Our interview with actor Ethan Hawke, in Tuscany for his latest film as a director

Works and projects of the well-known American actor and director

Film director Paul Schrader described him as ‘a Renaissance man’. Because Ethan Hawke is many things in one: actor, scriptwriter, film director, producer, musician, writer. With his eternal boyish smile, Ethan Hawke’s career as an actor spans several decades, from the 1990s to the present day. He was one of the boys of the Dead Poets Society, young hearts steeped in romance who addressed their teacher, Robin Williams, standing on their desks as: “Oh Captain! My Captain!”.

Linklater, the Texan film director, is his friend, his partner: the one he did the craziest films with. Such as Boyhood, the movie filmed over a period of twelve years. Born in 1970, a distant relative of Tennessee Williams, Ethan Hawke played the young policeman who, on his first day on traffic duty, ended up in a car with Denzel Washington in Training Day, the film that earned him his first Academy Award nomination. They would be four in all. We met with Ethan Hawke in Lucca, where he was promoting his fourth film as a director, Wildcat, starring Maya, the daughter he has with Uma Thurman. He’s serene, and cheerful. Happy to be enjoying Tuscany. “Lucca is the perfect city to feel at peace with yourself”, he says. “This morning, I went jogging with my wife Ryan along the walls of this extraordinary city. And yesterday I went cycling. It’s fantastic, being able to live like this, within such an ancient urban context, and at the same time feeling in harmony with nature, walking, cycling. I would love not to have to leave”. And before leaving, he made time to have a chat with Firenze Made in Tuscany.

Ethan, you came to Italy to promote your fourth film as a director, Wildcat. A very special film, because your daughter Maya stars in it.

For years, Maya has been interested in the life of Flannery O’Connor, an American writer whose life was ravaged by lupus, a disabling disease. Maya also directed a short film about her: it was then that I realized how much she wanted to do it, to tell that story. And I decided to help her by directing and producing the film, together with my wife Ryan.

It was not easy to tell Flannery O’Connor’s life…

That’s right, Flannery barely left her room her whole life. But Maya made me realize that there was a lot of story, a lot of action going on, although it all happened in her head.

Who was Flannery O’Connor, in a few words?

She was a writer born in Savannah, Georgia. She believed she was a tool in the hands of God, she had a very original style, with vivid images and descriptions. Maya plays not only the writer, but also five characters from O’Connor’s short stories. And her performance moved me deeply, both as a father and a spectator.

You just finished shooting your new film with your friend Richard Linklater. What is it about?

It’s called Blue Moon, it’s the biopic of the later days of lyricist Lorenz Hart, who wrote the song after which the film is named.

It’s the most beautiful script I ever read. It tells the story of a man tormented by his sexuality in the 1940s in the United States. The film describes, in real time, ninety minutes of the life of Lorenz Hart, on the opening night of the musical Oklahoma, while he is struggling with alcoholism and depression.

How would you describe your relationship with film director Richard Linklater? You’ve been friends for many years.

At least thirty years. It’s a deep friendship, which led us to do some beautiful things together. We have common interests, we understand each other at once.

And your next movie?

I would like to bring Camino real to the big screen. It’s a 1946 play by Tennessee Williams, whose leading character is a Don Quixote who has lost his Sancho Panza. But I would like to do a dream-like, surrealist, Federico Fellini-style movie.

You have been able to alternate artistic and more commercial films: how would you define art in the filmmaking world?

The first film director I ever worked with, Joe Dante, with whom I shot Explorers, taught me that there is no such thing as ‘high’ and ‘low’ art. Every movie, even a commercial film, can tell a great story.

And the director who changed my life, Peter Weir, with Dead Poets Society, taught me that poetry is everywhere, in everyday life.