On the cusp... MAYA HAWKE
THE DAUGHTER OF Hollywood royalty AND BREAKOUT STAR OF Stranger Things HAS ADDED ANOTHER STRING TO HER HEAVING BOW: one of the catchiest ALBUMS OF THE YEAR
Maya Hawke was reluctant to step into the spotlight.
The breakout star from Stranger Things – and daughter of acting A-listers Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke – knew that by going into the family business, she may never step out of her parents’ shadows. ‘It made it less appealing for a long time. Taking advantage of the nepotistic quality of Hollywood was not something I wanted to be a part of,’ says the 21-year-old. Eventually, it was unavoidable: ‘Acting was the thing I loved most in the world, so any superficial reason not to do it seemed like not a very good reason at all.’ Hawke is calling from the Catskill Mountains in New York, where she’s been in lockdown in her parents’ houses with her siblings since the pandemic hit Manhattan, where she normally lives. Hollywood glamour is a distant memory – she’s worn the same tracksuit without a bra for weeks, and her days have been spent walking in the woods and enjoying family singalongs, with her dad on guitar. She appreciates her quarantine has been a fortunate one and, while she worries for the
world, in some ways it’s been lovely: ‘I have little siblings who I love but haven’t spent much time with; now I have. It’s nice.’ Chores are divided between them. ‘I’m in charge of puppy care and caffeine in the morning,’ she says, delivering her mother a coffee as we talk. ‘We’re all carrying different levels of weight but Mom is shouldering the most, as all moms do. She cooks us dinner every night.’
Becoming an in-demand actor was not planned, says Hawke. ‘Nothing I do is conscious,’ she laughs. Her first lead role as Jo March in the 2O17 BBC adaptation of
Little Women came while she was at The Juilliard School, and she dropped out to take it: ‘I was playing a character who had been my hero since I was little.’ Her performance led her to be cast in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, and the role she’s best known for, Robin Buckley: the smart, determined teen in Stranger Things. ‘The Duffer brothers are so smart at taking broad sci-fi topics and giving them emotional depth,’ she says of the show’s wrters. Right now, they should be filming season four. ‘We were two weeks in and it was some of the most fun I’d had on the show. I miss work and my cast mates, but it all feels very small compared to the suffering going on.’
Hawke says nothing, not even her upbringing, could have prepared her for the fame that would come with the show. ‘I thought I was ready, like, I’ve seen what happens. I know what it’s like to have attention and people recognise you. My parents have that. But I could not have been prepared. It’s an intense thing, to have your relationship with your privacy change, but it comes with wonderful blessings, so I am grateful.’
This summer, Hawke released an album, Blush: the outcome of three years of writing songs between takes on set with the help of Grammy Award-winning producer Jesse Harris, who has worked with Lana Del Ray. Her haunting vocals, reminiscent of a folky Florence Welch, accompany acoustic guitars and heartfelt lyrics. Her musical career, she says, can be split in to three parts:
‘At elementary school I would add my lyrics to melodies of Hannah Montana songs. I struggle with dyslexia and it was difficult for me to remember the words I wanted to write down – music helped,’ she explains. ‘I got really into music in early high school, and did a lot of songwriting about railing against gun violence, and a boy I had a crush on. But it wasn’t until I left drama school and started working that I picked up a guitar again. And now, the album is here’.
Later this year, hopefully, comes a lead role in Gia Coppola’s new film Mainstream, about a love triangle in the social media era with Andrew Garfield and Euphoria’s Alexa Demie. ‘I first met Gia doing a fashion shoot for Zac Posen. I’d never been photographed by anyone who liked my awkwardness,’ she says. ‘She made me feel very free and beautiful in my skin, so I was excited to work with her again. It was a liberating way to perform.’ Awkward or not, the spotlight has found Hawke. And now it has, it won’t be moving.
Maya Hawke’s album Blush is out now
”I COULD NOT HAVE BEEN PREPARED FOR FAME. HAVING YOUR PRIVACY CHANGE IS INTENSE ”