Ethan Hawke

And I just decided that's what I wanted to do.

And a lot of kids want to act, so that doesn't mean very much, but I...

And through this other friend of mine, I started hearing about open casting calls in New York.

And I asked my mom if I could go on some of these big auditions.

And again, she said, is it going to cost me any money?

She said, if I paid for my own train fare, I could go to these auditions.

And so I took some Polaroids and...

went on a few of these big auditions and I got one of them.

And it was for this big... In 1984, it was a $30 million movie directed by the guy who'd just done Gremlins, right?

Joe Dante.

And I thought I was a made man.

I mean, it was just, it was absolutely incredible to be sucked out of suburban America and brought to LA.

My first scene partner was River Phoenix.

And all of a sudden I'm in LA and, you know, my mom couldn't quit her job or anything.

So my mom had a really turbulent relationship with her mother.

But her mother and she didn't really know each other.

And so her mother said she'd be my guardian.

And my mom designed this as a way to maybe have a family healing.

But my grandmother was a piece of work.

And we lived together in Koreatown.