Ethan Hawke Ditched A-List, Found Artsy Cred

Star dishes on avoiding the fame 'trap' and doing what he always wanted to
By Harry Kimball,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 1, 2010 1:49 PM CST
Ethan Hawke Ditched A-List, Found Artsy Cred
Ethan Hawke on stage in "The Cherry Orchard" at the Brooklyn Academy of Music last year.   (AP Photo)

Standing on the verge of Hollywood superstardom in the mid-'90s, Ethan Hawke blinked. Rather then sign on as the superhero flavor of the month, he turned instead to pal Richard Linklater's small indie flick Before Sunrise. The result has been a career trajectory not so much Hollywood glam as Big Apple cool—Hawke still does his movies, but he's a published author with a penchant for doing Shakespeare and directing off-Broadway plays (currently Sam Shepard's A Lie of the Mind) with his old cadre of friends. New York magazine stops in for a lengthy profile.

For famous young actors, the world looks like it’s “rooting for them,” but instead “it’s setting a huge trap.” Hawke is clearly relieved to have escaped. “Because the casualty rate at the Venice Film Festival for 18-year-olds? High.” Though there is still some hand-wringing about his stardom. “If that goes away, does the whole thing get shut down?”
(More Ethan Hawke stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X