“I had no idea who I was talking to at the Cannes Film Festival”

“Turns out… everyone else did”

I was at the Cannes Film Festival, and I had been drinking

With my strong Baptist roots, I was a cheap drunk.

It took just a couple of vodka shots to loosen me up.

As I looked out onto the balcony, I saw that the room was made of money.

It was 2008, and I was at the New Zealand film commission's Cannes Party that overlooked the Croisette and the southern Mediterranean.

I was as nervous as hell.

No one there knew who I was.

I had been working on a high-concept screenplay, and I was there to pitch it to high-level producers.

I wish I could have done it sober, but back then, I felt like I lacked the courage.

I heard a voice in my head whisper…

“Talk to everyone in the room. Leave no stone unturned.”

And so with the coolness of a man who is afraid but stubbornly refuses to let anyone see… I sauntered out onto the balcony on that warm French night.

And I did indeed talk to nearly every person at that party…

I made them laugh.

I was genuinely curious about who they were.

I got the business cards and the phone numbers of some of the best producers in the business.

I swear you’ve never seen anyone work that room like I did that night.

Until one person remained, aloof, looking up at the fireworks that shot across the harbor into the black night…

He was a tall gentleman, nearly 60, and I noticed how all the others in the room treated him with great deference.

Like he was a giant in a room of kings…

Perhaps it was the vodka, but I had no fear of this man or knowledge of who he was.

So I moved up alongside him… staring at the same fireworks, saying nothing for a breath of time…

“Hey, I’m Geoff”, I said, stretching out my hand.

“Barry, he replied in a slow Californian drawl, shaking my hand, almost relieved to have someone treating him in such a normal manner.

We watched the fireworks for a bit longer.

“What are you doing here?” He asked casually.

“Oh, I’ve written a screenplay. It’s about a man who throws his wife’s cat out of the window of a high-rise apartment in New York City. It lands in the head of a very important person, and it starts a war.”

“Oh that sounds funny!” He chuckled.

“Well, I sure hope so,” I laughed. “Want me to tell you a bit more about it?”

“Sure.” He said genuinely interested.

And so Barry and I talked about my screenplay for 15 minutes on that balcony in Cannes.

He gave me his business card, and I gave him mine, and he asked me to send him my script when I finished it.

As I walked away from our interaction, I realized that everyone at the party was staring at me.

Not because I was drunk, I was still pretty sober.

There was admiration in their eyes, like I must be somebody.

There was another man there, whom I had talked to early that evening, and as I ordered another vodka from the bar, he came rushing over.

“Geoff,” he said urgently, “Do you not realize who you were talking to?”

“Sure, that was Barry,” I said plainly.

“Yeah! Barry is the head of New Line Cinema and the Executive Producer of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.”

I shook my head in disbelief. He had seemed so ordinary, so normal, just a human being happy to talk to another human.

It’s been many years since that evening on the balcony at Cannes, and I don’t drink vodka anymore…

But I learned a lesson that night that I will never forget.

It was the first time I understood what a real conversation can do.

No one is greater than anyone else

No human being deserves to be feared or needs to be revered.

We are just people.

And if we could find the courage to simply talk to one another as equals…

Anything would be possible.

Geoff.x

P.S: Every good thing in life always comes through the doorway of a conversation. If you want more… talk to people. I’ll help you do it here - Working Together