Ethan Hawke

Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Well, first off, I think issues of addiction are complicating and destroying so much of society and so many people are in pain and these are painkillers.

And I think the artistic community to be driven to create usually is motivated by some sensitivity and extreme sensitivity.

I don't know.

I have seen it my whole life.

You mentioned River, and that was an extremely complex and upsetting thing that happened in my early 20s, his passing.

And then middle age brings its own demons, which happened to my friend Phil.

I think part of...

My collaboration with Rick and part of why I love working with Richard Linkletter is he has so much joy in his life.

And he didn't, when I was young and becoming friends with him, he was one of the first artists I met who really didn't see self-destruction as a romantic well to draw from.

He had so much joy and love of life.

But I do enjoy playing these parts because I do understand it.

I grew up with so many men of the theater who were in so much pain.

And they were some of the most ferociously intelligent and kind and good people that were full of so much self-loathing.

And when I first read the script, I was desperate to play this guy.

Yeah.

What flashes through my mind is when River and I were doing The Explorers, we both loved James Dean, and James Dean smoked Camon filtered cigarettes, and we thought it would be cool to go out, and we stole a pack of Camon filters and went out in this field and smoked three of them.

And River turned green, and he vomited.

And when he passed, I thought about that moment.

We all have different bodies, and some of us can press the limit, and our bodies can handle it, and we can learn from it.