Ethan Hawke has been a part of our collective film unconscious for over two decades. There was his coming-of-age moment in Dead Poets Society, followed by the X-generation primer Reality Bites that defined him as an angst-ridden outsider. Across Before Sunrise, Maggie’s Plan and Boyhood, Hawke has had an enduring career. But he has never made it easy on himself—enduring long, glorious, existential struggles in his pursuit of authenticity. It’s not enough for him to be good at what he does, and he needs to feel that his work has the kind of integrity that adds definition and context to his world.
As soon as Hawke greets you, there›s an unmistakable sense of his artistic passion mingled with a general air of anxiety and restlessness. He smiles quickly and nervously and speaks with rare honesty and enthusiasm. “I’ve always tried to find the best roles,” Hawke says. “The size of the movie is only important when it comes to how much money you think you need to make at certain points in your life and giving you enough leverage to keep making more films. The Magnificent Seven was by far the biggest-budget Hollywood movie I’d ever done and one of the best, but the smaller projects are just as important.”
Tesla, set for release in August, nestles itself in both camps. The movie trips back through critical parts of Nikola Tesla’s life, notably his development of wireless lighting and power distribution in the 1890s and his work with Thomas Edison, played by Kyle McLachlan. It remains to be seen whether the movie will add to Hawke’s Oscar nominations of which he has four ( including two for 2014’s Boyhood). In addition, he’s published two novels, directed several films and co-authored the screenplays for the Richard Linklater trilogy (the aforementioned Before Sunrise, plus Sunset and Midnight) that became the object of cult worship amongst cinephiles.
The 49-year-old lives in New York with his second wife Ryan and their two daughters, Clementine, 12, and Indiana, nine. He also has two older children, Maya, 21, and Levon, 18, from his previous marriage to actress Uma Thurman.
STRIPLV: How much did you know about Nikola Tesla before you went into filming for Tesla? HAWKE: Not too much, you know. What I did know was that he had some sort of ongoing battle with Thomas Edison over the invention of electricity, who did that first and who was the first to figure out how to channel it. But with regards to Tesla, I am only really familiar with him because of him putting his name to the electric car. I got sent the script for the movie and it was so interesting and intriguing that I just had to do it. STRIPLV: And yet this wasn’t a new script? HAWKE: The original script was written some 35 years ago and there were a couple of names in the frame for it back then, including Jack Nicholson. It’s been revised, and a couple of new characters added, and I think it’s ready to be made now. STRIPLV: You have something very Jack Nicholson about you. HAWKE: Why, thank you. That’s lovely. (Laughs) STRIPLV: Tesla had quite an impact on how the world operates, right? HAWKE: I think it’s a case of people not realizing just how much the things that they take for granted every day in modern society, and the thanks that they should be giving to Nikola Tesla. That is to say, things have moved on a lot from these early days, and Nikola wouldn’t recognize this world because, even in the last 20 years, the advancements blow your mind. But we still need to credit those guys in the early days who had an idea and a desire to dreams into reality. Put another way; it would be very interesting to know and see what a world without electricity would be like. STRIPLV: Biopics are notoriously tricky for several reasons, and the real success is when you can’t differentiate between watching an actor in a film or watching a documentary featuring real people. How much do you think about that when you’re performing or preparing for a role? HAWKE: More than you would think, to be honest. As people know, I’ve worked with the director Richard Linklater quite a bit over my time in the industry, and he once said that as soon as people know you’re acting, they will notice that there is no plot. And nothing is truer than that. The thing with plots is that most of them aren’t realistic, and they would be dismissed from a script writing class, long before a director got them or a casting director was looking for the matches of the roles – but only if you want drama. If a film is obviously over the top and it is clear that it’s a movie and that the people in the film are acting, then there’s nothing to worry about. This is not having a go at movies which do that because I have been in movies where things are a little unrealistic, and that’s part of the movie and entertainment industry. However, when you’re working with directors such as Richard, and in this case, with Michael Almereyda, the aim is to make the films more dramatic in the sense that they are as realistic as they possibly can be. That’s maybe why I have heard some critics suggesting that