The iconic actor who influenced Ethan Hawke’s entire career: “I love watching him”
While some fans will always associate Ethan Hawke with Richard Linklater’s moving depiction of falling in and out of love in the Before trilogy, the American actor has proved his talent on all kinds of projects time and again. From his lonely, conflicted asceticism in First Reformed to his directorial efforts like Wildcat, Hawke has come a long way since his initial breakthrough in Dead Poets Society.
For those who are familiar with Hawke’s multiple visits to the Criterion closet and other such interviews, it is clear that a major component of the development of his craft is studying the performances of many of his predecessors. Even though he might be more interested in the director’s chair at this stage of career, strong performances are still an element that he seeks out in the movies that he watches.
Over the course of his acclaimed career, Hawke has borrowed inspiration from a number of acting greats, both in Hollywood and global cinema. However, there’s one particular icon whom the actor cited as the most significant influence on his own career, which prompted him to direct a six-part miniseries on the Hollywood star’s life.
Titled The Last Movie Stars, the project came into being after Hawke was personally requested by Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward’s daughter to create something from interview transcripts that were discovered. Incorporating that material in a unique way, Hawke did not miss the chance to work on something related to an actor he considered to be an all-time favourite.
While talking about Newman with A.Frame, Hawke said: “He has an uncanny ability to be present in front of the camera. I love watching him. If you watch The Hustler and The Color of Money back-to-back, you watch an actor grow and change. I think Paul really related to Eddie Felson. He was a little bit of a hustler… I think The Hustler is the first film where he came into his own as an actor.”
Comparing that to Newman’s later output, he added: “Then, when you see the older Paul, it’s like you’re watching the mask break. It’s like he cracks the mask of his face, and this light comes out. He’s really living in front of the lens in a way that is very difficult to do… Paul just worked, and worked, and worked, and worked. And, when you get to the end of his life, in Nobody’s Fool, you’re seeing somebody who really continued to grow.”
It’s definitely true that Newman’s contributions continued evolving even in the second half of his career, but it’s also tough to find a performance that can rival what he achieved in The Hustler. His all-consuming portrayal of Eddie Felson, a talented pool player who keeps falling deeper and deeper into an illogical obsession with revenge and triumph, manages to not only pull the audience into a grimy world of hustlers and two-bit criminals but also the character’s tumultuous psychosphere, constantly haunted by an inescapable addiction of the game, never knowing when to quit.
