And I went, I remember I went to school and you you had to get up and and say what your parents did for a living. And I got up and I I said that my parents steal shoes because they just had so many shoes because they had their own wardrobe.

They we have our own like little theater in Evanston. And, you know, my parents hang the lights and they direct. And that's that's what they do. That's that's their thing and that's their love and and I'm very proud to be their son. And uh, so thank you guys very much. I appreciate it.