His daughter is a tender soul, says Ethan Hawke, a deeply spiritual person; it is impossible not to be overwhelmed by a spiritual boost in her presence. So who is his daughter? Maybe a saint? No, the daughter is of course Maya Hawke, 25, an extremely talented young actress, world famous for ‘Stranger Things’, and if she had come to Zurich with her father, there would be a lot of teenagers screaming. Maya Hawke is cool, quirky, sharp, refreshing, a young superstar.
Her father was also once a young superstar. He has been in the business for over 35 years and can currently be seen as Pedro Pascal’s lover in the short western “Extraña forma de vida” by Pedro Almodóvar. His international career began in 1988, when he was 18 and played one of the students in “Dead Poets Society”, a film that shaped many young lives in the same way as Hermann Hesse’s “Steppenwolf”, a film like a melancholic piece of furniture that you would see again later, which is always looked at with love and whose story makes you cry. One of the most iconic coming-of-age films ever. And Ethan Hawke played shy student Todd Anderson.
Now, on Saturday afternoon in the almost full room number 4 of the Arena cinema in Zurich, he talks about that time. ‘Did I have a plan? I wanted to please the girls, that was my plan!” He wasn’t sure whether he wanted to be an actor or a Navy soldier and adventure writer in the style of Jack London. He had already acted in the theater and in a small science fiction film in addition to the also fresh River Phoenix.
And then he saw the casting call for ‘Dead Poets Society’: ‘I said to my sister, they’re looking for seven young men! Seven! If I don’t get a role, it’s a sign of fate and I won’t be an actor.” He got a role and was there when the seven chosen ones said, “Oh Captain! My Captain!” declaimed. After that he was immediately terribly famous. And alone.
‘I was looking for friends. I was suddenly a stranger at my university, everyone had seen the movie and only saw Todd in me, so I started a theater group, I didn’t care if Hollywood liked me or not.” Suddenly actors were better friends. And in unlike film, theater could be made without much money or time.
Hollywood thought he was excellent and many films soon followed, but it was only ‘Reality Bites’ (1994) with Winona Ryder that became a real hit again and two years later, while filming ‘Gattaca’, he fell in love with his partner, The Coolest woman who was there at the time was Uma Thurman. The two became parents to Maya.
Ethan Hawke is a multi-talented actor, director and writer. In 2002, he was in Zurich for his novel “Ash Wednesday,” Maya was only four years old and Uma Thurman was shooting “Kill Bill: Vol. 2” with Tarantino. Does he remember his visit? “Yes, I already wanted to move to Zurich!” He was the first Hollywood star I had the opportunity to interview at the time, and I told him so. His response: “Oh, I hope I’m not boring!” Of course he wasn’t at all. But Ethan Hawke would never praise himself.
“If you say that I have really made it, that I am the best,” he says during his performance in the Arena, “then you are an asshole. Then you don’t feel well, then you feel dead. There has never been a time when I broke my hand trying to pat myself on the back. The most successful people are often the biggest failures. But sometimes I go for a walk and it snows and I think: Wow, life is so beautiful!”
And one of the best things is his daughter Maya. He has now worked for them as a director and screenwriter and that is why he is here to present his film “Wildcat” with Maya in the role of the American writer Flannery O’Connor (1925 – 1964).
O’Connor spent almost her entire life in rural Georgia, much of it seriously ill. She wrote about the people of the South who had not been affected by progress and who remained backward in every way: evil, stubborn, cruel – and very interesting. O’Connor’s style has been described as “Southern Gothic”, her characters always struggle because they are evil, her writing, as becomes clear after “Wildcat”, is a kind of precursor to early short stories by Stephen King. And she was a fervent Catholic. Someone who didn’t see religion as an ‘electric blanket’, as she says in the film, but simply as ‘the cross’. She also collected birds.
Maya Hawke is Flannery O’Connor’s biggest fan. “She was 15 or 16 when she discovered the writer and absolutely identified with her search for meaning, with her questions about creativity and spirituality,” her father says. «And when she took her first entrance exam for a drama school at the age of 18, she edited her texts into a monologue. And when she became famous with Stranger Things, she suddenly stood in front of me and my wife and said: I want to make a movie of it. And you help me with that!”
In best Nepo Baby style, the parents did the same. The mother is a long-time stepmother, the actress and producer Ryan Hawke. Ethan met her while she was babysitting Maya and her brother Levon. She now also sits in the hallway, in the front row, and occasionally laughs loudly at her husband.
Maya and ‘you guys’ made a beautiful film with little money that oscillates between O’Connor’s reality and her fantasies, in which she and her mother (Laura Linney) play the leading roles. Both are quite dark, but also very ironic.
And what was it like to be director of your own daughter? Of course great. “It is impossible not to be moved by their spirituality in their presence!” Aha, tell that to the monsters in “Stranger Things”! «And when there is love in the room, the worst forces fade away. Scorsese once said to me, “You should try to look at actors as if they were your best friends.” Fortunately, it does not involve a commitment to a free church; it wouldn’t be surprising: “Cinema has always been the church of my choice.”
All is well, grounded, comforting and friendly in Ethan Hawke’s realm, you would immediately want to sign up for soul wellness therapy with him. And then there is this moving story with his dog Nina! When he realized the trilogy ‘Before’ (‘Before Sunrise’, ‘Before Sunset’, ‘Before Midnight’) with Richard Linklater over 18 years and ‘Boyhood’ over 12 years, Nina accompanied him: ‘At the beginning of my work with Richard “She was a puppy I had to take out all the time, and when ‘Boyhood’ came out after many years in theaters, she left us.”
A girl from the audience audibly gathers her courage and asks: “Who was your favorite person to work with and why?” ‘With you!’ he replies, “honestly, you’re here even though you don’t have to be here, and just by talking to each other, we’re working together. YOU are the person I most enjoyed working with!” Anyone who doesn’t shed a tear of emotion inside is not human.
“Wildcat” is still showing in the ZFF on the following dates: Wednesday, October 4, 9:30 PM in Corso 2 and Friday, October 6, 9:30 PM in Frame 6.
Source: Watson
I am Dawid Malan, a news reporter for 24 Instant News. I specialize in celebrity and entertainment news, writing stories that capture the attention of readers from all walks of life. My work has been featured in some of the world’s leading publications and I am passionate about delivering quality content to my readers.
