If you watched the 2015 Academy Awards, you may have noticed a couple of moments in which suicide took center stage. The first was when producer Dana Perry mentioned her son’s suicide at age 15 in her acceptance speech after winning the Oscar for Best Documentary Short for “Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1.” According to ABC, Perry followed her on-stage comment that we need to talk about sucide “out loud” with the backstage comment, “We need to talk about suicide out loud to try to work against the stigma and silence around suicide because the best prevention for suicide is awareness and discussion and not trying sweep it under the rug.”
The second was during Graham Moore’s moving acceptance speech for Best Adapted Screenplay for “The Imitation Game.” Moore said:
“When I was 16 years old, I tried to kill myself, because I felt weird, and I felt different, and I felt like I did not belong, and now I am standing here…
I would like for this moment to be for that kid out there who feels like she’s weird or she’s different or she doesn’t fit in anywhere. Yes, you do….
Stay weird, stay different, and when it’s your turn, and you are standing on this stage, please pass the same message to the next person that comes along.
Thanks to both of these talented individuals for using their platform to bring awareness to an important issue. And if you’re in the greater Cleveland area and would like someone to talk to about suicidal thoughts or surviving someone else’s suicide, please remember that we are here.
The NY Daily News has a longer story on Graham Moore’s acceptance speech, which you can read here.