Years after his split from Uma Thurman in 2005, Ethan Hawke spoke candidly about his thoughts on the “hard” part of the divorce.
“The public eye is like gasoline, but what makes divorce difficult are the things that make it difficult for everyone, like the family element and how to help the kids get through it,” Hawk told the Los Angeles Times on Thursday.
“I’m so jealous of people who can break up amicably,” added the Training Day star, 55.
But Hawke, who has rarely spoken directly about his high-profile divorce, quickly shut down further discussion of the matter, citing commitments to his children.
“I can’t talk much about this because I have vowed many times not to tell my children about the divorce in public,” he told the outlet.
“But one thing I can tell you is that if you have the opportunity to travel around the world, you will find that everywhere men and women have great difficulty staying married.”
“When we broke up, I really thought I wasn’t going to have any more kids and wanted to be single for the rest of my life. But then I found my best friend and I loved kissing her,” he said of his now-wife Ryan Shawhughes and daughters Clementine, 17, and Indiana, 14.
In September, Hawke reflected on media coverage of her breakup with Thurman, 55, in an interview with GQ, calling the experience “humiliating.”
“Even if they say positive things, it’s almost humiliating,” he said at the time, adding that his relationship with the Pulp Fiction actress, since they met on the set of the 1997 film Gattaca, was “a result of[his]pursuit of cinematic fascination.”
When asked why he thinks actors tend to fall in love on set, the Dead Poets Society actor likened the “imaginary intimacy” that actors engage in on set to spinning a bottle.
“It’s very high up. It’s dangerous and thrilling,” he said.
“It raises the temperature of your life,” Hawk continued. “It can be like falling in love at summer camp. It has nothing to do with real life. That’s the danger.”
Hawk and Thurman married a year after they met and welcomed two children together, daughter Maya, 27, and son Levon, 23.
The “Kill Bill” star ultimately filed for divorce from Hawke in 2005 amid rumors that Hawke was having an affair with Shaw Hughes, who once worked as the couple’s nanny.
After their split, Hawke continued to date and eventually married Shaw Hughes in 2008.
Thurman is married to hedge fund manager Arpad Busson, with whom he has a daughter, Luna. The two finally ended their on-again, off-again romance in 2014, six years after announcing their engagement.
