Ethan Hawke Did the Best AMA
Ethan Hawke held an AMA on Reddit yesterday to promote Before Midnight and The Purge (seen it, won’t see again, sorry Ethan) and it ended up being one of the more genuine AMA’s any celebrity has done. There were very little one sentence answers and he even took the time to answer each part of multiple part questions. It seemed like he was having a blast unlike Woody Harrelson who couldn’t wait to leave.
On how scary Philip Seymour Hoffman is in real life: When I first met Phil, he was often the reader when I would go in to audition for something – the kind of actor that wasn’t going to get the part, but he was good, so they hired him to read with all the other guys auditioning. He was intimidating then, and he’s intimidating now. What a lot of people don’t know about him is that he’s a member of the Labyrinth Theater company here in New York, and is a truly phenomenal theatrical director. His production of THE LAST DAYS OF JUDAS ISCARIOT is one of the best evenings in the theatre I’ve ever spent.
On working with River Phoenix in Explorers: River was one of those people that had that strange magic glow around them; he could drive you crazy, or make you fall in love with him, sometimes in the same minute. I remember knowing he was special when in the first days of filming EXPLORERS – we were staying in a motel outside of San Francisco, and I saw him practicing his character’s walk in the parking lot one of the mornings before shooting began. Uncommon behavior for a 13-year old. He had a big, beautiful family, and was the first vegetarian I ever met.
On the trade-offs of being a celebrity: My kids and I always have a debate about if the positives outweigh the negatives. Great seats to the Nicks game vs. being hounded for autographs at halftime. Every give has a take. For me, the blessings far outweigh the curses. I consider it a kind of luxury tax. For my family, I think it’s more difficult; they don’t get to work with Denzel Washington and Sidney Lumet, but they still have the paparazzi.
On Nic Cage, the one true god: I’m kind of obsessed with Nic Cage. I just found out about /r/onetruegod too. He’s the only actor since Marlon Brando that’s actually done anything new with the art of acting; he’s successfully taken us away from an obsession with naturalism into a kind of presentation style of acting that I imagine was popular with the old troubadours. If I could erase his bottom half bad movies, and only keep his top half movies, he would blow everyone else out of the water. He’s put a little too much water in his beer, but he is still one of the great actors of our time. And working with him was an absolute pleasure. In fact, one of my favorite scenes I’ve ever done is the last scene in LORD OF WAR.
On looking like Gordon Freeman from Half-Life and getting older: No, they haven’t, but I just looked at his picture and he looks a little bit creepy. Do I look that creepy? One of the things that sucks about getting older is that you start to look kind of creepy…
My solution to looking creepier as you get older is to wear the face of a younger man. Works like a charm.
