Ethan Hawke might end up in the awards-season mix for playing Lorenz Hart in Blue Moon. The reviews are good, and Hawke is being widely praised for his performance of the American lyricist. Hawke enjoys a good promotional tour as well, because he gets to do his favorite thing in the world: give lengthy interviews and talk about how much he loves, idolizes and misses River Phoenix and Phillips Seymour Hoffman. Every time he does this, it’s like a gut punch – it’s palpable to see how much his friends’ deaths affected him. Some highlights from Hawke’s interview with the Times:
The Before trilogy: “Maya and her friends recently watched it. It was so interesting. Maya was, like, ‘It’s impossible to imagine that Jesse and Céline wouldn’t give each other their phone number.’ And I realised what those movies are about, really, is being in the moment. The phone would have destroyed it. If they’d had phones, Céline would never have got off the train with Jesse in Vienna. She’d have been, like, ‘No, just give me your number,’ and that whole once-in-a-lifetime night would never have happened.”
Divorcing Uma Thurman and beginning his relationship with Ryan Shawhughes: Hawke later insisted that it wasn’t “some kind of Sound of Music-type love affair”, and that Shawhughes was not involved in the divorce. “The public eye is like gasoline, but what makes divorce hard is the stuff that makes it hard for everyone — the family elements, how to help the kids through it. I’m so envious of people who have amicable splits. I can’t really talk about this because I vowed to my kids so many times not to talk about the divorce in public. But one thing I will say is if you get the privilege of travelling the world, you realise that everywhere men and women have a tremendous amount of difficulty staying married.”
Having more kids with his second wife: “When I split up I was hellbent on not having any more kids and I wanted to be single for the rest of my life. But then I made a best friend and I liked kissing her.”
His ninth film with Richard Linklater, Blue Moon: “We wanted to do it 12 years ago but Rick kept saying, ‘Ethan’s not ready.’ And finally after 12 years he said, ‘OK, now you’re believable as a loser.’”
Playing a closeted gay man, Lorenz Hart: Hawke channelled his early mentors in the theatre, who spent their lives in the closet and “just kept their sexuality in another room”. He also thought about River Phoenix. “River was the first person from my group to play a gay character. People couldn’t believe it when he was in [the 1991 film] My Own Private Idaho, because he was Mr Teen Beat. But River didn’t care. He was a real leader in that way, and it would be difficult to overstate the level to which he inspired me. For years I saw myself in comparison to him and still today I often think, ‘What would he think about this? Would he think I’m selling out?’ ”
Linklater’s early advice: “Rick said to me when we were making Before Sunrise, ‘If you look at the history of the arts and talented people not reaching their potential, 90 per cent of the time it’s because of their own demons. So if you can avoid problems with drugs and alcohol, your chances of achieving your dreams go up exponentially.’ And that suddenly seemed like a simple choice.”
Losing his friend and mentor Philip Seymour Hoffman: The two of them had worked together on Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (2007), in which Hoffman played a heroin addict. “It’s too painful to watch that movie now, isn’t it? I mean, Phil was always open that addiction was a lifelong struggle for him. He wasn’t a dishonest man. But I don’t think anyone realised at the time how personal that performance was for him.”
On Harvey Weinstein: “Well, with Harvey, when I got called by reporters at The New York Times saying they were doing a big profile of a famous Hollywood person and sexual misconduct and abuse of power, I said, ‘Is it Harvey?’ That’s how obvious the situation was. People saw him with nine prostitutes at the Cannes Film Festival. Things have changed since then and people are attentive to abuses of power in a way they weren’t then — to the point Maya has to tease them a little and say, ‘It’s OK, you don’t need a chaperone to meet me.’ ”
To have somewhat romantic scenes with much-younger Margaret Qualley in Blue Moon: “Can I experiment with you? Please? I think people are so afraid of female sexuality and I think this idea that Margaret Qualley can’t handle herself with me is disrespectful and I’m fully capable — as are virtually all men I know — of treating her with respect. We’re all so focused on malevolent [male] energy, because it exists, but I think we beat that malevolent energy with an assumption of right behaviour rather than bad.”
“I’m so envious of people who have amicable splits.” Like, that’s a special kind of privilege too, I agree, that people can get divorced and keep it amicable. There was a lot of acrimony between Ethan and Uma, and I’m not sure they’ve ever gotten to a place where they’re back to being friends. He’s also right that “everywhere men and women have a tremendous amount of difficulty staying married.” I’m fascinated by this as well: “When I split up I was hellbent on not having any more kids and I wanted to be single for the rest of my life.” He got with Ryan like two seconds after his split from Uma!
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
