Ethan Hawke blazes through Sundance festival
Director tells story of colorful, tragic figure in Texas’ outlaw music movement
PARK CITY, Utah — For his next project, Ethan Hawke was all set to direct a “crazy” adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play “Camino Real.” But when it unexpectedly fell through at the last minute, the 47-year-old actor, writer and director switched gears and focused instead on a project about Blaze Foley, the semi-obscure country singer/songwriter who was instrumental in the Texas outlaw movement of the 1970s and early ’80s.
Foley, who was shot to death at age 39 on the porch of a friend’s home in 1989, did not have much commercial success during his career but is revered by musicians like Lyle Lovett, Merle Haggard and John Prine, who have each performed versions of his songs. Townes Van Zandt and Lucinda Williams have penned tributes to the singer.
“Blaze,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this week, marks the Sundance directing debut for Hawke, who is considered acting royalty at the event, with appearances in more than a dozen movies over the years, including two this year — “Juliet, Naked” and “The King,” a docudrama about Elvis Presley.
“It’s really different. As a director, you’re a lot more
responsible for everything,” Hawke said. “This is a mecca for independent film. So to have my own crazy, wild movie about a musician no one has ever heard of with an actor nobody has ever heard of and have it at Sundance, it’s nice.”
Hawke chose the project because he was drawn to Foley’s music and a book authored by the singer’s widow, Sybil Rosen, titled “Living in the Woods in a Tree: Remembering Blaze.” Hawke co-wrote the screenplay with Rosen, who became a consultant on the project.
Hawke cast his longtime friend, musician Ben Dickey, as the title character, acting in his first film. Guitarist and singer/songwriter Charlie Sexton also joined the project, portraying Foley’s friend, Townes Van Zandt. And the legendary country singer Kris Kristofferson plays a bit role as Foley’s father.
“It just snowballed,” Hawke said. “In a way (Foley) brought us all together and we were held by that.”
The plot alternates between Foley’s past, where he and Rosen lived a vagabond hippie life, into the future. Five years after Foley’s death, Van Zandt (Sexton) gives an extended radio interview about the singer that is interspersed throughout the film.
It also features Foley’s performances — some excellent, some liquorconsumed nightmares — at honky tonks and dives, including his final gig at The Outhouse, a legendary Austin music hall, on the night of his death.
Though, the film actually was shot in Baton Rouge, La., rather than some Austin haunts. “That Austin doesn’t exist anymore,” Hawke said.
The film’s plot can be confusing at times as it jumps around, but Hawke didn’t want to make a traditional biopic with a cradle-to-grave plot. “Life never happens to me in a linear way,” he said. “My life feels like some braid of the past, present and future all the time, and I wanted to make a movie about that.”
He also provides comic relief with a trio of Texas oilmen — played by his good friend, Austinbased director Richard Linklater, Oscar-nominee Sam Rockwell and Steve Zahn — who briefly bankroll Foley’s career. But the relationship sours after Foley bombs at a concert that should have been his big break, and then runs up high booze bills afterward that bankrupts the oilmen’s record label.
Hawke got a kick out of casting Linklater as an oilman to “represent the good city of Houston … I thought it be awesome because Rick worked offshore and in the oil patch. He could pull off those lines.”
They also have discussed Linklater’s upcoming film set in Houston during the space era of the ’60s, although the director hasn’t offered Hawke a role yet.
“It’s mostly about childhood. I might not be right for one of the uncles,” said Hawke, who starred in the 2014 Linklater classic, “Boyhood,” as well as the 1994 hit “Reality Bites,” directed by Ben Stiller, both set in Houston.
“Let’s hope he casts me in the space movie,” Hawke said. “Put in the paper that he should.”