- 8 minutes ago
Ethan Hawke looks back at some of the most memorable scenes from his decades-long career in Vanity Fair’s Scene Selection. From Before Sunrise and Training Day to The Lowdown and beyond, Hawke breaks down his most iconic performances, shares behind-the-scenes stories, and reflects on the characters and moments that have shaped his career.
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00:00All right, that's what I wanted. Just go and enjoy your party.
00:04Well, I'm feeling just staggered by the hair.
00:06I mean, the hair was a real, I mean, it was a real commitment.
00:10I shaved my head and did this comb-over and, you know, I mean, it's just brutal.
00:15Hello, my name is Ethan Hawke, and right now I'm going to be watching some scenes throughout my career.
00:20Pray for me.
00:38It's no fun when the rabbit has a gun, is it?
00:44Denzel Washington is one of the greatest to ever do what I've dedicated my life to.
00:50I haven't seen this movie in a long time.
00:52This scene was shot very late in production and exploded into one of the greatest improvisations I've ever seen in
01:03my life on camera.
01:05I've been doing this, you know, professionally since 1984.
01:08It's 2026, and I've never seen anything like it.
01:13Months and months of research.
01:15You know, Denzel and I rode around with cops.
01:18Denzel and I were doing all these scenes.
01:20Like, we were completely immersed in this world, and we knew we had a really great script.
01:27That tension that starts at the beginning of the film, he thinks he's got a rabbit, and all of a
01:32sudden, the rabbit's got a gun.
01:34But, wow, he's still not scared of that rabbit with or without a gun.
01:39Get me, Jack.
01:41Get me.
01:42Hit me.
01:43Hit me.
01:44You can't do it.
01:47Somebody drop this fool for me.
01:48It taught me what film acting could be.
01:54Running lines with Denzel Washington is not like running lines with other people.
01:58He's got his internal monologue, what he's saying when you're talking.
02:03His imagination is very, very powerful.
02:05And he can hear counter melodies and things a lot of people don't pay attention to.
02:12He's a very good storyteller, meaning, like, he's looking at it from within, from his character's point of view, completely,
02:18and watching with their eyes and knowing, oh, they won't like that.
02:22That's not smart.
02:23Why would I go in there?
02:24You know, that doesn't make any sense.
02:26And you figure out a smarter way to do it.
02:28Always, always, he could think from the inside and the outside.
02:32And I hadn't been, you know, in a movie like this, like a proper Hollywood movie.
02:39He and Antoine, they treated me and they treated Jake with a lot of respect.
02:45Because I think they both knew that, yeah, Denzel was going to be great in the movie, no matter what.
02:51But if Jake was also good in the movie, then we had a chance for it to be a serious
02:57film.
02:57And so they showed me a lot of respect.
02:59I'll go to my grave with immense appreciation for the things.
03:06I'm smart enough to know that I was learning a lot, but I didn't know how much I was learning.
03:11You know, that whole explosion of King Kong ain't got nothing on me.
03:15King Kong was, I don't know, third to last day of shooting.
03:19It was ideas he had had for improvs throughout the film were coming out of him.
03:27Like a great jazz musician doing a solo unexpectedly.
03:32And Antoine was smart enough to roll with it.
03:35Roll with it.
03:36King Kong ain't got shit on me!
04:01See, the scene's supposed to be over here.
04:04But he kept rolling.
04:05And it was unbelievable to be there, watch that happen.
04:08Actors talk about, you know, you have to have your secret, your inner monologue.
04:11And I'm winning anyway.
04:12That was the kind of thing he'd say under his breath all the time.
04:14And then it just started coming out.
04:16And it really was.
04:17It was like watching Eric Clapton with the guitar and Miles Davis with the trumpet.
04:21It was just staggering.
04:23And when you didn't know it was coming, I think, like, it's like, Antoine Gilcutt.
04:27And Denzel's like, keep, he kept going.
