Ethan Hawke had a memorable first visit to Miami on Nov. 2, where he accepted the Miami Film Festival’s Variety Virtuoso Award and sat down with Variety‘s co-editor-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh for a discussion about his long and illustrious career. The actor-producer discussed his collaborations with creatives from Richard Linklater to Taylor Swift and a “scary” screen test that he had with Denzel Washington.
A deserving recipient of the award, Hawke has been having a big year. His starring role in Richard Linklater’s “Blue Moon” is garnering awards buzz; his return as the Grabber in “The Black Phone 2” made a splash at the box office; he starred in “The Lowdown” on FX; directed a documentary about country singer Merle Haggard; and lent his voice to the narration of Apple TV’s “Vietnam: The War That Changed America.”
Hawke is of a generation of actors who came up in the indie scene of the 1990s. His first major role was alongside Robin Williams in Peter Weir’s “Dead Poets Society” in 1989 and he made his first of nine films with Richard Linklater in 1995’s “Before Sunrise” alongside Julie Delpy. The movie premiered at Sundance in the festival’s peak years. Reflecting on the seminal time, though, Hawke said, “What’s funny about it now is that in the moment, we were wishing it was 1972. We weren’t aware that anything special was happening.” He laughed that Linklater, Quentin Tarantino and other emergent filmmakers of the time would obsess over their predecessors like Martin Scorsese and Sidney Lumet and say, “If only I could be making a movie in ’68, then it would be amazing.”
He referenced Woody Allen’s 2011 film “Midnight in Paris” to contextualize the power of hindsight and nostalgia. “I know we’re not allowed to mention him, but whatever,” said Hawke, “Woody Allen has this great movie, ‘Midnight in Paris,’ which is all about how everybody keeps wishing they were living 10 years earlier. I think it’s really true that it’s very difficult for us to live in the moment and accept the moment on its own terms and to see what’s valuable.”
Fortunately, the moment has endured for Hawke. He and Linklater continued to collaborate on eight additional films, including this year’s “Blue Moon,” two sequels to “Before Sunrise” released in 2003 and 2013, and “Boyhood,” which they filmed over the course of 18 years and released in 2014. In between, he has worked with a gamut of other esteemed actors and directors.
One of his more memorable roles was in 2001’s “Training Day,” where he played an LAPD cop alongside Denzel Washington. Hawke recalled the intimidating experience of auditioning for the part with Washington, saying “I came into the screen test and he just didn’t say one scripted line in the entire screen test. He was just improvising with me and it was really difficult to try to keep up with him.”
Hawke credits his experience working with Linklater for allowing him to keep his composure throughout the audition. “I was just telling myself, in my head, ‘Why don’t you just pretend Rick’s in the room?’” he said. “I’ll try not to be intimidated and I just made up lines like I would with Rick.” The tactic worked, as Hawke landed the role and earned his first Oscar nomination for “Training Day.”
Other stars that 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 in her “Fortnight” 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. I get a text from my daughter saying ‘Hey dad, Taylor Swift wants your number.’ So I guess they met. And anyway, Taylor Swift is a ‘Dead Poet’s Society’ fan, and so, hell, I’ll take what I can get,” he joked.
Hawke reunited with his “Dead Poet’s Society” co-star Josh Charles in the project, which Swift wrote and directed herself. “That woman is incredible,” Hawke said of Swift. “She’s a force of nature.”
Hawke concluded the conversation by fielding questions from the audience in the Wolfson Auditorium at Miami-Dade College. In response to a final question about what he’s learned when he returns to his previous work, Hawke admitted to being more focused on the future than the past. “I’m so future-centric,” he said. “No sooner do you get something like a prize like this that it crosses your mind, ‘So is this a high watermark? Have I arrived here? Is it good enough?’ It’s cool. I’m happy. But I’m like, ‘What’s next? Can I do something? I like doing this. Can I do it again? Please? Put me in one more game coach.’”
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