Copyright Variety
From the time Ethan Hawke appeared in the 1989 best picture nominee “Dead Poets Society” through his Oscar-nominated performance in the 2001 film “Training Day” and his Academy Award-nominated screenplay for the 2004 film “Before Sunset,” Hawke has been a major presence in American cinema both in front of and behind the camera. James Brown is gone, so Hawke today is not only the 2025 Variety Virtuoso honoree at the Miami Film Festival GEMS Nov. 2, he also has a shot at the “Hardest Working Man in Show Business” moniker. He’s on Hulu’s “The Low Down.” He’s just directed “Highway 99: A Double Album,” the epic documentary study of country music legend Merle Haggard. He’s got horror franchise “Black Phone 2” out in theaters. And his turn as legendary song lyricist Lorenz Hart in Richard Linklater’s new film “Blue Moon” is earning Hawke some of the best reviews of his illustrious career. As Hawke explains the film’s long-gestating script to screen journey, “Moon” is a great example of the adage, “Good things come to those who wait.” “Rick sent me the script 10 years ago. He said back then, ‘We’re not ready,’ meaning I’m not ready,” Hawke says. Hawke’s beautiful, mournful, layered performance is compelling evidence that the actor was, indeed, “ready.” Hawke notes that “Moon” is the ninth film he’s made with Linklater and the actor’s description of their process helps illuminate the why and how of making an emotionally engaging film portrait. “What Rick really wanted me to do was disappear. After a take, my way of critique, Rick would say, ‘I saw you.’ And any time he saw ‘me’ he kicked away what I was doing. It was frustrating and difficult. And rewarding. Almost like asking me, ‘Can you build this cabinet with those five tools?’” The success of Linklater’s methodology is in every minute of Hawke’s immersion into a character who couldn’t, on the surface, be more different from Hawke. Diminutive, and a character player in life as opposed to Hawke’s leading man, who’s remarkably capable of getting lost in characters. Hawke called on his time as a young man coming up in the New York theater scene for the role. “I got my education in the theater from older gay men. These were intelligent men like Larry (Hart). He’s a writer and he’s a lover of life and he’s got demons and he’s in society at a time when being gay was more of an issue. “I knew people like Larry Hart, with that extreme depth of feeling and perception and insight. They knew everything about theater, in much the same way monks treat the bible. And if you have a mentor who’s gay, you’re aware, at least back then, that they’ve spent a large part of life in the closet. I recognized them in Larry and it’s heartbreaking. “But I also have this person inside me. And Rick knew that. And I knew I was thrilled for this time at bat. This is a role that is outside my comfort zone, but I know this guy. I’ve played a lot of different characters, but in some ways Larry is the closest to my heart.” Penning novels, screenwriting, producing, directing, acting in both film and TV and keeping his hand in theater, despite Hawke’s easygoing, relaxed and seemingly quite non-neurotic demeanor, has he ever been tagged with the “workaholic” label? “It makes me happy to collaborate and create things and write articles. In my view of the term, a workaholic is hurting themself. My wife understands that I love working and it’s healthy for me. “I had a vivid dream recently. I had only 10 days to live. And I was OK, because I was doing exactly what I’m doing.”