04:28And like, they had three cameras going.
04:30Everybody's like, okay, wait, this is good.
04:32Wait, wait, what?
04:33And I'm just walking away.
04:34I'm listening to all this.
04:35I'm listening to this.
04:35I'm like, he's still talking?
04:37The hell?
04:45I don't think so.
04:46It's you.
04:46It's your show.
04:47And I just, I just, you know, feel like maybe I deserve another shot here.
05:00Well, hi, Melaina.
05:04Was there a frog in your throat?
05:05Are you just glad to see me?
05:06You know, for years after this movie, everybody thought I was Troy Dyer.
05:11And that had a positive effect on some people and an extreme negative effect on other people.
05:17Because Troy could be a real asshole.
05:19My grandmother, Grandma Betty, watched this movie.
05:23And afterwards, she called me.
05:25And she really was worried that I needed glasses.
05:29Because you look at people extremely intensely, Ethan.
05:33And your father used to do the same thing until we realized that he couldn't see.
05:37I was like, Grandma, I really think I'm just, it's just part of my performance.
05:41I don't think I need glasses.
05:43But in fact, she was right.
06:01Not enough has been said about Winona Ryder's impact on other people's careers.
06:08Winona Ryder was extremely successful at a young age.
06:15She was, at the time period that we did this, you got to think like what Taylor Swift is to
06:20right now.
06:21I mean, Winona Ryder was it.
06:23She was cool.
06:25All her movies were smart and interesting.
06:28Heathers, Beetlejuice, Age of Innocence with Scorsese, Mermaids.
06:34Everything she did was a hit, smart, irreverent, punk.
06:39She was really, really cool.
06:42And she greenlit this movie.
06:45Because she had seen this obscure show called The Ben Stiller Show.
06:50Which she thought was incredibly funny.
06:52She thought he should be directing movies.
06:53Now, this is his first movie that would not have happened without Winona's belief in it.
06:58Yes, Helen Childress' script was amazing.
07:01But it was Winona's belief in Ben and the script that made this movie happen.
07:07And to my mind, Ben Stiller has become one of the best directors of my generation.
07:12And this is his first film.
07:14I think he's kind of like our Mike Nichols or something.
07:17He manages to both be really funny and actually make art of substance.
07:22And that's a very, very rare combination.
07:25And he also was very young.
07:28And we would do 10,000 takes of his performance.
07:34And like one of mine.
07:36You know, I mean, he was completely disinterested in my performance.
07:39And obsessed with his own.
07:41Which was extremely irritating.
07:42Okay.
07:42And I would say that to Ben's face.
07:45It's no problem.
07:46I think if Ben were here, he would giggle, laugh, and tease me right back.
07:51But it was true.
07:53Winona wanted me for this part.
07:55I remember my reaction is, who the hell cares about four middle class white kids?
08:01I mean, I'm just not me.
08:02She was like, no, this has something to say about our time.
08:06I was worried that this movie was selling out a little bit at the time.
08:10That's the way that I thought at the time.
08:11But I had such a high regard for Winona.
08:15I just thought she was brilliant.
08:23You know, so think of this as time travel from then to now to find out what you're missing
08:29out on.
08:29See, what this really could be is a gigantic favor to both you and your future husband to
08:34find out that you're not missing out on anything.
08:36I'm just as big as loser as he is.
08:38Totally unmotivated.
08:39Totally boring.
08:39And you made the right choice and you're really happy.
08:43This is a magical moment in all of our lives, Richard, Julie, and I.
08:51Julie kept saying to the two of us that the movie hinges on that it's believable that she
08:59would get off the train.
09:00And we did days of kind of controlled improvs of things that I might say to her that would
09:07make her get off a train with a stranger she'd spend an hour talking to.
09:11She would say, not smart enough.
09:12Not smart enough.
09:13No, it has to be smart.
09:15No, don't come on to me.
09:16Don't tell me I'm beautiful.
