JESSICA REIMER
Staff Writer
He has directed some of this generation’s classics, with films such as “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective,” “The Nutty Professor,” “Liar Liar,” “Patch Adams,” and “Bruce Almighty,” to his credit. But this Hollywood heavyweight is not just a celebrity sighting at the Malibu Colony, he’s a Seaver adjunct professor whose students enjoy celebrity perks such as pizza and coffee on their teacher’s tab along with the opportunity to learn from a star.
In his screenwriting class, Tom Shadyac aims to teach about storytelling and the movie business, and to make students think and apply what they learn to life. Although, he orders the class pizza for additional nourishment, the real treat is learning from an accomplished director and screenwriter.
Co-teacher and Pepperdine professor, Nancy Dodd, first met Shadyac at a spring retreat in 2006. Dodd immediately noticed Shadyac’s passion for sharing his knowledge.
“He wanted to come work with students,” Dodd said. Dodd and political science and religion professor Todd Bouldin contacted Shadyac’s office about a possible guest teaching position at Pepperdine. While out to lunch, Dodd noticed Shadyac’s innate ability to connect with people.
“He just talked to waiters, cooks and anyone around,” Dodd said. “You could tell he really cares about people.”
Shadyac owns the Film Production Company, Shady Acres, located at Universal Studios. A UCLA alumnus, Shadyac moved to Los Angeles in 1983 and began writing comedy for Bob Hope.
A Christian, he wove spiritual themes into his work as an actor and comedian until landing his directing debut on the film “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective,” a script he wrote as well. The film starred Hollywood A-lister Jim Carey, who would also work with Shadyac on several other films. Shadyac’s current project, “Evan Almighty,” the sequel to “Bruce Almighty,” premieres in June and stars Steve Carell from “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” and TVs “The Office.”
Students describe Shadyac as invigorating, captivating, inspirational, awesome and “one rad dude” and say his sense of humor makes it easy to relate to him.
“He makes you feel really comfortable with where you are in life,” sophomore Rick Strobel said. “There’s no word to describe that.”
Out of all his classes this semester, Strobel boasts Shadyac’s screenwriting class as his favorite “hands down.”
“When I get in here, I’m so excited to not only learn, but also apply what I’m learning to life,” Strobel said. “Tom inspires me to go out and commit to something.”
Shadyac looked into a number of schools before finally deciding to come to Pepperdine.
“Things really gelled for me when I came here,” said Shadyac. “I really felt an ethic at this school.”
As fate would have it, Shadyac moved to Malibu just in time to guest teach for the spring semester. Shadyac notes his overall satisfaction for a school full of dedicated students.
“You guys really love this place, and that means a lot.”
Shadyac’s classroom goal does not solely incorporate the knowledge and structure of a singular subject.
“I’m not just about teaching the subject. I’m more about the over-arching view and how it pertains to life,” he said.
Teachers often preach this ambition, but Shadyac practices. Similarly, he said he gets information from his classes as well as giving it, and is very impressed with their creativity.
Shadyac’s great passion for film and storytelling inspires the students he interacts with, and Shadyac hopes to pave the way for the filmmakers of tomorrow.
“I get this great feeling of hope because you guys are going to be ruling the world in about 10 years,” he said.
Shadyac believes that storytelling is a powerful conduit for creation; after all, Jesus was a storyteller.
“As writers, we’re engaging in a spiritual act when we write because we are helping God create the world,” Shadyac said.
Shadyac conveys powerful concepts though his films, regardless of their light-hearted, comedic nature. According to Shadyac, Ace Ventura is a spiritual film about joy and becoming like the little children of the world.
As an openly Christian filmmaker in a secular industry, Shadyac supports the art of storytelling and all its aspects. “Any person that overcomes an obstacle so that he or she may grow or love and be a more evolved person is a spiritual story,” said Shadyac. “Films like ‘Forest Gump’ and ‘Scent of a Woman’ are the parables of today.”
Shadyac also understands the dangers of censorship as a false sense of what is real and what is not. Some Christians criticize and suppress films such as “Scent of a Woman,” about a blind, retired colonel played by Al Pacino who decides to live it up for one final weekend in New York before committing suicide. Such critics fail to recognize the parallel to Biblical stories, Shadyac said.
“Truth is truth, and the truth will always surface,” he said. “These things that we hide are kids from, they’re eventually going to be exposed to.”
Shadyac’s involvement with Pepperdine could potentially create a film program in years to come, if many more variables also change.
“I think they actively want to form a department,” Shadyac said.
Pepperdine currently hosts a film studies minor, soon to be a film studies major, but Shadyac has another idea altogether.
“I think it should be about film production,” said Shadyac. “Eventually you want kids with cameras.”
So, besides the obvious benefit of a weekly java break, Shadyac brings years of filmmaking experience and Christian perception to Pepperdine. As a personal career reflection and worthwhile words of advice, Shadyac encourages students to commit to unprejudiced tolerance, and to leave their life in God’s hands.
“Be open. The talent is the call and it will find you.”
03-01-2007
