Ethan Hawke Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters | GQ

it doesn't matter what character I play you're always your characters lawyer you're their advocate Dead Poets Society directed by Peter Weir starring obviously the great Robin Williams I remember everything about that movie Robin was a genius meaning I never met anybody like him remotely like him he was a comic genius take 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 they'd all be different just just endless but funnily enough he wasn't really the master on set Peter Weir was a great leader and showed all of us how to be serious about making art and that doesn't mean like self-serious we played around he he had speakers installed in the classroom so you could just crank the music I thought that was work in the hands of a person who was a serious craftsman it wasn't some Airy fairy like art thing he was he he was gonna build a movie brick by brick Todd Anderson was my character it's an aspect of me that I've visited and other characters to somebody who has no self-confidence and it's funny because I really I wanted to play meal there's the character who kill himself is really outgoing guy and I was pretty gregarious young man you know so I thought that I was more right for that part and Robert Sean Leonard who played Neal thought he was more right for Todd because he was very shy and withdrawn person and Peter had this beautiful notion Peter Weir that you always cast for the final color meaning that at the end of the movie my character needed to stand up on this desk and say Oh captain my captain and he wanted to believe that said that you you have to act the shy part but so then when the truth comes out your real self is revealed captain my captain sit down mr. Anderson something I've never forgotten casting for the final color after Dead Poets Society I thought I thought that's what making a movie was like working with Robin Williams and Peter Weir I had an amazing experience of these people and that's what I thought making a movie was like and I was continually disappointed after that because it's not what making movie life often it's business often people are there for a paycheck when things go right it all seems very easy and when things are difficult then it's like wow you see how hard it is to make a good movie explorers directed by Joe Dante my first movie was River Phoenix I learned a lot watching rivers career when he did my own Private Idaho it was incredibly dangerous thing to do as a teen idol to play a gay character it's very common now and it's one of the biggest things that's shifted from my generation to my sons as people being comfortable talking about homosexuality that was very verboten when River and I were 21 River was an artist you know he was he didn't think like that he thought outside the box like that his whole family you know were not ordinary thinkers they were revolutionary thinkers you know they were they were the first vegetarians that ever met I mean we were going to sleep over at his house and I had these you know mushroom and avocado burgers and I remember thinking what is this but they really opened my eyes and river was a very beautiful person and obviously you learned that it's a dangerous road is the road of a teen celebrity you know or any kind of celebrity for that matter Reality Bites starring Winona Ryder directed by Ben Stiller so it's Ben Stiller's first movie he was this immensely talented young man he was a comic but he's to my money certainly the comic the way Buster Keaton is a comic or something I mean he's dark and serious and wild and mischievous and strange and talented and of course it was really Wynonna's movie Winona made that happen Winona was the biggest star in the world at that moment and that whole movie is her passion project and you know that character was another aspect of me you know I mean pretentious and self-serious and full of himself and wildly insecure and I don't know it was guys I knew guys I wanted to be guys I didn't like if you really do it right doesn't matter who you're playing you really get immersed in their point of view I love Troy you know hey that's my bike is still the best name for a band [Music] the before trilogy before sunset before sunrise before midnight directed by Richard Linklater I met Richard Linklater before Dazed and Confused had come out but I saw an early screening of it cuz I was running this theater company and he came to see the play that night he told me about before sunrise you know he sent me the script it's back you know before email and stuff so we actually partied all night I remember saying about him in like four ten the morning and then I woke up at noon and there in my my mailbox was a script that's what I remember it anyway you know with his handwriting on it hey check this out it was before sunrise and I I read it and don't tell him it was a mess frankly but I knew I wanted to work with him so I actually thought he was offering me the part but he wasn't I realized my agents like no he wants you to audition so I came in an audition I auditioned a ton of times and um I finally got the part and we started working on the movie some of the best summers of my life summer in 1994 in Vienna with Julie Delpy and all I remember is running lines we just ran yeah epic lines in that movie and we just had to spend every day memorizing writing and people think you know that the movie has the illusion of spontaneity its meticulously worst because if you watch that movie a lot of the movie plays out in single takes so it's not a movie find in the editing room you can't cut anything out so we could have to rehearse with us over and over and over again we rehearse that movie for over a month before we shot it and that's that's that's rare with movies nine years later we did before sunset in nine years after that we did before midnight I didn't have an idea that'd be a trilogy till we finished the third we spent months and months trying to come up with a title before sunset um you know the first film I've been called before sunrise and anybody said you're making a sequel what's gonna be called before sunset and everybody laughs because it just seems so obvious you know we were like no no no it should be called this so we come up with some potential style or this potential title and finally one day we were like maybe we should just call it before sunset people who are fans of it sometimes ask me you know will there be a fourth and there's something that feels complete about it to me the first one opens with a couple in their 40s fighting on the train and the camera pulls back to real reveal these young people and then in the third movie we are the couple fighting in our 40s and and