Copyright Parade
Key Points Ethan Hawke celebrates 40 years in Hollywood and opens up about balancing blockbuster hits, indie films, and his ever-evolving creative drive. The Oscar-nominated actor discusses family, fame, and legacy, from learning from his daughter Maya Hawke’s Stranger Things success to reuniting with Richard Linklater for Blue Moon. Hawke reflects on longevity, reinvention, and joy in his craft, revealing how a Taylor Swift video cameo and a new FX series prove he’s still finding fresh ways to surprise audiences. Ethan Hawke has been acting for a whopping 40 years. And yet he’s still surprised by the ins and outs of Hollywood. “It’s so strange how my job works and how the industry works,” he tells Parade on a Zoom chat. “You’re always trying to do new things and then sometimes all the apples fall off the tree at the same moment. I don’t know what to make of it, but I’m trying to enjoy it.” That’s his humble way of saying welcome to Hawketober. With three diverse projects, the 54-year-old star is currently treating fans to a little bit of everything. Want horror? In Black Phone 2 (now in theaters), he reprises his role as the masked child killer known as The Grabber. Maybe a razor-sharp biopic? For the 1943-set gem Blue Moon, which opens October 24, he shines as Lorenz Hart — the real-life troubled lyricist who was Richard Rodgers’ pre-Oklahoma collaborator. Over on the TV side, Hawke has been earning raves playing a book store owner moonlighting as a citizen journalist in the new FX comedy noir The Lowdown. Hawke switched things up on purpose. “I was always a little skeptical of my own abilities to shape change,” he says. “But as a professional, it’s exciting to try all these genres.” To his point, there’s no obvious answer when choosing the quintessential Ethan Hawke role. To Gen Xers, the Austin, Texas, native is an icon by way of his sensitive prep school student in Dead Poets Society (1989) and cynical slacker in Reality Bites (1994). Others may lean toward his Oscar-nominated performances in the drama Training Day (2002) or the laid-back epic Boyhood (2014). ‘Tis the season to appreciate him in the horror flick The Purge (2013). And, of course, he’s a romantic hero for the ages thanks to the Before trilogy. Related: Is Blue Moon Based on a True Story? Oh, he also writes (three books and Best Original Screenplay Oscar nods for co-writing Before Sunset and Before Midnight!) and directs (narratives and docs!) and, yay, is ever-game for a Taylor Swift music video cameo. We’ll get to that. At home, Hawke has been wed to actress-producer Ryan Shawhughes since 2008. They have two kids, daughters Clementine, 17, and Indiana, 14; Hawke is also dad to Stranger Things actress Maya Hawke, 27, and actor Levon Roan Thurman-Hawke, 23 (with ex-wife, Uma Thurman). Plus, he has two dogs, George and Jet, one of which adorably pops into view during his interview. He talks about it all in this week’s Parade cover story. PARADE: Is it fun for you to pivot from character to character so quickly? Ethan Hawke: So much fun. I often think about how in the old days, you would be a traveling troupe of players with your 10 Shakespeare costumes in the back of a trunk and putting on five different plays in a week. I try to use that pack-a-lunch mentality. Like, “Well, let’s do it.” Blue Moon is your ninth film with writer-director Richard Linklater, but first since Boyhood. Why collaborate on this project? I first read Blue Moon when we were still working on Boyhood. And Rick and I have lots of different projects that we talk about, and some happen and some don’t. Sometimes we write things together. We weren’t really aware it had been 10 years — it’s like the ages between 40 and 50 went by in a blink of an eye. You have wonderful chemistry with Margaret Qualley, who plays Hart’s protégé. Did you two previously know each other? The whole cast is great. Margaret is friends with my daughter. Was that weird for you? I mean, it’s true in every industry. A lot of doctors’ children grow up to be doctors, and then they go to med school with their friends. If you live long enough, you start to be friends with your children’s friends. When your kids started acting, did you give them any advice? Or are there things you’ve learned from them? Well, I’ve learned a lot from watching Maya on Stranger Things about how television works. That was all new to me. I had nothing to offer her about how that part of the business works. But the actual craft of performance has been the same forever. My son was at Lincoln Center doing Ibsen’s Ghost, and I knew a lot about that process. Hopefully we can cross-pollinate. Is it stressful as a parent to see your children out there in the world? It’s thrilling. I haven’t found the vocabulary of how to talk about that yet. Related: All About Ethan