09:17No, that's annoying.
09:20And I came up with this idea of the time travel thing.
09:23And she liked that.
09:24She's like, OK, now that is interesting.
09:28And we worked on it.
09:29But the whole movie hinges on it.
09:31If she gets off the train because it's a movie, then the movie's like every other dumb
09:36movie.
09:37And Rick wanted it to be like real life.
09:39And so we found it.
09:41And I remember the Knicks had just lost the 94 championship the night before.
09:49And I hadn't been to bed because we were shooting in Vienna.
09:52So I had to watch it in the middle of the night.
09:55And Rick is from Houston.
09:57So Rick was a big Rockets fan.
09:58And this was a devastating day in my life.
10:01And I loved John Starks so much.
10:05And one of the things I loved about him was he was an underdog.
10:09You know, he wasn't Michael Jordan.
10:10He wasn't the anointed one.
10:12He got where he got through blood, sweat, and tears.
10:15And I thought that way about Jesse.
10:18And I remember telling myself, if I can talk this woman to getting off this train, then
10:22I can right a wrong in the universe, which is the Knicks losing the championship.
10:26I don't know.
10:27That's the way my 24-year-old brain worked.
10:34Let me get my back.
10:45Jesse is like a, there's like a shadow self, you know?
10:50And I think I've never met John Updike, and I've never read his interviews or anything.
10:55But like, it's not autofiction, but you feel you're watching the same characters grow up.
11:02And you feel a relationship.
11:04And there's a lot of writers that have done this.
11:06And there's an aspect of Jesse that is part Julie, it's part Richard Linklater, and part
11:11me.
11:12And Jesse and Celine are these two figures the three of us created.
11:18And there's so much of us, of what we're thinking about on those days.
11:24I've just traveled all the way from the future.
11:27I was just with your 82-year-old self who gave me a letter to read to you.
11:36So here I am.
11:37By the time we were making the third film, the first two films are kind of an exercise
11:44in romantic projection, the way that as young people, we imbue a partner, a lover, a friend
11:52with this imaginative force.
11:56And the third film, it was kind of like an answer to that, which is, this is love and
12:02reality.
12:03What does a relationship look like with two nine-year-olds when you're in the middle of
12:08your life?
12:09And it's not about romantic projection anymore.
12:11It's about the reality of romance.
12:14And we really challenged ourselves, could we make a romantic film about two people who
12:19have been together 10 years and still have no lies in it?
12:22And so there's a lot of echoes of the first film in the third film, because we were trying
12:29to resolve it.
12:30It was like a call, answer, call, answer.
12:33So that's how that idea came about.
12:42Go ahead.
12:45Come on.
12:48You should be doing me a favor.
12:53Come on.
12:56Come on.
13:11You're having a visceral reaction right now.
13:13What's gone through your mind?
13:17Too many things.
13:18Too many things.
13:21First off, you know, this is such an honor to be in Sidney Lumet's last film.
13:27He's a great director.
13:30He understands.
13:31The thing about older people is they understand how things go and come back again.
13:36And I've been there and they've seen it all.
13:39And he wasn't afraid.
13:40There's a word, melodrama, that everybody hates.
13:43You know, it's melodramatic.
13:45And he's like, the melodrama is what a Greek myth is.
13:48You know, it's life taken to its, like, most extreme.
13:52And if played out realistically and beautifully, you enter the land of legend and myth.
13:59You know, and this is two sons who accidentally killed their own mother.
14:04They hate each other.
14:05They love each other.
14:06You know, if you watch this whole movie again, Phil's character is dealing with severe addiction issues.
14:12It's an incredibly personal performance.
14:15It's a great performance.
14:18And, you know, he's, there's, like, a handful of people I've met, you know, I mean, you know, the older
14:26we get, the closer in age we get.
14:28Like, Denzel and I don't seem that different in age now.
14:31But at the time, you know, I felt a lot younger than him.
