Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hi, it's Carrie. Our co-host Tanya Mosley and I will be doing an end-of-the-year Fresh Air Plus bonus episode, answering listener questions about the show and about ourselves. You can send the questions now to freshairplus at npr.org, with plus spelled out. That's freshairplus at npr.org. This is Fresh Air. I'm Terry Gross. My guest Ethan Hawke stars in two new movies.
In Blue Moon, he plays lyricist Lorenz Hart. In the horror film Black Phone 2, he's a serial killer who dies and becomes a spirit, and he haunts people's dreams. He also stars in the current FX streaming series The Lowdown. It's a loving but humorous take on film noir created by Sterling Harjo, who also directed Hawke in an episode of the popular series Reservation Dogs.
Hawk just completed a new documentary called Highway 99, a double album, about country music star, songwriter, singer, and guitarist Merle Haggard.
It premiered at the Telluride Film Festival earlier in the fall, where he received the actor tribute. That film is expected to be released sometime next year.
Hawke was in his early teens when he made his first film, Explorers, co-starring River Phoenix, who was about the same age. He was in his late teens when he co-starred in The Dead Poets Society, which starred Robin Williams. Hawke seems to have done it all, a child star who survived the experience intact, an Oscar and Tony-nominated actor, a documentary film director, and a novelist.
Let's start with a clip from Blue Moon, directed by Richard Linklater. It's set on the night of the opening of Oklahoma, the first musical that Hart's longtime songwriting partner Richard Rogers wrote with another lyricist, Oscar Hammerstein.
There's an after-party at Sardi's, where theater people would go on opening night and wait until the reviews came out.
Hart gets there first and talks with the bartender, feeling he's become insignificant because he was abandoned by Rogers. Rogers had moved on because Hart had been drinking too much and was no longer a reliable partner. In this scene, after Rogers arrives, he talks with Hart. Hart's trying to convince Rogers to collaborate on a satirical musical about Marco Polo. Rogers is played by Andrew Scott.
Ethan Hawke as Hart speaks first.
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Chapter 2: What challenges did Ethan Hawke face in playing Lorenz Hart?
Well, it's arresting for anybody. I think when you get over the age of 50, it is. I feel it very powerfully. I feel a desire to work. I don't know if you feel that, but I feel I'm aware of how much of the road has already been walked, and I'm very conscious of... I find myself often thinking, how old was Jeff Bridges when he did True Grit? Am I older than him now? Am I younger than him?
How old was Peter Weir when he directed Dead Poets Society? I'm older than he was now. I thought he was an old man. I'm very aware of how many more years I might have to contribute, and I don't like wasting time anymore. I'm very aware of how many people mentored me and cared for me, and am I doing that for others?
Am I meeting my responsibilities as a citizen, not just as a father, which is obvious and omnipresent in my life? Those questions are on my mind all the time. Then there's this other voice, which is, am I enjoying my life? Because I do want to enjoy it, too. And how much of this work that I'm obsessed with is eroding my sense of play and joy and spontaneity and living and being in the moment.
And it is strange. The older you get, I have no awareness of wisdom. I only have awareness of how many things I thought I understood that I don't understand. And more questions come in the door. And that's kind of exciting. What do you think?
Well, about aging, I mean, there comes a moment when you realize you're not the young person anymore. And then how people look at you changes as you get older.
You know, I'm an actor, right? So I have a talent agent. And I remember being really proud of myself. At one time I noticed I was the youngest client they had. And I was kind of proud of that. And now often I'm the oldest person in the room. You know, I did this movie Black Phone 2 and there's all these young people around and they're looking at me and talking to me as if I know something.
And I'm not positive that I do.
Well, we have to take another break, so I'm going to reintroduce you again. If you're just joining us, my guest is Ethan Hawke, and among the new things he's starring in are Blue Moon, about lyricist Larry Hart, and the Sterling Harjo take on film noir, which is called The Lowdown. We'll be right back after a short break. I'm Terry Gross, and this is Fresh Air.
On NPR's Wildcard podcast, Padma Lakshmi says she feels better at 55 than 25. I wouldn't go back to my 20s for all the money in the world. I really wouldn't. I was so hard on myself about every little thing or every, you know, imperfection. Watch or listen to that Wildcard conversation on the NPR app or on YouTube at NPR Wildcard.
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Chapter 3: How does Ethan Hawke describe his collaboration with Richard Linklater?
He's a genius theater director. And then I looked to the left and there was Tom Stoppard, just one of my favorite human beings on the planet Earth. And I was thinking to myself, what an amazing moment this is to be in Lincoln Center with these people I wildly admire. And I knew it was one of the last times I was going to be doing this show. It was certainly the last time they would be there.
And as I'm having this kind of wonderful moment, I realized I had no idea where I was in the monologue. I couldn't remember if I'd begun the monologue or whether I was finished with the monologue or if I was in the middle of it. And I just completely froze. And finally, I just screamed. I mean, I really did not know what else to do. And I went into the monologue from the beginning.
Like a hurricane, I went into it and I Came off stage just wildly embarrassed. I was like, what happened? What happened? And after the show, Stopper told me, it was wonderful. The way you started again. I was like, well, it wasn't really wonderful. I mean, it might have come across that way. And I started realizing that if you are actually in the moment, you actually can't do anything wrong.
You really can't. It's going to be fine because you're going to be living. And it's this desire to be perfect that's stifling.
But getting out of the moment and thinking about who was in the audience that made you lose your train of thought as your character, that's what made you freak out where you were in the monologue, right? Exactly, yeah. Yeah. Well, it's time to take another break, so let me reintroduce you.
My guest is Ethan Hawke, and he stars in the new movie Blue Moon about Larry Hart, and he also stars in the new streaming series The Lowdown. We'll be right back. This is Fresh Air.
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