After taking time away to focus on family and stage acting, Ethan Hawke is getting back to film, and stepping into the driver’s seat in his latest role as a racecar driver trapped in a car in action-thriller Getaway. Also starring former Disney star and pop singer Selena Gomez, the film is scheduled to release on Friday.
Getaway explores a more intimate setting by trapping your character in a car. Did it put pressure on you to convey more emotion?
What’s fun about this movie is that in any given take, there were 12 cameras mounted on this car to get all these crazy angles, and it’s something I’ve never done before. It’s a hard balance inside any action movie, to try to bring any authenticity of emotion and human behaviour to these outlandish circumstances. One thing I enjoyed about the simplicity of being stuck in this car is that it let Selena and I have fun.
How different is Hollywood today compared to when you were Gomez’s age, in your early 20s?
I think it’s much more difficult today to be a young person and grow up. The constant buzz, pressure, noise and static of the Internet, and the way it makes young people feel makes it difficult to grow up and develop the way one might want to. I’m very grateful that when I was first going through this in the early ‘90s, it was much easier, but that said, the basic facts of it have always been dangerous. It’s so hard for every young person, trying to figure out the adult you want to be.
You made Before Sunrise when you were in your mid-20s, Before Sunset in your mid-30s and Before Midnight in your early 40s. How does it feel to have these films mark different decades in your career?
In his new film Getaway, Hawke is stuck in a car with Selena Gomez. PHOTO: FILE
It’s a very strange feeling, it really is. These aren’t just movies to me — I co-wrote them, so much of those movies are so unique to issues that Julie (Delpy) and I are both interested in. Having people relate to them is such a wonderful feeling; it’s the reason why I wanted to be an actor.
You are now in your fourth decade acting. Do you still have any dream roles you would love to play?
Oh yes, I’m getting to do one right now. I’m about to start rehearsals for Macbeth at Lincoln Center in New York. It’s something I’ve longed to do my whole life — to do one of the big Shakespeares in a really serious production.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 29th, 2013.
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