The joy, magic and business side of filmmaking, his thoughts on independent films and blockbusters, including Star Wars and harry potterAs well as his collaborations with directors Richard Linklater and Peter Weir, and his lack of collaboration with many female filmmakers, these are some of the issues at the Venice Film Festival hosted by actor-director Ethan Hawke on Monday in Venice. Part of the master class.
Early in the live-streamed session, the star recalled traveling to Venice dead poets society. “This was my first film festival. I was 18. We screened the film in the street and it was an incredible experience,” Hawke recalls. “There were a lot of people at the premiere who worked with us on the film, and you could feel the magic that the film cast, and you could feel the reaction to the film.”
He went on to say that Director Weir “was, and still is, one of the very few master craftsmen that I have ever met, and to have worked with him as a young man, to absorb what he taught me, and then to see it in action” was fascinating. Very impressed. “It’s the expression of collective imagination… He’s very good at getting a group of craftsmen to have the same imagination and the same dream, and then watching that dream be given to others and accepted. It’s very powerful.”
Laughing, Hawke added: “It’s kind of like when people hear about the fun of doing drugs. You just want to do it again. It’s a great feeling because you don’t feel alone.” The creative continued: “As a There’s a strange double-edged sword about being an actor, on the surface you celebrate your success, but the real joy of acting is disappearing… you feel like you’ve disappeared and become part of this dream, and it’s such a wonderful feeling. It’s wonderful. You get to see other people’s dreams and that’s where the joy comes from. When I left Venice when I was 18, I wanted to do it again and I was so grateful to be with you and be. part of it all. The crowd applauded.
Hawke noted that he has worked on many films with many different directors, but mostly male directors. “I’ve worked with a lot of men from all over the world,” he said. “And I’ve only worked with a handful of female directors, which is, I would say, embarrassing for me, but also embarrassing for the industry because I wanted to do this.”
Amid the wide-ranging discussion, the star also said he has a lot of respect for filmmakers selling properties and taking personal financial risks, like Francis Ford Coppola did with self-funding Megacitycreate your dream project. “Greed rules our universe,” Hawke said. “If you say you just want to make money, everyone understands what you’re trying to do, and they agree. ‘Great, yeah, great. Oh yeah, he sold 10 billion Big Macs.’ To him There are benefits. No, you’ve just poisoned the world. “I love that people keep having big dreams of making big things, which is very difficult because the whole filmmaking industry is designed to make money, and we’re the most Most of the movies I like are not like that. That inspired the project.” Hawke concluded, “I never want to be a guy who doesn’t sell his house to make a movie. I love that. I think it’s cool. I admire it so much. .
make before sunrise Hawke said it was the beginning of his “adult relationship” with movies, and he continued his friendship with Linklater. He noted that the two have now made nine or 10 movies together, depending on how one counts.
“Richard was the first great artist of my generation who was my friend, but…he didn’t think about how to be a big shot,” the actor said. “He doesn’t want to impress you. He doesn’t want you to think he’s great. He really loves the medium of film. He’s really always been a student himself.
Hawke also shared, “He loved European cinema. He loved world cinema, and he was really interested, even as a young man, in how this form was going to change in our generation, in this period, and how Very interested in contributing to this conversation.”
At some points, Hawke even joked about continuing education for film creatives. “When I was 16, I thought I knew everything. At 53, I feel like I know nothing,” he quipped.
He also considers himself an art student. “I feel like I’m a student of this major,” Hawke said of the “mathematics of the genre. There’s a certain geometry to all movies,” and there’s a certain geometry that exists between films of different genres and budget sizes.
Hawke on Monday also compared independent films made by people like Linklater to tentpole films. “If you go and see harry potter or Star Wars Or whatever, I’ve seen them a million times and I love them, but when they end I feel a little disappointed because I’m not a wizard or a Jedi,” he quipped. “My whole life I’ve thought, I wish I were a Jedi. When you watch a Richard Linklater movie, you walk out and you’re like, ‘Okay, I’ve done that. I met this guy, I made a connection with another human being, and that’s what’s magic. It’s like that old Zen quote: “You don’t have to walk on water, you can walk on earth.” Isn’t this amazing? I think that’s what Richard Linklater’s movies do – remind you that it’s a miracle that we walk on this earth, that we can breathe, and that there are whales and giraffes, and if you don’t exaggerate, life is mind-blowing. Unbelievable.
Hawke said he originally didn’t want to star in a horror film, but liked the genre, thanks in part to Joe Dante, and liked the story behind it sinister. He emphasized that horror films must first be scary and “work” within their genre, even if they also address potentially significant “sociopolitical” issues.
When asked about his love for music and directing, Hawke said “working with music” is his favorite part of directing. As an actor, he said, learning lines can be tedious, but learning lines or connecting them to music changes that. The star then praised Brady Corbett fauvismwhich on Sunday wowed Venice, including its music.
Hawke also fielded questions from viewers on Monday about his new Linklater film blue moona drama about the final days of Lorenz Hart (one half of Richard Rodgers and Hart’s famed songwriting team), takes place on opening night. Oklahoma! “I just finished filming, so this is the first time I’ve been asked about this movie,” he said, adding that he had to work harder than on other projects.
He then gave the audience a backstory on how the film was made at the time. “Richard is a very strange guy. He sent me this script about 12 years ago and I read it and it was one of the best scripts I’ve ever read,” Hawke explained. “It all happened in real time. It was 90 minutes in 1943. When the actor told Linklater, ‘We have to make this movie,’ the director urged him to be patient. “He said, ‘No, no, yeah, cool, cool. We’re going to make it, but we’re going to have to wait a while,'” Hawk recalled. “He said, ‘You’re still too attractive. We have to wait until your attraction wears off a little bit.’ I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ “He said, ‘Trust me, what we’re going to do is, put it in a drawer.’
After that, every few years, the two would reread it to see if they were ready. “Then he saw me in an interview. I was on The Jimmy Fallon Show last year or something, and he called me and said, ‘Hey, I saw you on The Jimmy Fallon Show,'” Hawke told Venice audience. “I said, ‘Oh, great, yeah. How about that?’ He said, ‘Oh, great. Let’s do it. blue moon. We are ready.
Hawke also answered audience questions about how he dealt with career setbacks. “The tears have been shed. I’ve been hitting the wall all the time,” the actor-director said during the master class. “This world was not built to make our dreams come true. It was not designed that way.
He also admitted: “I come to these festivals. I’m 53 years old. Sometimes these great movies get made and I get jealous. How did they make this movie? How did they do it? Why does this world Not letting me do it? I can do it. Then you have to get over that feeling and turn it into something positive and realize that because they did it, so can you. More likely to do it.
In a few weeks, Hawke will receive the Golden Leopard Award at Italy’s Lucca Film Festival and showcase his latest film wildcatOn September 26, he directed his daughter Maya. gram first reformed church.
Earlier, Sigourney Weaver discussed the legacy of her character in Ripley at the 2024 Venice Masterclass. alien There’s also the rise of Kamala Harris from legendary Australian director Weill, who joked about having to step in to fix Mel Gibson and Weaver’s “bad” kiss on set year of dangerous livingAnd Richard Gere teases he has ‘no chemistry’ with Julia Roberts pretty Woman.
