We Have to Wait a Little Longer

Ethan Hawke recently discussed his latest collaboration with Richard Linklater, titled “Blue Moon,” which is a biopic of songwriter Lorenz Hart. The actor revealed that he first read the script 12 years ago.

“I love it, let’s do it. We gotta make this movie,” Hawke remembered telling Linklater during a masterclass at the Venice Film Festival. However, the director felt that Hawke was “still too attractive” to take on the role at the time.

“He’s like, ‘Cool, we’re going to make it, but we need to wait a while.’ Why do we need to wait a while? He said, ‘You’re still too attractive. We gotta wait til you’re a little less attractive.’ I was like, ‘What are you talking about?'” Hawke said. “He’s like, ‘Just trust me. Let’s just put it in a drawer, and every couple of years let’s read it and see if we’re ready or not.’”

Hawke continued, “Every couple of years we would read it … and every couple of years it got a little bit better. And then he saw me on an interview on the Jimmy Fallon show or something last year, and he called me up and he said, ‘Hey, I saw you on Jimmy Fallon!’ I said, ‘Oh, great how’d it go?’ He said, ‘Oh, it was fine. Let’s make ‘Blue Moon.’‘ Like, go to hell.”

Elsewhere, Hawke expressed his admiration for filmmakers like Francis Ford Coppola, who invest heavily in their passion projects.

“I love that Coppola sold his winery to make that movie, I think that’s amazing,” Hawke said, adding, “I love it when people keep the great dream alive of making something magnificent.”

He continued, “It’s very hard because the whole industry that runs movie-making is designed to make money. Most of our favorite movies, that’s not what was motivating the project, so you have to keep that spirit alive. I would never want to not be a person who wouldn’t sell their house to make a movie. I love that, I think it’s cool. I admire the hell out of it.”

The actor, writer, and director first gained prominence in 1989 with his role in Peter Weir’s “Dead Poet’s Society.” Since then, he has received both critical and commercial acclaim for his work in Richard Linklater’s “Before” trilogy alongside Julie Delpy, as well as the director’s 2014 film “Boyhood.” He has also starred in Antoine Fuqua’s “Training Day,” Paul Schrader’s “First Reformed,” and Robert Eggers’ “The Northman.”

Hawke has been nominated four times for an Oscar — twice for best supporting actor for his performances in “Training Day” (2001) and “Boyhood” (2014), and twice for adapted screenplay for co-writing “Before Sunset” (2004) and “Before Midnight” (2013). He has also directed several projects including “Chelsea Walls” (2001), “The Hottest State” (2006), the documentary “Seymour: An Introduction” (2014) about pianist Seymour Bernstein, the Blaze Foley biopic “Blaze” (2018), and the 2023 biographical drama “Wildcat” about novelist Flannery O’Connor, which starred his daughter Maya Hawke.