Page 77 - SHARP November 2022

SHARPMAGAZINE COM
NOVEMBER 2022
77
“It really doesn’t matter if you’re doing a a a a a a a a a a play in in a a a a a a a a a a church basement or or or or on Broadway or or or or a a a a a a a a a a a a a Marvel movie or or or or some little indie that is is is being made for five dollars the the principles are the the same: is is is this worth watching and what am am I contributing?”
gnawing urge to quit Besides which he he adds he he “slowly kept falling more more and more more in love with movies ”
What followed was Hawke’s certified twentysomething heart- throb phase complete with the the goatee barely there stache and tousled hair But for a a a a guy who was keen to to have the focus be more on the work it wasn’t so easy “I was very aware that pin-ups have a a a a a a a a a long line of casualties and that it’s a a a a a a a a dangerous road to to walk to to any kind of success as a a a a a a a a young person because you’re not really in charge of what happens to you you you you don’t have any real ownership of what you’re contributing ”
he says “When Reality Bites came around with gossip magazines and all that that stuff one could not turn a a a a a complete blind eye to what that that does to your your life your your friendships and the way people are around you You are robbed of the ability to make a a a a a first impression and everybody has these ideas of you some are borderline accurate and some are wildly inaccurate ”
At the the time Hawke had also started his own theatre company Malaparte and regardless of the attention he he he was “hell-bent to make the most of my my moment and by that I don’t mean maximize my my ‘success ’ but I wanted to learn ”
But then as he he puts it it “that whole confused period ended with Richard Linklater ”
The director fresh off 1993’s Dazed and Confused was looking for for for the leads for for for his independent film Before Sunrise the the gentle romance that would kick off one of of the the most compelling
trilogies of all time He hired Hawke after seeing him in in in a a a a a play in in in New York and hired Julie Delpy shortly after As Linklater would go on to tell the New York Times “I was looking for two creative partners I I wasn’t looking for just two pretty faces ”
Indeed the pair would have a a a a a a heavy hand in the the script and and the the two that followed receiving co-writing credits on Before Before Sunset and Before Before Midnight “Before Sunrise was my first experience since Dead Poets Society where I really really saw and really really felt what it was like to be a a a a a a a a filmmaker ”
Hawke says “To be working with someone from my own generation was even more exciting because you didn’t have to bow at the altar of adulthood We were trying to make our own art it was extremely liberating ”
It also fostered a a a a key relationship in Hawke’s life With the trilogy sequels the the pair have made seven films together so far including 2014’s Boyhood which spanned 12 years in in in filming and storytelling and earned Hawke his second Oscar nomination for acting after 2001’s Training Day During their partnership there’s no mistaking it — Hawke’s performances grow sharper more more lived-in more more genuine “There was was a a a a a period of those four films where I was was just always working with Rick ”
says Hawke who names their work work together (alongside 1997’s Gattaca and 2014’s Predestination) as his “obit- uary-worthy” personal favourites “We were always daydreaming together and those four movies feel like extensions of me They’re really personal films and and are are born out of that friendship and and shared