Saturday, December 16, 2017

Ethan Hawke / This much I Know / ‘The most romantic thing I’ve done is have sex’

Ethan Hawke: ‘I am a giddy, ludicrous optimist. My team can lose and I’m already thinking about the next season. You can’t bring me down.’ Photograph: Alan Clarke for the Observer

Interview

THIS MUCH I KNOW

Ethan Hawke: ‘The most romantic thing I’ve done is have sex’

The actor, 47, on being an optimist, avoiding marriage advice and why other people make him anxious

Natalie Evans-Harding
Saturday 16 December 2017

I have so many bad habits it’s impossible to measure the worst. My son would say I don’t take enough care with how I dress, my daughter might say I work too much, and my wife that I can’t seem to help in the kitchen at all. But in my opinion I have none.

As a former kid actor, I know how hard it is to turn that attention into anything but self-destruction. The heat of the spotlight makes ordinary temperatures real cold.

Before the internet, you could do something stupid one night and not be asked about it forever. I feel sorry for young people who are exposed to celebrity in the age of the internet. It’s a consuming black hole.

I am a giddy, ludicrous optimist. My team can lose and I’m already thinking about the next season. You can’t bring me down. My dad is the same and I think it’s partly one’s make-up and partly how you see the world. You can gain a tremendous amount of joy from the sun coming up.

My son has learned the quickest way to a woman’s heart. He makes great pancakes and chocolate soufflé. I did not learn that lesson. I cannot cook.

Anyone who gives pithy advice about marriage is heading straight to the divorce courts. Marriage is about the dance you do together, but so many people are disappointed they’re not in a lifelong, happy relationship and that that is the point of life. We’re made to feel bad about that all the time.

People make me nervous. I feel there is a direct relationship to the amount of anxiety there is in my body, with the amount of people I have around. I am an actor at my core. I really enjoy making people happy, telling stories, making people laugh, but it’s tiring. I usually feel better when I’m by myself.

The most romantic thing I have ever done is have sexual intercourse with a woman. It doesn’t get any better than that. You talk about candlelight? Being really connected to another person is about as good as it gets.

My brother gets tears in his eyes with how much he hates Obama. I have so many Republicans in my family. I voted for Hillary. I cannot get to grips with the fact that my country elected Donald Trump as the president of the United States and now we have him walking around with the nuclear codes.

The idea that Hollywood is no longer a boy’s club is simply not true. I’ve made 50 films and I’ve been directed by woman two and a half times. I’ve actively wanted to be directed by a woman; Aisling Walsh directed my latest movie, Maudie, and feeling the female gaze versus the male behind the camera was subtle but undeniable. I have three daughters and because of that I see misogyny more clearly than ever before.

Maudie is out on digital download now

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