there's something cyclical about that to revisit those movies each decade of my life and getting it to be kind of this shadow self an alternate universe where Jesse and Celine really exists you know and Julie and Rick and I we grew to love Jesse and Celine still do boyhood Richard Linklater I can't separate boyhood from my relationship with Richard Linklater you know I mean he had this idea that how funny most movies about coming-of-age movies work because they they happen in one moment whereas literature you can tell the whole story of somebody's childhood it's much easier to cover tunner but because actors age you either have to hire different actors which kind of breaks the spell or you have to pretend like that a person's life was changed in one moment as opposed to what boyhood is about is this accumulation of moments that come to feel like one thing called your youth it's the one time of our lives in America anyway we're all in the same grid first grade through twelfth grade we all kind of know we're you know when you're in eighth grade you know where you're gonna be in three years you're gonna in 11th grade it's an interesting architecture for a movie and I remember him kind of telling me the idea he wanted me to do a portrait of fatherhood you know and to really use myself and my experiences and as a child of divorce and I had a marriage that was breaking up to write about that and help him ride shotgun with him what he did this huge huge adventure of trying to make a movie over 12 years and it's the most incredible idea I've ever heard I remember I remember as soon as he said I was like hold Wow man let's do it but of course your word who was ever gonna give you money to make a movie that is gonna take they're not gonna get return on for 13 years and you can't even sign any um contracts cuz you know it's not legal to sign a contract for more than seven years so the whole thing was a handshake deal I didn't think that we would finish the movie for five or six years I hoped we did but it wasn't until we were seven or eight years into it I was like you know what we're gonna finish this thing Gattaca Andrew Nichols first film yeah I fell in love on that set you know then we got pregnant and had Maya that's a great great time of my life well you know people can say that but you know all children look a lot like their parents they act like because their parents are movie actors she's somehow different than any other human being in the plan most people look a lot like their mom and dad gatok is a meticulously designed film the costumes are incredible the art direction is incredible and it's it's difficult to do a futuristic movie without a lot of money we really had to design a world and Andrew was brilliant you know we got 50s cars and Frank Lloyd Wright buildings and he just made this whole hodgepodge of design influences that was beautiful and and the writing of course is phenomenal I've done two really good science fiction Gattaca and predestination predestination is a movie that many people haven't seen but it's one I'm really proud of the guys who made that movie the Spirit Brothers are big Gattaca fans and so I think that's why they wanted me to be in it as predestination owes from a design point of view it owes some ideas to Gattaca [Music] predestination in my second film with the spirit brothers my favorite predestination story is that the other day I had a cop pulled me over and I was like what is it he goes look I'm sorry to pull you over but I got a no predestination I watched it twice what happened yeah in in music are they and I think they are and in Wow thank you I love that movie I love science fiction that's based on a Robert Heinlein short story Sara snoot gives one of my favorite performances I've ever been party to you know people really talk about acting you know if you make an indie movie an art film people talk about the acting but when the acting disappears inside a genre film gets lost because people get the movie works you get lost in the world you just believe the character but Sarah snook gets one just sits she plays a man she plays a woman she plays in between she was going like just an amazing performance that that also serves a science fiction plot Great Expectations Alfonso Cuaron's first American movie he's going on to being one of the great directors of his generation and I feel proud that I knew that the second I met him we met at a diner and Chelsea he wanted me to do critic stations I had no desire to do that movie you know that whole novel is about class and I really felt that if you're gonna make a movie about class in America that pits that my character should be Latino or african-american he should be you know a person of color but Alfonso completely disagreed and he loved before sunrise and he wanted me to play the part and he was completely compelling an amazing artist just the way he talked about movies was so exciting DeNiro is you know one of a handful of first-ballot Hall of Famers that I've ever come in contact with he's just one of the greatest people of my profession and he was just he was the top and then in the last 20 years he's going on to be one of the greatest comics of his generation I just did mine him so much you know and he's a no-bullshit guy I learned a lot working with him simply because I was still very young and I was for people to give me permission to do the work I wanted to do going if I were friends before that started we're kind of waiting for directors to give us permission to do great work in De Niro just comes in and does it you know he's in charge of his own work I learned a lot ultimately like I said they didn't really how fast I was trying to do something new with it we all just goofed around trying to make a story that spoke to us people liked that movie now and they liked it when it came out but it came out a couple weeks after Titanic and so nobody gave a about anything but Titanic for about nine months after Titanic came out particularly another romance you know that didn't involve a giant ship sinking and the most incredible effects of all time and Leo and Kate and James Cameron so we were kind of lost in the what he called two aftershock of Titanic before the devil knows you're dead directed by Sidney Lumet Sidney Lumet's last film he was 83 I know you know I've worked with a handful of genuine card-carrying masters from the filmmaking department but Sidney I mean I was being directed by a guy who directed Marlon Brando in one of his greatest performances in a black-and-white movie written by Tennessee Williams and Henry Fonda's greatest part in 12 Angry Men you know Al Pacino he directed Al Pacino in Serpico and Dog Day Afternoon but it wasn't just like some doddering old dude