On Success, Setbacks, and Showing Up for Others

James Vanderbilt ’94 delivered a personal, insightful Baccalaureate Address to the Form of 2026.

BY KRISTIN DUISBERG

He’s written Hollywood blockbusters that include Zodiac and several installments of the Spider-Man and Scream franchises. He’s directed two films starring Oscar-winning actors: Nuremberg, with Russell Crowe, and Truth, with Robert Redford. He’s made 22 movies for film and television, with another four in the works. And yet the message that James Vanderbilt ’94 shared with the members of the Form of 2026 in his Baccalaureate Address during Graduation Weekend, May 30 and 31, was not about how they might define their futures professionally. Instead, he urged them to recognize the importance of “the things that are inside you, the things that you love, that excite you; your values, how you want to greet the world and show up for the people around you.”

Noting that he is a storyteller and that it is a storyteller’s mandate to draw parallels between characters — in this case, himself and the form’s 130 soon-to-be graduates — Vanderbilt offered up memories of his own time as a St. Paul’s student that included slipping into Chapel just before the doors shut, discovering his love of theater in New Space — and leaving Millville without a clear plan for his future after he was accepted only at his safety school, the University of Southern California, and his father dismissed his idea of taking a gap year and reapplying to the Ivy League.

“So I went off to Los Angeles not knowing what the future held,” he said. “I knew I wanted to make movies, but I had no idea how to do it.” For those who might be heading to different colleges than the ones they’d thought they’d attend, Vanderbilt’s advice was this: “Don’t panic. The journey you are on is the right one, even if it’s not the one you planned, because wherever you go, you will meet people and have experiences that will help you get to where you want to be and to become the person you want to become.”

At USC, Vanderbilt took a class with John Furia Jr., a television writer whose credits included Bonanza, Hawaii Five-O, The Twilight Zone, The Waltons, and Dr. Kildare. Furia, he shared, told him something that became foundational to his own approach to his career. “He said, ‘everybody wants to know how to get their foot in the door, but that’s not the real trick. If you work hard enough, eventually you can break in. The real trick is staying in once you get there.’ And he was right,” Vanderbilt said.

The specifics of Vanderbilt’s formula for success in both business and life remain between him and his Baccalaureate audience, but the bottom line, he said, is to do things with kindness. Illustrating the point with a story about the trust and generosity Redford extended to him while working on Truth, Vanderbilt’s directorial debut, he shaped a compelling argument for the importance of investing in others’ success. “Because when there are tough times in your career and your lives — and there will be tough times — people will remember your kindness and they will lift you back up and return it to you because that’s how you treated them. … [Y]ou have a choice in how you decide to go out and greet the world, in the person you want to be. I recommend doing it with curiosity and kindness.”

Vanderbilt’s Baccalaureate Address was among the highlights of Graduation Weekend. His multi-day return to his alma mater also included spending time with Rector Kathy Giles, meeting with the members of the Student Council, and sharing with his family the place where he spent some of the most formative years of his life.