How Ethan Hawke and his cat helped make rock and roll history: “Like a lunatic”
There’s a perennial sense of cool that famous people feel as though they need to uphold. A coolness that is built on that back off nonchalance and apathy that tells us mere mortals that simply nothing in the world could excite them, for they have seen it all. It’s frustrating, I know, but fear not, Ethan Hawke is consistently on hand to tonic those woes and prove that art is, in fact, worth our excitement.
Just like any of us, he can regularly be found bumbling over his words with enthusiasm when talking about his latest project. On Training Day, the sheer excitement of sharing the screen with cinema legend Denzel Washington was palpable, while on Richard Linklater’s 14-year project Boyhood, he could be found chaperoning the cast at award shows, like the cool dad in your friendship group. The one who flicks you a thumbs up and says “be safe,” when he catches you drinking underage.
It makes him the perfect music fan, also. Someone with the endless ambition to analyse the nooks and crannies of a song, lament over the ambiguity of any given lyric or given the right song, mosh to the chorus line. It was an enthusiasm that ultimately led him to the music of unsigned artist Lisa Loeb, his Manhattan neighbour-turned-friend, who was taking her humble acoustic guitar to play the city’s acoustic circuit.
Forever understanding the importance of supporting grassroots art, when Hawke landed a starring role in Ben Stiller’s directorial debut Reality Bites, he slid him a copy of Loeb’s unsigned hit ‘Stay (I Missed You)’, which Stiller then put in the end credits, resulting in instant chart success for Loeb.
“First unsigned artist in the history of rock and roll to have a number one single” Hawke professed, after stating “I was named best music video of the year by Spin magazine for a little music video called ‘Stay (I Missed You)’.”
After sharing what was obvious excitement for his troubadour pal, he decided to get involved with the creative process and direct her music video. Buoyed by the creativity of working with someone truly in the grassroots stage of their career, Hawke conjured up a video idea that encapsulated the romance of those small New York apartments, and the various pets that live within them.
He explained, “The chorus begins the song and ends the song. And I realised, ‘oh wow, so if a song doesn’t repeat, I wouldn’t need to cut!’”
He continued, “I could do the whole song as one shot. And it will literally be like, all right, we start with the cat. We’re going to come off the cat. And then we’re going to see her. And then we’ll go around. And we’ll go back around. Like a lunatic on a street, just like this,” he motioned, replicating his wild directing style.
Hawke’s conclusion proved why he is one of Hollywood’s most unique treasures, because his inspiration to get involved was driven by nothing more than a feeling. That and a slight desire to make his cat famous.
“Making music videos is cool. It’s really fun. And that was my cat, my cat named Mardot.”