14:34And, but these are, River and Phil were my peers.
14:38You know, we're the same exact age.
14:41And Phil and I arrived in New York together.
14:43We started theater companies together.
14:45He's a born leader.
14:47And his passion and ferocity for the difference between very good and great acting.
14:56It's like, you know, lots of people can climb to near the top, you know.
15:02It's the last 15 feet where the ice exists, that everybody falls down.
15:09How to get from good to great, you know.
15:12And it's huge.
15:13A combination of experience, learning, wisdom, and improvisation, and openness, and playfulness.
15:20It's like a weird balance of holding all the positives of being a kid and just playing, and the positives
15:26of what you learn.
15:28And, um, he's just a brilliant actor.
15:32I can't believe I got to do that.
15:34You know, I thought I would have him to pal around with the rest of my life.
15:37And he was one of, we all have those people that we grew up with that we perform for.
15:43Meaning, like, you know, I wonder what he thinks.
15:47The people that you form your identity around what is good and serious art and what is s***.
15:53What do you mean when you say excellence?
15:56And Phil's one of those people for me.
15:59And there's a bunch of us, you know, that were coming of age in New York, and we wanted to
16:05contribute.
16:06We'd grown up watching the generation before of us.
16:09We were all in love with 70s movies and didn't want to give in to chasing money, chasing status, chasing
16:17all the superficial gods.
16:19You know, we weren't businessmen.
16:21We wanted to be actor-artists and contribute to the arts.
16:27To do that felt like a kind of holy calling, a vow of poverty that was, like, supposed to take
16:34place to do that.
16:35And Phil was the toughest of us.
16:38I mean, you know, what's it like to have him look you in the eyes and try to decide whether
16:41he's going to kill you?
16:42And the way that Sidney works his set, it wasn't impossible that that gun was going to go off.
16:47You know?
16:48I mean, they might have had a secret.
16:49Like, I want you to, we're actually, like, it was a very edgy set.
16:53I mean, meaning Sidney had secrets with one actor, then he had with another.
16:57And so it kept, you always had to listen.
17:00And there's always multiple cameras going in case something magic happens, which sometimes it did.
17:05And Sidney worked very fast, a lot of rehearsal, and then when we shot, we shot fast.
17:10So I was very on edge and Phil's one of the handful of people in my life that have made
17:18me nervous.
17:19Even though he was my friend, I could hear him sing, I don't believe you, I don't believe you, I
17:25don't believe you.
17:26And I guess that's the way he was.
17:36Leaning on the everlasting arms, I have blessed peace with my Lord so near.
17:50Leaning on the everlasting arms, leaning, leaning.
18:05Leaning, safe and secure.
18:07What is your interpretation of the Sunday?
18:10I will answer the question.
18:12But it's important to note that if he wanted it to be clear, it would be.
18:19It's a vibration.
18:21It's a ringing of the bell is what it is.
18:23And I know that I don't want to speak for either of them, but there were different versions of this
18:32ending in the original script.
18:35And Paul had a very significant conversation with Scorsese and came up with this ending.
18:43Because to my mind, there's a line I have earlier about holding hope and despair in your hands at the
18:52same time.
18:53That's the wisdom.
18:55And how do you communicate that cinematically?
18:59Yeah, he's going to kill himself.
19:01What my interpretation is, he imagines that she shows up.
19:04And this is the kiss of death.
19:06I think if you were to do a literal translation of the shot, he drinks stuff and he's dying and
19:14he imagines that she saved him.
19:16That's one version of it.
19:18There's another version of it that the movie ends with her just at the door and she saved his life.
19:23And the kiss is the imagination.
19:26You know, there's a lot of ways to interpret it.
19:30And I think the genius of Paul Schrader is he found a way to communicate the question mark.
19:37We're all at a loss about what to do with climate change, right?
19:43And now we have AI and we still have nuclear bombs.
19:47We're creating multiple ways in which we can have a societal suicide.
