The scenes Ethan Hawke hypnotised himself to shoot: “If it’s a dark trance, it’s difficult”
Many of the characters played by Ethan Hawke seem like lovely guys.
In Richard Linklater’s widely adored ‘Before’ trilogy, he portrays the lovable Jesse, a man who is eternally bound to and tested by Julie Delpy’s Céline. In the same director’s film Boyhood, he plays the father of a young man who, despite the many mistakes in his youth, is always striving to be a better person. He’s had plenty of great performances not directed by Linklater, but come on, we all know these two get the best out of each other.
That being said, Hawke isn’t afraid of expressing his dark side either. In 2021’s The Black Phone, he plays The Grabber, a brutal serial killer whose modus operandi involves snatching children, keeping them prisoner in his basement, and then eventually murdering them. In the Marvel series Moon Knight, he plays a sadistic cult leader, basing his performance partially on real-life monster Josef Mengele. Then there’s a film that usually flies under the radar when it comes to Hawke’s filmography – 2017’s First Reformed.
A psychological thriller from acclaimed and recently scandal-hit director Paul Schrader, First Reformed stars Hawke as Ernst Toller, the pastor of a small congregation in upstate New York. His life begins to unravel when he encounters a radical environmental protestor (Philip Ettinger) and his pregnant wife (Amanda Seyfried), as he is forced to confront his faith and community in a completely new light.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly about the film, Hawke revealed that he had to take himself to a pretty dark place in order to get inside Toller’s head. He used the film’s ending as an example, revealing that he basically had to trick his own brain in order to pull it off.
“Toward the end of the movie, he goes down the deep end of the drain, and when you’re forced to press the outer reaches of madness and despair, it’s hard to take your mind there,” he said. “[In] a lot of ways acting is like a guided meditation. You kind of have to hypnotise yourself. If you hypnotise yourself, there’s this opportunity for the audience to come along with you. But if you don’t hypnotise yourself, they’re not going to come. If it’s a dark trance, it’s difficult to guide yourself away from it. Sometimes it’s easier to fly into a flame, but flying out of the flames is hard.”
The finale of First Reformed goes to some incredibly dark places. For a movie that is mostly based in reality, the final few scenes feel almost like a completely different story, due to the extremes the plot goes to. Critics didn’t mind at all, though. The film performed incredibly well among reviews, with many citing its tense atmosphere and gripping dialogue. Hawke’s performance also appeared in almost every positive review. He was even rewarded with an Independent Spirit Award for ‘Best Male Lead’ for his efforts.
Actors have many different ways of getting into character, especially when the script calls for them to step out of their comfort zone. Hawke was able to disconnect from himself long enough to deliver one of the most underrated performances of his career. Mercifully, he was also able to bring himself back from the brink.
