ladies and gentlemen the 32nd recipient of the AFI life Achievement Award Merill [Applause] Street hi Nick did anyone noticed that um an Roth also gave her my nose for the hours you're welcome Reese told me the very first night we were up in montere before we started shooting she said you know what she does I said no Nicole she goes yeah you know what she does she goes out at 5: Before Dawn and she goes skinny dipping behind the hotel in the ocean I looked at Nicole and I said are you kidding me she said I love it oh yeah Stanley Kubrick said once he told Nicole that he thought of her as Thoroughbred and I think that only an Englishman would think that such a vaguely eugenic blue blooded term would be a compliment to an Aussie Sheila because to me darling you have a wild Mongrel Talent you're like a you're like a Mustang and a Workhorse and a and a champion racer all in one you know but one whose Spirit they will never break never for me the very very hardest part of being incessantly called the greatest actress of my generation the really what is the hard oh oh yeah the hardest part the hardest part is when you come up against or you're acting with another person who is also really really really really really really great that's difficult for me but it's like you know somebody who you work all day with and you go home and that was a great day great day you go home and you go how the how did she do that and you're like I could do that no I I couldn't I don't think I could yes she could no no you couldn't do that so but oh my god let's talk about big little lies my God [Applause] woman our very first day of shooting um the very first scene 8 a.m. she fixs a scene where on action she wakes up from a dead sleep into like a screaming weeping terrifying Nightmare and I rush in I'm her estranged uh mother-in-law brought in to wreck the second season and and I hold her and I comfort her and I soothe her and I calm her down and I could feel her little heart oh was just clanging through this t-shirt and we were both traumatized by the encounter because she was you know she was going to have to do it over and over and over again in multiple sizes and even when we even when we turned around she never ever lost the ferocity of that kind of oh God it was just thumping fear I I I haven't recovered from that first day I have never seen anything like that in my life people call it bravery you know when an actress Bears all and leaps off into the unknown she Dives deep into the darker parts of what it is to be a human being but I don't think it's bravery I think it's love I think she just loves it and I think that's the greatest attribute an actor can have is that blend of appetite and curiosity and recklessness you have that baby [Applause]