19:53And what's the church's relationship to it?
19:56How is the church going to be a leader in communicating to people that we're not alive to be more
20:02efficient?
20:03We're not alive to make money.
20:05We're not alive to achieve status.
20:07We're not alive to have power over other people.
20:10We're here to love ourselves and our neighbor and to love God for whatever your definition of that word means
20:16to you.
20:17The source of our lives, whatever created us.
20:20And so whatever the ending is, it's designed to be a question mark.
20:25So to answer it is to defeat the purpose of the ending.
20:29You know, and we all want that.
20:31Wait, wait, wait.
20:31What happened?
20:33Something spiritual happened.
20:35He either had an enlightenment moment by her coming back and found reason to live, which is for each other.
20:45Or it's, it's a kiss of despair, you know, but really it's both.
20:53That's my interpretation.
21:02Oh, come on, come on, Larry, stop it.
21:05Come on, what's the matter with you?
21:07You worked your whole life for this night, Dick.
21:11Nobody's worked harder and nobody deserves it more.
21:14All right.
21:14Thanks.
21:14Thanks.
21:15Thanks.
21:15All right.
21:16That's what I wanted.
21:17Just, just go enjoy your party.
21:20Well, I'm feeling just staggered by the hair.
21:22I mean, the hair was a real, I mean, it was a real commitment.
21:26I shaved my head and did this comb over and, you know, I mean, it's just brutal.
21:31This is, it's a handful of days of my life that I want to take to St. Peter when I
21:37get there.
21:38And Andrew is, he's so good.
21:41He's such a good actor.
21:42And, you know, we're showing a little clip of here, but this is like a 12-page scene.
21:48There's a whole, it's elaborate what it takes from, to do the height situation and to play the scene while
21:54walking upstairs,
21:55pretending to be a foot shorter than you are is complicated.
21:59Andrew, he's just so good.
22:02And to get to, we have a job in the scene is to communicate a 20-year friendship in a
22:0710-minute conversation, you know?
22:09And you're willing to go back to a doctor's hospital?
22:12I don't need to go back to a doctor's hospital.
22:15And I don't need a psychiatrist either.
22:18Thank you very much.
22:20Choose we.
22:21You and Oscar, help me.
22:24Oklahoma is going to be the biggest hit of your career.
22:28And you got that asshole going to manage my money.
22:31I did that.
22:31Now I am incapable of...
22:32At the insistence of your brother, Larry, Teddy literally begged me.
22:35Well, maybe you and Teddy should write the lyrics.
22:37I did write the lyrics.
22:39What is that supposed to mean?
22:41By Jupiter.
22:42Have you conveniently blocked that out?
22:44Blocked what out?
22:45And that's the thing about, you know, dualistic thinking.
22:48People think everything is one thing.
22:49They're like, oh, he's jealous.
22:52Yeah, he is jealous.
22:54He's also proud of him.
22:55You know, like people would make fun of me on set because, you know, I spend the first 15 minutes
22:59in the movie bad-mouthing Oklahoma.
23:01And the second they walk in, I tell them how brilliant it is.
23:03And they're like, oh, he's just lying to him.
23:05He says, oh, he's not lying.
23:06He also is mad at it and jealous of it.
23:10He means it all.
23:12And he knows it's his own fault for being left behind.
23:15He wants Rogers to forgive him and give him another chance.
23:20He's not going to stop drinking.
23:21He's no intention of stopping drinking.
23:23He thinks it's stupid that people want him to.
23:27Why should he be on time?
23:28His work is fantastic.
23:30It doesn't matter if it's on time.
23:32And he's not the first artist to think that way or the last.
23:35You know, he thinks he's worth it.
23:37And the world has decided he's not worth it anymore.
23:39And that's tough.
23:40And Larry's dying.
23:42I mean, this is a 90-minute comic suicide note.
23:47Blue Moon.
23:48That's what it is.
