[We hereby declare this Simon Baker day in Hollywood]

 

We get to share that with Valentines Day as well. Happy Valentines Day everyone. Thank you gentlemen, I mean what an introduction, Naomi, Bruno, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, it’s surreal, it’s a bizarre experience to think that that’s going to be down there forever. It blows my mind, I can’t really get my head around it. But, as a young actor, and like a lot of young actors, I was filled with self-doubt, the desire was there, you know I wanted to be an actor, I wanted to connect with people through acting, but I lacked confidence. And I was incredibly fortunate to meet people who believed in me more than I believed in myself – great people who offered me encouragement, support and inspiration, and this moment right now is as much for them as it is for me. So I obviously want to thank a few of those people.

 

Jason Weinberg, it’s his birthday today, Happy Birthday, Beth Holengalen, David Coath, all the people at Untitled, they work tirelessly, such support and guidance. Also Peter Levine, Michael Catcher, Steve Lashefer and everyone at CAA, Ena Tressiokis who’s always got my back, Howard Altman who makes numbers look funny and charming and sexy. And of course, everyone at Warner Brothers - Peter Roth who is the most hug happy executive in Hollywood, I would even go so far as to say he’s a serial hugger. He ruined 2 days of the great holiday I was having in Sydney whilst I was on the phone talking to him, he was convincing me to do The Mentalist, thank you for that Peter, I don’t know if that phone bill will be paid off until the first year of syndication comes in, but thank you, I wouldn’t be here without those phone calls. Melinda Hagey, Rachel Philapella, Holly Ollis, all the staff at Warner Brothers, you’ve always greeted me with such open arms and been so accommodating and our relationship has been so strong, and I really appreciate that. CBS – Les Moonves, Nina Tassler, Peter Golden, Rosemary Tarkiri. I met Les Moonves 17 years ago when I came here, Les Moonves took a bet on me then and he’s stuck with that bet, and I will forever be indebted to him and Nina at CBS for that.

 

Now obviously I’m not going to be able to mention everyone, there’s a lot of people that I’ve bumped into that have given me great opportunities, but I really want to mention my family at The Mentalist. Bruno Heller, who I mean, the guy has always encouraged me to follow my instincts, he’s always been incredibly supportive, he’s treated me like a partner from the beginning, I thank you for that, I thank you for your honesty, for the enormous amount of faith you had in me and trust you put in me, I don’t know why, you’ve spoiled me for anyone else that wants to work with me afterwards, but I’m really grateful, most of all for our friendship, a friendship that will go way beyond the last residual cheque from this show, I really value that friendship, I mean it. And Chris Long, who can’t be here, he’s solid, reliable, the man you want in the trenches with you, hard-working, talented, he’s directing because the show has to go on. I have a wonderful cast that I share every day with, Tim Kang, Owain Yeoman, Amanda Righetti, and the delightful Robin Tunney – eh? – you make every day a joy to go to work, you do, you make the days easier, you make the work better, you make me look a foot taller, I value your friendship so much Robin, it’s been one of the great gifts of this show, thank you. And then, the crew, who really are the unsung heroes always in Hollywood, they work tirelessly, I really admire my crew, I’m a real supporter of the crew, I love spending time with them and I’m very very grateful.

 

Now, I could go on, there are so many people that are here that have had influence on me, like Mark Johnson who I worked with on The Guardian, Andy Freedman who was around in the early days and has always been very supportive of me, Charles Shyer is here, I did a movie with Charles in Prague and we’ve been great friends ever since, my Assistant Matt who I pretty much got pretty quick out of film school and he’s just been fantastic, my Driver Tim Stansell who’s just like solid. I want to mention something that’s very important to me, and it’s my friends. You will never realise, sorry, how much inspiration you guys give me, you know, I steal from you every day, all your material, I love it, I thank you, it’s a thing that really buoys me and keeps me going is my friendships, like Naomi, from the beginning you know, we sub-let her house around the corner, and she’s seen it all, and we’ve taken our path together. There’s one friend I want to mention in particular, John Cann, who was my Agent, my great friend, my mentor, my Best Man, sometimes my partner in crime, but he was very very very instrumental in me and my wife and my daughter actually coming here in the first place, he was adamant that we broaden our horizons, and without his encouragement and his support, I wouldn’t be standing here today and I definitely wouldn’t be the man I am, so thank you Jonny.

 

[From the crowd – "What are you going to do now?”]

 

Yeah, what am I going to do now, I dunno, I’m winging it from here. To wrap it up – to me, the big thing is, this is a great trip, it’s fantastic, I could never have imagined, you know the Hollywood Walk of Fame to me was always about inspiration, and I remember walking down here and seeing all these names, and I never imagined that my name would be one of those names, it didn’t even enter my mind. And this is all fantastic, but without being able to share it with my family, my wife, my daughter. The only other place I have my name written in the ground is at Bondi Beach, when my daughter was 1 year old, I know it’s illegal, but I wrote ‘Stella and Simon 93’, she was not even a year old, that’s the only other place I have my name written in the ground. My wife once gave me a card that said ‘Opportunity, having knocked, moves on’, and the most important opportunity that I took advantage of in my life was marrying her, thank you. My kids? My cup runneth over, this is for you guys, you know, you guys inspire me. Thank you very much.