Ethan Hawke spent 10 years waiting for a 'great' movie-making experience
Ethan Hawke spent a decade waiting for a "great" movie-making experience after Dead Poets Society before realising it had been a rare event.
Ethan Hawke spent a decade waiting for a "great" movie-making experience after Dead Poets Society.
The 55-year-old actor got his Hollywood breakthrough in the 1989 coming-of-age film, which also starred the late Robin Williams and Robert Sean Leonard, and he praised director Peter Weir for the on-set environment, but admitted it left him with an impression of what "making a movie was like" before he eventually realised it had been a rare way of working.
Speaking while moderating a book talk for Kyle MacLachlan's memoir Fictional Selves at New York City's Symphony Space, he told the Twin Peaks star: “And that for me was the hard part of growing up, which I feel for you when I read [Fictional Selves].
“What happens is when you have these beautiful experiences... I had great experience with Peter Weir, and then I went 10 years without having a great experience.
“I thought Dead Poets Society is what making a movie was like. It’s not what it’s like.
“A lot of people are really cold and crass and mean and they really want to sell something and they want to manipulate you and they don’t respect actors.”
The topic surfaced when the Lowdown co-stars were discussing their long-running relationships with Richard Linklater - with whom Ethan has made nine movies and is currently working with on a tenth - and David Lynch.
Blue Velvet actor Kyle explained that Lynch - who died in January 2025 aged 78 - had been hugely influential on why he enjoys his work so much.
He said: “I love what I do. I love coming to set. And I get this from David too, because the sense of joy and creative freedom and excitement was always present on David’s set.
“Even when [Dennis Hopper] and [Isabella Rossellini] were doing some of that very heavy stuff [on Blue Velvet], there was still this sense of joy and creativity that was there.
“And I just tried to embrace that and do that. I'm in my creative, happy place when that’s happening on set.”
Ethan admitted he and Kyle are "extremely lucky" because it is rare to find such a long and fruitful collaborative relationship in Hollywood.
He said: “But we’re extremely lucky for many reasons, but one is: young actors dream of having a creative relationship with a filmmaker. I got to have that with Richard Linklater. You got to have that with David Lynch. And their work is full of mystery and hope and the stuff of life.
“The creative space that I know from working with Richard Linklater sounds like what you’re talking about, which is a very safe place. And you can talk about anything if you’re among friends, right? You can share the darkest thought if you know you’re loved. And that’s what a Linklater set feels like.”
Kyle agreed: “And not every set is like that, as you know.”