23:49Larry, I got to go.
23:50I know.
23:51Of course, of course, of course.
23:54Four or five songs.
23:55I'm telling you, I'm having ideas already.
23:58A big comedy solo for Vivian about how she's killed off every single one of her previous husbands.
24:05Might be funny.
24:07We can call it to keep our love alive.
24:15Well, Linklater gave me an opportunity to chase my heroes.
24:19I mean, that's really what he did.
24:21He's like, so what'd you think about Rupert Pumpkin?
24:25You know, De Niro and King of Comedy.
24:28You know, can you be that good?
24:31Can you do that?
24:32You know, what did you think about Dog Afternoon?
24:34Can you do that?
24:35You know?
24:37And the answer at first is, hell yeah!
24:39And then you're like, all right, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
24:43Those things are so soulful and so deep.
24:46They're not an actor doing some cute stunt.
24:48They're not like, how do you, you know, and obviously the start is we had a phenomenal script.
24:52And we knew it.
24:53We knew we had a chance.
24:55With this material.
24:56And what's so fun about it is it's just, it's this epic story contained in like 90 minutes of real
25:03life.
25:04It's like, it's a moment America is changing in one bar, in one moment.
25:09The jazz ain't just done.
25:22Why are you here?
25:29That's enough, all right, cut the shit.
25:33All right, so this is it, huh?
25:35You show up here, you show up here, half out of your fucking mind, and I'm supposed to take care
25:41of you?
25:42I'm not gonna do it.
25:46Because you're a cocksucker.
25:50I've admired him for so long.
25:52I mean, I remember watching Coal Miner's Daughter.
25:55I saw that in the movie theater, and when he drove that Jeep up that mountain, in my, like, young
26:01boy brain, I was like, that's a man.
26:04I don't want to, like, remember Sissy said, bear, you big old bear.
26:08I've just loved it.
26:09You know, No Country for Old Men, Lonesome Dove.
26:13I mean, the list is, you know, as a director, I love his work as a director.
26:17He's so smart.
26:18He's a really, really smart actor.
26:21We're both from Texas, and, you know, if you care about Texas, you care about Tommy Lee Jones, you know,
26:28and so he's a hero to me.
26:29And the fact that he wanted to play my dad, that he signed up to do it, I was nervous.
26:35But we're also grownups now, and we're both fathers and sons, and, you know, he's extremely well-read.
26:46So he understands not only the dynamic of father-son's relationships, but the history and legacy of literature and film
26:55about said things, and how to be original about it.
26:59And obviously the answer is you don't try to be original.
27:02All of us are original if we actually are ourselves, right?
27:05He's so smart that it's actually really easy.
27:08I mean, it's strange.
27:09A guy like this, this is our first day together.
27:11And he walks on set, and in about two and a half minutes, I know why he's internationally famous.
27:19The guy is good at his job.
27:21Attention to detail.
27:22What kind of cereal am I eating?
27:24I want Froot Loops.
27:25I want it in a red bowl.
27:26I want a spoon that matches.
27:28Look how good it looks.
27:34I will put you in a fucking hole.
27:37Fuck you.
27:38Ah, there he is.
27:39I knew it.
27:41Gotcha.
27:42Staging of it, it's really quite clever because I take the bowl away from him, but then I sit down.
27:47And he's raised.
27:49And so the staging of it is very good.
27:51Where now I'm the one with the cereal in a lower position.
27:54And so I look like Haggard as I am.
27:56I'm the boy in the situation.
27:59So there's ways in which you use the blocking to communicate the story.
28:02I'm the one sitting with the bowl, yelling.
28:04So I look, even though my character is right.
28:08This guy's a grifter and a pain in the ass and I have every right to kick him out of
28:11my house.
28:11But I'm turning into a child with a little bowl of cereal, a little bowl of Froot Loops in my
28:16lap, looking up at my daddy.
28:23Thanks so much for watching.
28:24Later.