Ethan Hawke

So sometimes you need their help.

Yes.

And you have things to be taught.

And sometimes you have to stand up for yourself and say, this is the kind of art I want to make and I'm living and dying on this.

But...

Actually, what you're saying actually could help me do what I'm doing.

It's the same thing with directors.

When you were talking about advice for young people, the first thing that popped in my head is something one of my first directors said to me, which was, he said, I was 21, I was making my Broadway debut, and this director said,

What have you done?

And I said, well, I did Explorers, you know, when I was a kid and I did this movie, Dead Poets Society, and I acted in this school play.

I played Tom in Glass Menagerie my senior year.

And, you know, and this director looked at me and said, so you've done nothing.

And I took offense at that, you know, so I have done some things.

He said, I need you to say I've done nothing.

I need you to say, I don't know.

And if you can say, I don't know, I can teach you.

And if you can't say, I don't know, then I really can't teach you.

And my 21-year-old ego was just buckling.

I do know what I'm doing.

I do know what I'm doing.