He says that Richard Linklater’s movies remind us how amazing it is that we can walk on Earth and breathe at all.
Ethan Hawke openly shared his thoughts on major Hollywood franchises like Star Wars and Harry Potter.
Speaking at a master class during the Venice Film Festival on Monday, the actor-director compared films made with his frequent collaborator Richard Linklater to those popular blockbuster movies.
Advertisement Ethan Hawke joked, “When I watch Harry Potter or Star Wars, which I’ve seen many times and love, I feel a bit let down afterward because I’m not really a wizard or a Jedi. I find myself wishing I were a Jedi. But after watching a Richard Linklater film, I feel like I’ve experienced something real—like meeting someone, connecting with them, and realizing that was something truly special and magical.”
He added, “It’s like that old Zen saying: ‘You don’t need to walk on water; just walking on Earth is a miracle.’ Isn’t that incredible? I think Richard Linklater’s movies remind us that simply being alive, breathing, and seeing things like whales and giraffes is amazing. Life is unbelievable if you don’t exaggerate it.”
Ethan Hawke shared with the audience that he and Richard Linklater have made “9 or 10 films together, depending on how you count,” including the Before trilogy and Boyhood. He said working on Before Sunrise was the start of his more grown-up view of movies.
“That film marked the beginning of my adult relationship with movies and the friendship with Linklater that followed,” he explained.
The latest project from Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater is Blue Moon, a movie about Lorenz Hart, the songwriter who partnered with Richard Rodgers before Rodgers teamed up with Oscar Hammerstein II. The story takes place in 1943 during the opening night of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s famous musical Oklahoma!
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At Venice, Hawke shared that Linklater showed him the “amazing” script for Blue Moon 12 years ago. However, Linklater said they needed to wait to film it because Hawke still looked too young.
Hawke remembered Linklater jokingly telling him, “You’re still too attractive. We need to wait until you’re a little less attractive.” Last year, Linklater saw Hawke on a talk show and decided the time had come. Hawke playfully acted offended.
“‘Hey, I saw you on Jimmy Fallon… let’s make Blue Moon, we’re ready,'” Linklater told him. Hawke laughed and thought, “Go to hell.” Blue Moon was filmed this summer but doesn’t have a release date yet.
In another part of the conversation, Hawke shared his thoughts on the “geometry” and “math” behind making a good film.
He said, “I feel like a student of this profession. Every film has its own structure, and it’s different for each genre—like indie films, horror, westerns, or romantic comedies. The universe seems to have rules for how these stories should be told.”
Hawke explained that he learned to adjust his performances by understanding this structure. “For example, Anthony Hopkins acts differently in a drama than in a horror film. The more you understand this, the better storyteller you become.”
You can watch the whole chat with Hawke in the video above.
Source: EW