you know he was on fire he was not going to let this opportunity go by he grabbed it by the hair if you see that movie it's a young man's movie I mean it's angry and blistering and surprising and strange and it's not the work of somebody phoning anything in I remember sitting on an airplane with him we were going to the Toronto Film Festival and he said to me said you know we told everybody I was dying and win the Oscar for this picture that's how dumb the Oscars are he said everyday just need a narrative you know and I'm overthinking there does he mean that he's sick so you don't let yourself think those thoughts are you sitting with him you mean you know you just don't want to think about if it's his last film it seems like bad luck or something like that but not like it was a surprise that that could have happened Hamlet directed by Michael Hummer era written by a young aspiring writer named William Shakespeare Hamlet lends itself to reinterpretation more than you know Dickens I would say and my collaborator had a brilliant idea this is something remember when he first talked to me about he's like he had this vision of of Hamlet walking through a video store not being able to decide what movie to rent and that it's kind of represents an existential crisis you know funnily enough they don't even have video stores anymore but at that moment in 2000 now it'd be the equivalent of going online and getting lost I felt lucky because I was one of the I'd always had a dream of playing Hamlet young you're so often on stage you see older guys you see guys my age play Hamlet you know really he's knee drops he's still in school you know he's supposed to be a student I always thought and I was proud to be you know being my 20s and playing Hamlet training day Jake Coit was a great character but he existed in relationship to Alonso you know I mean I got to sit shotgun on on one of the greatest actors of our time creating one of his indelible portraits you know as he worked on that getting to watch you know we went we didn't ride around the cops and we saw some crazy things you know and we Antoine Fuqua is an amazing director and he was young and he had something to say Denzel had something to say and that script was ice hot but I'd really gotten a lot of confidence the first 10 years or so my career outside might have had some talent but I don't have any confidence you can't have real confidence without experience you're kind of faking it when you start everybody is you got to and I was just starting to get confidence enough confidence to act with Denzel and enough you know be a shrinking violet you know anything that I had learned from De Niro and stuff you know went to another level with Denzel it because it was it was just a much more all-encompassing experience magnificent seven Antoine said that he and Denzel were making magnificent seven and I said that means there's six other parts dude and I'd better be one of them and there we were all decided to make a Hollywood Western Antoine had every toy we had Gatling guns and one hundred horses and creams and it's the biggest budget movie I ever made it was an event making that movie he's a hundred and seven in the shade and raining we'd spend the day on the horse I being like this wolf suit and just drew I'd have to change my suit like four times a day she's dripping in sweat we had the best stunt team in the world it's got Jeff - and I was old fashioned there's nothing like no computer tricks these guys they were out there it was like this is like the stuff a legend these guys I told her that's when I was like one day we're walking this music I'm not character this lame death and I was like I'm the sniper I'd be up there I should be in the church tower you know I should get shot up there and fall down and then then I looked over cuz the lead Jeff was the least the guy and his son Nick was my stunt guy and he goes that means Nick's got a fall from that church and I was like oh yeah it does Nicoll do it watching it hell yeah dad and he did it beautiful beautiful stone Maggie's plan written and directed by Rebecca Miller it was wonderful to be directed by a woman you know 95% of the movies I've done have been directed by men and it's just been a I'm a symptom of my era but Rebecca Miller's just fabulously dressed funny witty smart and you know kind of all over the place but then secretly brilliant Greta Gerwig is you know I'm working with some of the best women of my generation you know Julianne Moore I haven't been in very many comedies and when I started acting I really thought that's what I do I remember when I started my favorite actor one of them was John Cusack and Warren Beatty so Maggie's plan was fun for me to channel my inner Warren Beatty one of my favorite lines like you know I don't want you to fall in the pickle man something like that I can't remember it exactly but I like to working with Greta she comes at acting from a similar vantage point than I do and Julianne Moore actually you know we all well particularly both of them they think like filmmakers you they they Julie really understand the way movies work and what how storytelling works the the actual geometry and math of making a good movie and what an audience wants to see she is a great awareness of that Greta is a writer I like being on set acting with people who write like myself I like people like me first performed written and directed by Paul Schrader I had never worked with Paul before Paul for people they don't know you know he wrote taxi driver and when I got this script I knew it was one of the best characters that ever been offered he's a great writer and great writers speak to their time and speak to their moment and First Reformed I think speaks to right now in much the same way when you think about movies in history movies you know it's you don't really see very many movies that deal in a grown-up serious way with your spiritual life most of us wonder why we're born and why we die and wonder what we're doing here what is it all for why do we go through all this and there's a certain community of the world that spends their life thinking about this which is the religious community and you don't see very many of them in movies if you do it's like in The Exorcist or something and they're where they're bad guys are they're comics you don't see a serious portrait of somebody's dedicated their life to some of the toughest questions and Paul is smart enough and well-educated to write such a party the movie in a lot of ways is like a scream it's like a it's a roar from an old lion you know who's kind of roaring at his own generation and roaring at young people he's just asking questions and I think that that's like one of the jobs of movies you

