On Monday, September 11, 2023, the Pepperdine community gathered at Alumni Park on the Malibu campus for a remembrance ceremony honoring the lives lost during the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon 22 years ago. With the Pacific Ocean behind them, nearly 3,000 flags served as the ceremony’s backdrop, each representing a life lost on that day. Actor and producer Chris Pratt gave the event’s keynote address to an audience of more than 1,000 Pepperdine
students, faculty, staff, and alumni.

In his speech, Pratt recognized that while he is not a member of the armed forces or a first responder, he is an American citizen who was forever changed by the events of 9/11 and who wants to make a positive difference in any way he can.

“I am a deeply patriotic American,” Pratt said. “I’m a concerned citizen and I’m someone who believes that we all owe it to those who lost their lives on that fateful day to pull together to unite our incredible country and to help it fulfill its great promise.” Pratt was in New Zealand filming a movie on September 11, 2001, and like many that day, felt helpless as he watched the horrors taking place back home. “I couldn’t believe my eyes,” he continued. “I’d never seen anything like that in my life. I stepped out and I fell to my knees in the snow and I cried. I felt the tectonic plates of the earth shifting beneath my feet. I knew in that moment that the world I lived in was going to be totally different moving forward.”

Pratt then shared his experience training with Navy SEALs for a film role. “I met a handful of extraordinary men,” he said. “Men who dedicated their lives to service in the years following 9/11, men who had a purpose larger than themselves. And these are men who talked to me about being called to service, who talked to me about their love of their country in a way that moved me deeply and humbled me greatly.” Inspired by their acts of bravery and commitment to serving their country, Pratt felt called to use his platform as a celebrity to amplify the message that the heroes and the victims of 9/11 should never be forgotten. “Why me?” he asked. “Why not me? Truth is, we’re going to need all of us to bring our country together for the road ahead.”

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