Here are some photos of Ethan Hawke (plus Rose Byrne and Chris O’Dowd) at last night’s New York premiere of Juliet, Naked. In the film, Ethan plays a semi-retired rock star who is the object of O’Dowd’s character’s obsession. Byrne plays O’Dowd’s girlfriend, and she begins an affair with Hawke’s character. You can see the trailer here – it actually looks sort of sweet and interesting. To promote the film – plus like three other projects – Ethan chatted with Variety about his career and fame and all of that. Some highlights:
On the success of Reality Bites: “When you’re in your early 20s and you’re still struggling to find out who you are, it pours gasoline on the fire of confusion. You don’t know north or south, east or west. Some people hated the [‘Reality Bites’] character and they hated me, or they loved the character and they loved me. I didn’t know enough about acting then to understand what was going on.”
On success: “Success can be like formaldehyde. It wants to freeze-dry you and have you stay the same. When it happens to you when you’re young, it can be really damaging. When I see someone like Britney Spears shaving her head or Elvis or Michael Jackson becoming grotesque versions of themselves as they age, I know exactly what’s going on. I understand it.”
On his literary efforts: “There were definitely reviews where you’d go, ‘Wow, you really piss people off when you don’t stay in your lane. But that kind of negativity makes you strong. It means you’re not doing it for the accolades. You’re doing it in service of the art.”
Following his dreams in his 40s: “You realize at a young age the world isn’t rooting for you. You always tell your kids to follow their dreams. You don’t tell grown-ups to do that. But if you act as your own champion, time will eventually be your ally.”
I’ve said this before, but I never gave a crap about Hawke when he was younger. I loathed Reality Bites and his character. But Ethan has aged well into his wonderful sort of character actor and aging hipster kind of guy. I feel like he’s gained a great deal of wisdom – real, honest-to-God wisdom – and it will be interesting to see which of the younger actors follow Hawke’s less traditional career path. For some reason, I’ve always thought Robert Pattinson would end up like Hawke – a pin-up in his early 20s, but growing into a fascinating and dangerously good character actor in his 30s and 40s.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Unfortunately Troy, you are a master at the art of time suckage.
I love the comparison to Rob Pattinson! The headline on this post sounds very similar to things Rob has said over the years. Ethan Hawke has aged well and is doing interesting work these days. I hope the same for Pattinson.
He is right.
I wasnt sure where he was going with that, but put in context, wow- pretty accurate.
He is definitely kind of a hipster in that, at least when he was young, he looked a little bit in love with his own intellect and “art”. But he does seem like an interesting guy, I always enjoy reading his interviews. I’ve read the book Juliet, Naked and liked it very much, so I look forward to the movie!
Except, that is not how formaldehyde works.
Ha! My thought too. He’s clearly not a scientist!
Omg thank you both. He clearly doesn’t understand freeze-drying OR how formaldehyde works as a preservative. Freeze-drying sublimates the water and does not replace it with anything (and freeze-dried samples can be VERY delicate), whereas formaldehyde displaces the water in the tissue, thereby fixing it.
LOL that’s what I came here to say. Formaldehyde is wet, and wet preserves. Freeze drying is another process which is entirely opposite.
I’m a Gen Xer who loves Winona and Jeanene Garafolo (sp?), but I hated Reality Bites and Ethan. But I like what he says here about sticking with your dreams and time being an ally.
I had the biggest crush on him after seeing Dead Poets Society. He’s really grown into quite a versatile actor and has aged like a fine wine. Definitely one of my forever crushes!
Adam Driver is more like him.