Ethan Hawke reveals why ‘Blue Moon’ is the most “terrifying” role of his career
Actor Ethan Hawke and director Richard Linklater are most famous for their work on the Before trilogy, an incredible feat spanning decades. However, Hawke has admitted exclusively to Far Out that their new movie, Blue Moon, was even more “terrifying”.
The 2025 film focuses on one night in the life of the legendary lyricist, Lorenz Harzt, on the opening night of Oklahoma! in 1943. Hawke plays the iconic artist facing personal and professional decline, while Margaret Qualley and Andrew Scott also support in the movie.
Blue Moon marks the ninth Linklater-Hawke collaboration, spanning the Before trilogy, Boyhood, Waking Life, Tape, Fast Food Nation, and The Newton Boys.
Speaking exclusively to Far Out, when Hawke was asked which role out of his entire career was the scariest, he didn’t hesitate to admit, “This one. I really wanted to do this part, but in the days leading up to actually doing it, it was absolutely terrifying.”
Much of the film hinges on Hawke, who delivers the majority of the lines and is tasked with many monologues that inspect and investigate everything from art and desire to finding philosophy in a half-erect penis.
He eventually revealed his biggest fear during the project: “One of the things people don’t think about when you collaborate with somebody for a long time is how important the friendship is.”
Hawke added truthfully, “I didn’t want to let [Richard] down – his belief in me. I wanted to be the actor he thought I was. And that’s scary.”
In a glowing review of the film, Far Out wrote, “Blue Moon gave him the chance to be fatalistic, aggressive, and unsparingly cynical. With its intimate setting and monologue-heavy script, the film has the realism of live theatre and can be deemed a more appropriate use of Hawke and Linklater’s efforts than a return to a franchise that had already met its natural conclusion.”
Blue Moon is in cinemas now. Watch the trailer below.
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