Channel: GQ

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Keywords: ethan hawke, robert de niro, uma thurman, ethan hawke interview, ethan hawke characters, ethan hawke iconic characters, ethan hawke training day, ethan hawke reality bites, ethan hawke boyhood, ethan hawke acting, ethan hawke roles, ethan hawke gq, ethan hawke movie, ethan hawke 2018, ethan, hawke, ethan hawke movies, ethan hawke before sunset, before sunrise, before midnight, ethan hawke gattaca, before trilogy, gq, gq magazine

Id: iDrTTIzz190

Length: 20min 52sec (1252 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 06 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/maxdembo]

Outstanding performance in First Reformed

[u/Intelboy]

Lloovvee the Before series, 3 really great films.

[u/Lampmonster]

Gattaca is one of my favorite science fiction movies ever, and it uses almost no special effects. Never save anything for the swim back.

[u/sevenpasos]

He will always be Jessie to me

[u/LoneNutTheory]

Has anyone seen Predestination? What the FUCK.

[u/[deleted]]

First Reformed performance was revelatory

[u/niall_9]

Poor Ethan - he’s like Scottie Pippen in Training Day. fucking incredible and deserving of an Oscar, just outshined by Jordan

[u/bigwilly311]

Lol at him being incredulous to that guy being amazed his kid looks like him.

“You know most children look an awful lot like their parents!”

Reminds me of the Jim Gaffigan joke: “Ooooh, he looks just like his dad, what are the odds?!?”

“...Pretty good odds.”

[u/AmbienceSpace]

Ethan Hawke has to be one of my favourite actors. Ever since Gattaca, the first Hawke movie I saw, I've thought he was amazing