Mainstream stardom didn’t elude Ethan Hawke, his ambition lies elsewhere

You never have to wait long before another Ethan Hawke sighting.

The American actor has been a steady presence on our screens for 40 years, and every time he pops up you’re struck by a reminder — “Damn, I love Ethan Hawke”.

In an industry where fame is as fickle as steady employment, Hawke has carved out an impressive career that straddles indie cool with mainstream recognition.

Etched across his face are the lines formed from a life lived, more expressive than some of the smoothed-out visages of his contemporaries, and one that fits more inside the frame of a creatively-led project than mugging for cameras on the red carpet.

“Some people’s initial north star is to be f...ing rich and have an aeroplane. I was super interested in the people who made a real contribution to the arts,” he told GQ earlier this month

Perhaps that’s the key to Hawke’s longevity, the pursuit of creativity and authenticity rather than the massive paycheques and royalties that come with blockbuster franchises.

If you scan through Hawke’s filmography, he hasn’t done a Jurassic Park, a Star Wars or a Fast & Furious.

The closest to a movie franchise is the Before trilogy, the lowkey romantic dramas on which he worked with indie king Richard Linklater and Julie Delpy. He did a Marvel TV show (Moon Knight) but it was probably the MCU’s weirdest entry with its reality-challenged, trippy narrative.

Hawke has worked with Linklater nine times. Their partnership also included Boyhood, an epic coming-of-age drama that was filmed over 12 years, and netted Hawke three of his four Oscar nominations — two for screenplay with Linklater and Delpy for Before Sunset and Before Midnight, and one for supporting actor for Boyhood.

He and Linklater reunited — again — for Blue Moon, which is due for release in January in Australia. Hawke plays Lorenz Hart, the songwriter who with Richard Rodgers, composed some truly iconic songs including My Funny Valentine.

A prolific actor, creator and writer, Hawke is always working. His output is so consistent that some years, he has four or five movies in release.

Before Blue Moon hits the big screen, there are two other Hawke titles out in the next month. This week, it’s The Lowdown, a scruffy neo-noir crime show with a comedic bent from Sterlin Harjo, featuring a gonzo performance from Hawke as an investigator reporter with a penchant for scrapes.

He also reprises his role as The Grabber in horror movie Black Phone 2, a character he originally turned down because he didn’t want to play a child murderer, until he read the script and decided he wanted to support director Scott Derrickson, with whom he previously worked with on Sinister, tell his story about growing up in bad place.

Hawke has no qualms about being the support act, whether that was in Boyhood, Training Day or in The Good Lord Bird, a well-reviewed miniseries he co-created and starred in. The story and the work is what matters.

He started as a child actor in the 1985 sci-fi movie Explorers, which was also the debut of River Phoenix, and by his second feature, he was working alongside Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society.

Reality Bites, the 1994 Ben Stiller-directed movie that is one of the defining Gen X vibe pieces, is what shot him to stardom. Hawke’s performance as the disenchanted but soulful Troy made hearts flutter.

It was at that point Hawke’s career could have gone down a different path — he auditioned for Titanic but lost, obviously, to Leonardo DiCaprio. But he continued to pick interesting projects with the likes of Great Expectations, Gattaca, Hamlet and Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead.

He published six books, and wrote and/or directed films including Chelsea Walls, The Hottest State and Blaze. He took unusual roles in other parts of the world, such as Australian film Predestination, and worked with fiercely independent filmmakers such as Paul Schrader (First Reformed).

To some, perhaps younger people, Hawke is maybe better known as Maya Hawke’s dad. Maya is the daughter he shares with his first wife, Uma Thurman, and the two of them worked together on the 2023 film Wildcat, which he directed and co-wrote and which she starred in.

The younger Hawke has been one of the few second-generation stars that managed the nepo baby debate with grace, openly admitting that, of course, she had privileges others didn’t. She hasn’t shied away from publicly associating with her famous parents and, in her short career so far, has carved out a similar path in switching between mainstream and arthouse projects.

When the two Hawkes were promoting Wildcat, they made a stop at the Criterion Closet, a social media ritual that involves stars picking out their favourite movies from the curated Criterion Collection.

It’s a chance to prove your cinephile cred — and their banter gave the impression that it was just a continuation of conversations they’ve been having her whole life.

For the record, among the older Hawke’s selections were Frances Ha (his favourite Greta Gerwig performance), French classic Les Enfants du Paradis, and Peter Weir’s Picnic at Hanging Rock (he worked with Weir on Dead Poets Society).

It’s not that mainstream superstardom has eluded Hawke, it was never his ambition. Whether through accident or design, he established a template for a successful career that didn’t rely on selling out.

It’s one of the reasons why when you see Hawke in anything, you’re always entranced by whatever he’s doing. You know he wanted to be there.