ETHAN HAWKE

The wealthy actor on being lucky and not being a materialist

ETHAN Hawke’s female following is such that the name Ethan was propelled to the top of the list of most popular names for babies since he sprang to fame spouting “Oh Captain, my Captain” in Dead Poets Society in 1989.

Born in Texas, Hawke’s father was an insurance actuary, his mother a Peace Corps worker. He made his first film aged 15 and has made more than 30 since. In 2000, he was cited as a Renaissance Man for the Millennium. He has been nominated for two Oscars, acting ( Training Day) and writing ( Before Sunset), directed videos, founded a theatre company, written two novels, and worked on stage.

Hawke, 42, has four children and was married to Uma Thurman. He married his children’s nanny, Ryan Shawhughes, after divorcing Thurman. He lives in Brooklyn, New York City, and owns an island in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Before Midnight, a follow-up to Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, finds Celine (Julie Delpy) and Jesse (Hawke) assessing their relationship on the last day of an idyllic holiday in Greece.

The film industry has changed so much.

This sequel takes place nine years after ‘Before Sunset’, which took place nine years after ‘Before Sunrise’ when our characters met on a train to Vienna. We’re now an uneasy couple, so goodness knows what we’d be like if we made another film in nine years. It’s been amazing making this trio, which seems so real in so many ways. My character remains the fecklessly romantic manchild he’s always been, while Celine has matured into a more guarded soul. I think all that labelling stuff, like Millenium Man, is crap. We are more than what we do. It’s corny, but we’re human beings. Take away the labels. One of the benefits of not getting yourself labelled, if you can avoid it, is that it makes it less hard when you want to write a book or direct a play or do something else. Even if acting’s the only thing I do well, these other things inform and make me a better actor. I hate how homogenised people want us all to be. Nobody ever talks about Eleanor Roosevelt’s crooked teeth, because she was a woman of substance. And we don’t talk about how Mother Teresa would have been better if she lost weight, because she was a woman of God. I think eccentricity in people is beautiful. I’m probably lucky my to be best able and to only utilise attribute as a director. This is that I know a lot of actors who are now friends. The difference between young male and young female actors in the film industry is . . . that women are asked to be very female, taking off clothes, doing big kissing scenes, having sex and so on, whereas they always asked the younger me to go play with a wolf in Alaska ( White Fang), and do “boy” things. My parents were 18 when they had me. My mother brought me up to believe I could do whatever I wanted to do. I also had an amazing stepfather, and come from an environment with a healthy attitude towards life. I’m lucky.

I've never been a materialist. I was never interested in owning a Ferrari. I don’t want to fly on private jets. I’m not a better person because of that, it’s just never interested me. The older I get, the more I realise I don’t know anything. I am plagued by stage fright in a way that I never used to be. I’m still so nervous about a new movie.

When I was younger, it was the stamp of mediocrity to have a modelling contract, to have to sell Swatches or jeans or cologne. Today, everything is a commodity to be bought. I’d hate someone to see Before Midnight and think: “Oh, there’s the Calvin Klein guy”. —© Marianne Gray

Before Midnight is on circuit.