Ethan Hawke

They are.

And listening to it right now, I realize that that movie was kind of my midlife crisis.

And, you know, I could really credit Seymour for redirecting my life, giving me permission to be the grown person I aspire to be, to give me permission to go after that.

Some of the things you just mentioned are my favorite things I've done, and there has been more unity between myself and what I'm putting forth into the world in this period of my life.

And I'd be lying if I didn't say, you know, that movie is also the first film I worked on with my wife.

We start a little mom and pop production company.

And something about working with her kind of united these disparate parts of my brain where I wasn't compartmentalizing work and home life anymore.

That they were becoming one thing.

Because of his warmth, I felt unashamed to say to him, what do you do about stage fright?

Because I was about 40, I'd been a child actor, and I had so much confidence about acting.

And both on film and on stage...

I was having anxiety attacks and panic attacks, and I really had no mechanisms to deal with it or understand it.

And this man just smiled at me and looked at me really intensely and he said, Oh, this is very good.

This is very exciting.

You're about to have a breakthrough.

And I was like, what do you mean?

And he's like, well, you're finally understanding and respecting.

You should be nervous.

Your anxiety is your friend.

Let it be your friend.