Kevin,

I just finished watching your interview with Piers Morgan and I respect your bravery and humility. I have always loved your work, and I guess it’s possible that you could have been performing during that interview. After all, you managed to dupe everyone on Usual Suspects – my all-time favorite performance of yours. But no, your self-reflection is evident. Your humility genuine. Your commitment to personal growth notable with each and every pause before answering the tough questions, and checking yourself when Piers tried to bait you.

I do very much look forward to your return to acting. Your mistakes, flaws and struggle will make that accomplishment even sweeter. I hope that we don’t have to wait for another Kirk Douglas to speak out. Your own efforts to share your journey are reason enough.

I’m a physician / surgeon teaching medical students and residents. One of my passions is to show other physicians how to manage, analyze, recover from and ultimately celebrate their mistakes or poor outcomes (mistake or not). I also teach my children to highlight their mistakes as a way to overcome the awfulness of anticipating judgement. By bringing these things out into the open, others are much more likely to be supportive than critical. It is scary at first, but it gets easier with practice. I’ve made lots of mistakes, so I’m pretty good at sharing them!

Congratulations on getting there.

I admire your work. I support your humanity.

I consider you worthy of my friendship.

Emily

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