some of the performances may have been improvised. There is a bit of truth in that, but not to the point where we were literally making it up as we went along. STRIPLV: Do you prefer to play historical characters? HAWKE: The thing with Nikola is you can suspend belief a little. He’s long gone, so there is a bit more flexibility with the characterization. You are putting a bit more of yourself into that character compared to what you might do for someone who only passed on perhaps a decade ago. Nikola was a lot of fun, a very smart and ambitious man, a cool guy. STRIPLV: Going back to Richard Linklater, arguably one of the most ambitious films of a generation Boyhood was filmed some 16 years. How does anyone even think about a project like that, and also how do they go about it? HAWKE: The first thing I was surprised about was that no Eastern European director had ever done this. (Laughs) The visionary directors are always from a bygone era, it seems. When Richard started speaking to me about it, I couldn’t believe that it hadn’t even been attempted before. I mean, maybe it had been tried, but just not finished or it didn’t work or something or other. But it was going to be the first released, certainly. The thing is that there have been a lot of movies which have been filmed over a long period of time, but it had never before been completed as a narrative feature. The idea or certainly the inspiration had come from a Tolstoy trilogy – Childhood, Boyhood and Youth. So, we began setting about making a film which would be similar to that. With it being literally filmed in real-time over the 12 years, we had to make sure that the casting was totally spot on. If you get the wrong kid to play the time at the beginning of the film, it’s just not going to work. Also, there are quite a few similarities between my father and Richard’s father and the two of us as well. So, we worked on a lot of those things which we could work into the movie, and we went from there. I think that was the reason he wanted me to get involved in the project, which, as you say, was hugely ambitious. But when you’re dealing with Richard Linklater, nothing is too ambitious, too big, or too bold. STRIPLV: Which actor has had the most significant impact on your life? HAWKE: Denzel Washington would be right up there. He is one of my greatest inspirations and mentors, not because of any great lessons or specific advice he gave me but what he has achieved, that inspires me. His career is like five brilliant careers in one. Everything he touches, it’s quality. It’s genuine class and quality, that’s what he brings to a movie, and if he’s involved, I want to be part of that. It’s game-changing, he raises the bar, and I experienced that on Training Day and, of course, The Magnificent Seven. He has a beautiful individualism to his work that is his and his alone. You know his camera angles, you know his vision and recognize it and that is the mark of not only a fine filmmaker but a great, great artist, which is what he is. STRIPLV: You talk about Boyhood and The Magnificent Seven as defining movies for you. Do any other stand out? HAWKE: Maybe White Fang. That was probably as long as Magnificent, both six months, give or take. And the wilderness, working with wolves and bears and living in Alaska with stuntmen, amazing. STRIPLV: White Fang was what, 30 years ago. What has been the secret to your enduring success? HAWKE: Gratitude. (Laughs) I could never ever take for granted the luck that I have received and enjoyed in my life. The fact that I’m able to “create” as part of my occupation and how I support my family, the fact that I can enjoy what I do every single day, that is like winning the lottery. I’ll be damned if I just let that slide by. I probably do work too much, but I need to work hard to give back the gift that I’ve been bestowed with. It would just be so wrong to do it otherwise. STRIPLV: Is it a challenge balancing family with work? HAWKE: That is quite easily the greatest challenge of my life, being with my family and really being there, not just in body and then trying to maintain a job that’s asking me to move them around. It sounds exciting, and it is, not just on paper, to explore and discover these new smells and sights, great life experiences, but, you know, it’s upheaval nonetheless. STRIPLV: Your eldest daughter attended Juilliard. Is she going to follow in your footsteps? HAWKE: It’s possible yeah; I could see her go a similar path. STRIPLV: Do you give her advice? HAWKE: No, god, no! I’d like to, but she’s 21, she knows her own purpose and way. She’s an awesome, awesome, intelligent smart person. STRIPLV: What was the greatest advice you ever got? HAWKE: There have been many words of wisdom, some I’ve heeded, others not so much. What probably stands out in my mind was when I was on set of Dead Poets Society, the actor who played the principal, Norman Lloyd, he has had one of the most remarkable careers, he was one of the original members of Orson Welles Theatre company. One day, he says to me and a few