Henry Winkler aka 'The Fonz' has been speaking to FILMCLUB - the nationwide education charity and experts in films for young people - about the importance of watching a variety of films, in support of the charity’s mission to highlight how films can be just as educational as they are entertaining.
The actor, director and producer - who is best known as The Fonz from 1970’s TV show Happy Days, and whose film credits include Scream, Click, Waterboy, Holes and Little Nicky - chatted to FILMCLUB as part of the First News MyWay! Campaign, which he is supporting to raise awareness of learning challenges and boosting children’s self-esteem.
Chatting to FILMCLUB youngsters, Winkler told the charity why he thinks it’s important for young people to watch a variety of films and how it can help school children with learning challenges; "I find that I learn through my ears better than I learn through my eyes, so when you’re watching a movie you see how other people live, how other people think, and when reading is difficult you get to hear it so you can learn a lot of stuff from a good movie.
"Going to films that sometimes I can’t understand the language I go to films that were made in China or in Japan or in France or in Russia, and then I get to learn how those people live in those countries and it’s so interesting.
"Maybe the clothes are different, maybe the weather is different, maybe the language is different but the people are the same."
Winkler, who has coped with dyslexia all his life, also revealed how he learns his scripts despite his own learning challenges; "I’m very good at memorising. Not so good at reading, so I have to go over them and over them, and I read them and as I say them out loud I read them with my eyes and I hear them with my ears and it goes in but I have to work a little harder than everyone else, but it’s worth it to me."
The event formed part of the charity’s Power of Film campaign, which highlights film’s huge capacity to educate and inspire young people, and the actor revealed his own powerful film moment; "Rebel Without A Cause it was the first movie in a movie theatre that I cried (at). The emotion was so strong in the movie that it made me cry, and that was the first time."
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