Ethan Hawke: Falling in love on set is 'dangerous'
Ethan Hawke admits there is "danger" to falling in love on a movie set because it "doesn’t have any connection to the dailiness of real life".
Ethan Hawke admits there is "danger" to falling in love on a movie set.
The 54-year-old star met his first wife Uma Thurman when they made Gattaca in 1997 and he explained the "imaginative intimacy" actors share on a project can deepen their feelings for one another, even though there is no "connection" to "real life".
Speaking to GQ Hype, Ethan - who split from Uma in 2003 - said: “Have you ever played Spin the Bottle? There’s a certain intimacy to the work that we do. Imaginative intimacy. It’s such a high. It feels dangerous and thrilling. It turns the temperature up in your life. It can be like falling in love at summer camp. It doesn’t have any connection to the dailiness of real life. That’s the danger of it.”
The Blue Moon star found the attention his relationship with Uma attracted very uncomfortable.
He said: “It’s humiliating. It’s almost humiliating even when they’re saying positive things.”
At the time, Ethan - who has children Maya, 27, and Levon, 23, with Uma, and Clementine, 17, and Indiana, 14, with wife Ryan Shawhughes - auditioned for the role of Jack Dawson in Titanic but with hindsight, he's relieved he didn't get the part.
He said: “I don’t think I would have handled that success as well as Leo. He was a f****** Beatle.”
But the Black Phone actor admitted he has grown so used to the attention his fame brings, he questions the "rude" behaviour of some people - who his wife argues are just being "normal".
He said: “My wife is really funny. We’ll go out to dinner and I’ll go, ‘God, that waiter was rude.’ And she’ll say, ‘They weren’t rude. They [just] didn’t recognise you. They were normal. You’re just used to everybody smiling when they see you or offering you an extra thing or moving you up in line.'
"The problem with that kind of attention is that a normal temperature feels cold. When you get tickets to the game and you’re sitting 10 rows back and not the front, you feel like someone f***** you over.”
Read the full feature online at GQ Hype now at https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/ethan-hawke-interview-2025
