Ethan Hawke made his first memorable visit to Miami on November 2nd to accept the Variety Virtuoso Award at the Miami Film Festival, where he sat down with Variety co-editor-in-chief Ramin Setoudeh to discuss his long and illustrious career. The actor and producer spoke about his collaborations with creators ranging from Richard Linklater to Taylor Swift, and the “terrifying” screen test he had with Denzel Washington.
Hawk, who deserves the award, is having a great year. His starring role in Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon is garnering awards buzz. His return as Glover in “The Black Phone 2” created a lot of buzz at the box office. He starred in FX’s “The Lowdown.” Directed a documentary about country singer Merle Haggard. He also lent his voice to the narration for Apple TV’s “Vietnam: The War That Changed America.”
Hawke is from a generation of actors who were active in the 1990s indie scene. His first film role was in the 1985 science fiction film The Explorers, co-starring River Phoenix. He then got his first big break playing one of the students in Peter Weir’s 1989 Robin Williams vehicle Dead Poets Society.
The following year, he saw his first film, Slacker, directed by Richard Linklater, which he described as “the first movie I ever saw made by someone my age.” Hawke, who was a member of Anthony Rapp’s theater company, was able to see an early cut of Dazed and Confused, where he said, “I felt an injustice in the world that I wasn’t a part of this movie.” The two finally met when Linklater came to see Hawke’s play, and they hit it off right away, talking until 4 a.m. after the show.
Shortly after, Linklater sent Hawke an early draft of the script for Before Sunrise and asked him to audition for the lead role. During his audition, he met his potential co-star, French actress Julie Delpy. “She was so intense,” Hawk said. “She worked with Godard, she worked with Kieslowski, she worked with Volker Schlöndorff.” The two were cast as the main couple.
Hawke offered an analogy in which he improvised a scene in which he persuaded Depri to get off the train with him, but Depri insisted that his character would never do such a thing. “For two weeks I tried to come up with an idea to convince her to get off the train, and it occurred to me that I was a time traveler and if she didn’t get off the train, she spent the rest of her life wondering what would have happened if she had gotten off,” Hawke said. I was going to spend a lot of time thinking, “If I got off, she’d be much happier knowing I was just as boring and stupid as the other men in her life, but at least she would.” There’s no need to wonder. ” It gets the job done, and displays the dialogue experimentation that gives this film, and much of Linklater’s work, its charm.
“Before Sunrise” premiered at Sundance in 1995. But looking back at what is considered the festival’s heyday, Hawke said: “What’s funny now is that at that moment we all wished it was 1972. We didn’t realize anything special was going on.” He laughs at how Linklater, Quentin Tarantino, and other emerging filmmakers of the time clung to their predecessors like Martin Scorsese and Sidney Lumet, saying, “If we could make a movie in ’68, that would be great.”
He referenced Woody Allen’s 2011 film Midnight in Paris to contextualize the power of hindsight and nostalgia. “I know I’m not allowed to mention him, but whatever,” Hawke said. “Woody Allen has a great movie called ‘Midnight in Paris’ that’s about everyone wishing they lived 10 years earlier. I think the truth is that it’s very difficult for us to live in the moment and accept the moment as it is and figure out what’s worth it.”
Fortunately, the moment was bearable for Hawk. He and Linklater have gone on to collaborate on eight more films, including this year’s Blue Moon, two sequels to Before Sunrise in 2003 and 2013, and Boyhood, which was shot over 18 years and released in 2014. During that time, he has worked with other esteemed actors and directors.
One of his most memorable roles was in 2001’s “Training Day,” where he played an LAPD officer alongside Denzel Washington. Hawke recalled his frightening experience auditioning for the role with Washington, saying, “I went into the screen test, and he didn’t say a single scripted line the entire screen test. He just improvised for me, and it was really hard to follow him.”
Hawk says his experience working with Linklater helped him stay calm throughout the audition. “In my head I was saying to myself, ‘Why don’t we pretend that Rick is in the room?'” he said. “I try not to be scared. I just have the same lines as Rick.” The strategy worked, and Hawke landed the role, earning him his first Oscar nomination for “Training Day.”
Other stars Hawke has had the privilege of sharing the screen and stage with include Robert De Niro, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ben Stiller, Julia Stiles, and, as of last year, Taylor Swift, who appeared in the “Fortnite” music video featuring Post Malone.
The actor thanked his daughter Maya Hawke for connecting him with Swift. “My daughter is creating opportunities in my life. She texted me and said, ‘Dad, Taylor Swift wants your phone number.'” I think that’s how they met. “Anyway, Taylor Swift is a fan of ‘Dead Poets Society,’ so I’ll take what I can get,” he joked.
Hawke reunites with her Dead Poets Society co-star Josh Charles for the project, which was written and directed by Swift herself. “That woman is amazing,” Hawk said of Swift. “It’s not easy to watch her empower herself and direct these videos and embrace everything and try to come forward.” The actor also likened being forced to see Swift on tour for Ella to going to see the Beatles at their cultural peak. “She’s not only changing the economy of the world, but she’s bringing people together in a room. Tonight, we’re here, we’re getting out of our homes, we’re being together, we’re dancing, we’re caring about poetry, we’re caring about ideas, we’re caring about expression. And there are thousands of people out there roaring. And I thought, ‘Oh, someday people will write a book about this moment,'” the actor said.
Hawk concluded the conversation by answering questions from the audience at Miami Dade College’s Wolfson Auditorium. In response to the final question about what he learned from going back to his previous job, Hawk admitted that he is more focused on the future than the past. “I’m very future-focused,” he said. “As soon as you receive something like an award like this, the thought that goes through your mind is, ‘Is this the gold standard? Have I come this far? Is this enough?'” That’s cool. I’m happy. But I’m like, “What’s next?” What can I do? I like doing this. Can I try again? Please, please let me be another game coach. ”