of the young guys on set, “You don’t have a clue of what you’re experiencing, and how important this is. Just take a moment to look around and realize what a gift this all is.” And that left a lasting effect. I learned from then on never to take any of this for granted. I recognize how lucky I am to be doing what I do because the world doesn’t owe me or anyone else anything. So every job I got after that, I always heard those words in the back of my head. STRIPLV: Do you give your children any specific kind of advice? HAWKE: I’m often talking to them about how they should try to engage in life, to do things even if it’s hard or something they might not feel they have a gift for. I always remember when, as a boy, I left with a group of friends for a coast-to- coast trip across America. I thought: “It’s going to be great when we get to San Francisco.” Then you get there and you start thinking that the Grand Canyon is the place you really need to see, then Texas. But when you get home, you realize that the fun has always been in taking the journey and it’s the journey itself which is the most important thing. STRIPLV: Have you changed your approach to acting and the business over the years? HAWKE: When I was younger, it was all about getting the role and then finding the next one. Now the pleasure I get from my work is finding the right project and then committing to it. I feel happiest during the process of making the film, and when the shooting is over, I always feel a bit sad. STRIPLV: Your career has enjoyed some ups and downs, but things seem to be better than ever. How do you feel about everything today? HAWKE: The best thing is the kind of beautiful life I have with my wife and our children. I’ve become a better man and a better father over time, and I’m so grateful for the kind of support and understanding my wife gives me and how good we feel about our life together. I don’t know if one really ties into the other, but I also feel that I’m doing some of the best work of my career and I’m very happy with the films I’ve been making the last few years. It’s been very encouraging and gratifying and in some ways, it’s restored my faith in acting and what I always set out to do in this business. STRIPLV: A large part of your life has played out in public with your marriage to Uma Thurman and your divorce. How have you changed since then? HAWKE: It’s night and day. I’m back in the daylight now. I went through a period I call the “black years” after my divorce. It was a terrible time in my life, very difficult, where I felt I wasn’t the parent that I wanted to be. I felt like a lot of my dreams for the kind of life I wanted had been shattered, and I was really lost for a while. I hated the films I was making. Things like Assault on Precinct 13, and I didn’t really know where I was going. I was like a zombie in that film, and you can see how depressed and miserable I looked in it. It was this experience where you think you had built a life that was so much better and more enlightened and cooler than your parents’ lives, and then you realize that you’ve just repeated all their mistakes. Maybe I had to experience that kind of emotional wreckage to rebuild myself. I used to think I was smarter than the rest of the world, and then it dawned on me that I was just as clueless as everyone. STRIPLV: Has becoming a father the second time around altered the way you approach your work? HAWKE: I’ve changed my outlook on my career as a result of having kids. I used to be so committed to the idea of artistic integrity above all else, and now I realize that sometimes you can’t be as selective as you would like. When you have four children, you need to be a working actor if you want to provide your children with the best schooling and advantages in life. That puts added pressure on the kinds of choices you make in your career. I’ve never been materialistic when it comes to my own life, but for my children, I want them to have the best life possible. STRIPLV: You’ve always struggled with the idea of wanting to maintain your integrity and not feel like you’re ever selling out. Is that a hard line to follow? HAWKE: (Laughs) It’s the hardest thing of all. I’ve been beating myself up about that kind of question for my entire career. Sometimes you feel that you need a big film that will free you to do other films that are less commercial and more personal. I did this horror film with Angelina Jolie that I thought would be very commercial, and it was a disaster on every level. Then I did Before Sunset, which no one thought would get much attention, and it turned out to be a huge commercial success and a film that has been one of the most meaningful to me personally.What I’ve learned over the years is to follow your heart. I don’t want to ever feel like I’m selling out. I’ve done certain kinds of films, and I feel in some way that I owe it to people who have followed my career to keep playing certain types of roles because they’ve invested in me. Of course, you can’t always live up to that standard, but I try.