Hawke’s Wife Speaking of Maya and Stranger Things, its big final season is coming out soon. Do you get any scoop? It’s top secret. All I know is that Maya’s happy, so that probably means it’s good. As you said, you haven’t done a lot of TV. Why did The Lowdown appeal to you? I thought [creator] Sterlin Harjo was a really great young filmmaker. I watched his Reservation Dogs with a lot of interest. He asked me to come down and do a small part in the series in the final season. So when I was in Tulsa, he started pitching me this idea of The Lowdown. My whole life, I’ve gone with filmmakers that I believe in. Your wife is a producer on it. Why do you enjoy collaborating on that level? We have shared tastes and sensibilities, and she’s just immensely improved the quality of my work since we started our production company 15 years ago. You want to have another discerning mind at home, working on scripts and trying to get the right projects greenlit. Black Phone was a surprise box office hit. Did you expect that? It did surprise me, because Black Phone was made with a real independent spirit. This and Sinister [from 2012] fit in with the low-budget scary movie genre, which thrills me. For this one, I remember [co-screenwriter and director] Scott Derrickson called me at an airport, and he said, “You know, I think I could make a second one, and it could be better.” And he started talking about his experience being a counselor in training during Christmastime, and that spooky and weird environment. I thought that was a really smart idea. Alright, let’s talk Taylor Swift. You and your Dead Poets Society co-star Josh Charles appeared in her “Fortnight” music video last year. Was that whole day just surreal? It was awesome. She’s an astonishing person. It’s not an accident that she’s as successful as she is. And it was all her idea — in her brain, there was something about her Tortured Poets Department album that owed some debt to Dead Poets Society, so she wanted Josh and I to be in the video. The whole thing was a laugh for us because we hadn’t gotten to spend time together even though we’ve been friends for 30 years or whatever. So it was fun to get on the airplane and go be part of something that our kids found so interesting. The privacy level must have been insane. The level of interest in her is so high that she just has to be so careful keeping any aspect of her life private. There were drones flying around the set trying to sneak pictures of her. It’s like she’s in a very unique pocket of the entertainment industry where everybody really cares about what she does. But the whole thing was a kick. Going back to the original film, can you talk about your experience doing Dead Poets Society? Every young person deserves a few really positive experiences in the beginning of their professional life to show what it looks and feels like. It’s like you know what’s possible. So to watch [director] Peter Weir on the set and be part of high-quality writing and cinematography and props and producing . . . I just thought this is the way it’s always done. I’ve taken that experience with me my whole life. One credit from your vast filmography stands out — an episode of Alias back in 2003. How did that come about? I was in L.A. and out of work. Maya was a toddler, and she and I were playing in a park. And I met the guy who ran that show, and I told him I was doing some movie that had just fallen apart. I was depressed. And he said, “If I write you a part, will you come on Alias and do it?” And I said, “Sure.” I mostly wanted to see what it was like. Do you still keep in touch with anyone from Boyhood? You were with them on and off for almost 15 years. A little bit. I see Lorelai because she’s Richard [Linklater]’s daughter. Ellar Coltrane played my son again in the [the 2020 Showtime series] The Good Lord Bird. I love Ellar. And every now and then I’ll run into Patricia. It was a special time in all our lives. Gotta ask: Will there ever be a fourth Before movie? Who knows? Could I imagine a day where Rick or Julie [Delpy] or I call the other up and say, “Oh my god, what if this happened?” And then that could start a fire? It could happen. But I also feel that the three movies function as a complete entity. So if we ever were to visit again, it would be like starting a whole new project with Jesse and Celine. It would be the After series, not the Before series. At this point in your career, what would you still like to try? So many things. I want to get back on the stage as soon as possible. I’d like to be in The Tempest or Tennessee Williams’ The Night of the Iguana. There are so many actors I want to work with. I’d love to make another movie with Richard Linklater. The older I get, the more I realize one lifetime is not enough. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
