Ethan Hawke

I mean, and I went to this rehearsal and everyone was having they were talking about whether or not God existed.

They were talking about what they believed in.

They would dress up in these crazy outfits.

And then we did the play and they got a standing ovation.

And it was it was so much fun.

And it was the first time I was like, you could do this for a living.

Yeah.

You know, a lot of the actors aren't people you've heard of or anything like that, but they were real actors and they loved their job.

And the rehearsal room was so kind of thrilling watching them figure out where people should stand and what was important and what was the scene about and what was the theme of the play and how could this scene fit in with the larger context.

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.