Ethan Hawke admits that he has an obsession with time.
"Acting forces you to be aware of time," he says. "The stories I gravitate to, particularly in the films with [director] Richard Linklater, ... I often think Father Time is the main character of all the films we've done together."
Hawke was only 13 when he made his first film, Explorers. He became a star at 18 with Dead Poets Society. More than 30 years later, he's still acting, except now when he gets a script he forgets he's no longer a young guy.
"I'll be sent a script and it says, 'Billy, age 19, skateboarding down the street,' and I think, 'Oh that's my part,'" Hawke says. "It takes me a while to realize, 'Oh, Billy's father, age 55, gruff and weathered around the edges. ... Oh, that's me."
Hawke says his new film Blue Moon is one of the most challenging of his career. In it, he plays lyricist Lorenz Hart, the original songwriting partner of composer Richard Rodgers. The film captures Hart on the night that Oklahoma!, Rodgers' musical with his new songwriting partner Oscar Hammerstein, debuts. Hart was afraid of being left behind and was a bundle of contradictions, simultaneously proud of his former partner and jealous of his success.
"I felt I was being asked to play two things at the same time, which is of course why I wanna do it," Hawke says. "Every now and then you bump up against a part that presses you to the wall of your ability and you know you can never be as good as the part is demanding of you — and that's a kind of thrilling spot to be in."
Blue Moon is Hawke's ninth collaboration with filmmaker Linklater. (Their previous films include Boyhood and the Before trilogy.) He's also starring in the horror film Black Phone 2 and in the FX streaming series, The Lowdown.
Interview highlights
On working with Linklater on Blue Moon
He knows every trick in my toolbox and he was really asking me to disappear. He just wanted me to be Larry Hart. And so, the man has spent years of his life editing my performances. So anytime he would see me, he would say, "I saw you!" ...
The physical things are kind of easy. ... Anybody can shave their head and do a comb-over. But it was really the soul of a person who was loathing themselves, and at the same time, thinks they're smarter than everybody else. ... Imagine if you only worked with one other person for 25 years and you achieved incredible heights and this person now doesn't wanna work with you anymore. So it's truly heartbreaking for him because I think he's smart enough to know that the world is changing, we're in the middle of the war, the jazz age is being left behind, something new is happening and he's not gonna be a part of it.
On playing a journalist writing about corruption in The Lowdown
It's been a funny year for me because Blue Moon is probably the most different I've ever pushed myself outside the framework of my own identity. And then The Lowdown — I just relate to Lee, he's Quixote, chasing windmills, running into propellers. He's a dreamer and an idealist and self-centered, and doesn't see his own blind spots, and he's a moron, and I just completely relate to him. He can say the right thing all the time and do the wrong thing all of the time. And out of that obviously comes a lot of humor.
I kind of saw Lee as a guy who's frozen in 1996, or something. I'm still wearing the same pants I wore back then. I got the same belt buckle I wore back then. He's still listening to the same music he listened to back then. And I admire him, and I also identify with his shortcomings. [Series creator] Sterlin [Harjo] is really fun to work with. I had a great time on Reservation Dogs. We got along like a house on fire. I can't remember a time I just ran with the character like I did with this one.
On losing his friends River Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman to overdoses
River was very sensitive, extremely sensitive and it's part of his genius. … Some of us get second chances and some of our DNA is hardwired to protect ourselves and some people don't have those guardrails. And I don't understand it, and I know that the answer is you have to know yourself. … Of course it was a warning. But we all get warnings. And I sometimes think a lot of it is accident. I remember when we were 23, I felt that we had lived, and now here I am, I'm about to be 55 years old and I've lived twice as long as River.
River didn't get to be a dad, and River didn't get to have the experiences of the rollercoaster ride of the ups and downs of a profession. I almost feel sadder about his death now, because I'd love to know what he thinks now. He was such a political young man and he was such an idealist. I would love to see what that looked like at 55. And I would like to see the artist that he would be and the art he would have made.
I can't believe that Phil's gone. Half of why I act sometimes is to impress those two men that I was friends with. I think about them all the time when I'm performing, because they were the gauge by which I judged myself — and they still are.
On aging
I feel a desire to work. … I feel I'm aware of how much of the road has already been walked and ... I'm very aware of how many more years I might have to contribute. And I don't like wasting time anymore. I'm aware of how many people mentored me and cared for me. And am I doing that for others? Am I meeting my responsibilities as a citizen? Not just as a father, which is obvious and omnipresent in my life. Those questions are on my mind all the time.
Then there's this other voice, which is, am I enjoying my life? Because I do want to enjoy it, too. And how much of this work that I'm obsessed with is eroding at my sense of play and joy and spontaneity and living and being in the moment. ... It is strange, the older you get, I have no awareness of wisdom, I only have awareness of how many things I thought I understood that I don't understand, and more questions come in the door, and that's kind of exciting.
Lauren Krenzel and Thea Chaloner produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Beth Novey adapted it for the web.
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