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It
has already been a busy summer so far for Ethan Hawke. The guy the everyday
movie-goer may simply know as Officer Hoyt, that dude who played opposite of
Denzel in 2001’s Training Day, has
put out two films: Before Midnight,
Richard Linklater’s “Before” trilogy capping entry, and The Purge, a look into what a government sanctioned annual 12 hour
no laws/anything-goes period would entail, in May and June respectively. Although
Hawke consistently puts out a couple films a year on average the box office may
tell the tale why Hawke isn’t a bigger name in Hollywood.
The
usually vulnerable but strong playing Hawke has been in the biz going on 25
years now and currently has never had a film gross $100 million domestically
and has only had two films hit that mark worldwide, the aforementioned Training Day and Dead Poets Society, considered Hawke’s breakout performance, with
Robin Williams in 1989. Other than sitting shotgun with Alonzo, Hawke’s career
has spanned a large spectrum of roles and different hats, including; directing,
screenwriting, stage acting, and being a published novelist.
Raised
solely by his mother after his parents were separated four years following his
birth, Hawke grew up primarily in New York. He attended the Packer Collegiate
Institute in Brooklyn Heights, where he grew an affinity for the arts and had
hopes of becoming a writer. During this time Hawke also developed an interest
for acting and made his stage debut in a school production of Saint Joan at the age of 13. It was in
1985, at 14 years old, Hawke scored his first major film role in Explorers with River Phoenix. Although
the film was successful critically it flopped at the box office and the
disappointment was enough to cause Hawke to take a break from acting.
Hawke
transferred another prep school, the Hun School of Princeton, to finish his
pre-college education. While at Hun Hawke took acting classes on the Princeton
campus before ultimately studying acting at Carnegie Mellon University. Only a
year into college Hawke was cast in Dead Poets Society. Due to the film’s
success and the acting opportunities he was presented with afterwards, Hawke
decided to drop out of school to pursue acting full time.
Over
the next half dozen years or so Hawke was given the opportunity to display his
talents in an array of pictures. There was 1991’s White Fang, 1992’s Midnight
Clear, Alive in 1993, and
ultimately 1994’s Reality Bites
opposite Winona Ryder, which gave Hawke widespread critical acclaim from the likes
of Roger Ebert. The acting prowess Hawke displayed in his earlier pictures
caught the eye of director Richard Linklater who decided to cast him in the
1995 drama Before Sunrise (the first
of Linklater’s “Before” trilogy). Hawke again received critical acclaim for his
portrayal of a young American’s chance meeting with a French woman on a train,
and a night getting to know each other in Vienna.
Although
the praise continued to pour in for his many touted roles in the first half of
the 90s, Hawke decided to take a short hiatus from acting to publish his first
novel The Hottest State in 1996. The
story was that of a love affair between a young actor and a singer, and saw
Hawke draw from his personal experiences to pen the effort. The novel received
mixed reviews and shortly after its release Hawke returned to acting.
1997
brought Hawke back to the big screen with Andrew Niccol’s (Lord of War, In Time) Gattaca. Another film considered a box office
failure, making less in sales than its budget, the sci-fi thriller received
favorable reviews and has since garnered somewhat of a cult following and high
levels of syndication viewing on cable television. The film also introduced
Hawke to his onetime wife Uma Thurman (1998-2004) with whom he has two
children. Snow Falling on Cedars was
released in 1999 and provided Hawke with one of his few less than stellar
acting reviews in his career.
In
2001 Hawke reunited with Before Sunrise
director Linklater to release Waking Life
and Tape, both huge critical
successes that again brought in small box offices. Later that year came Training Day, the role that, for most
critics and fans alike, is the career defining role for Hawke. Hawke used the
vehicle to show more tenacity and proved he could stand with the likes of a Denzel,
turning in a brutally honest and believable performance. One that even Hawke
has said is his most rewarding of his time in Hollywood.
After
the success of Training Day, Hawke
again took a “mini-break” from screen acting to make his directorial debut with
Chelsea Walls in 2002 and also
published his second novel Ash Wednesday
that same year. Much like his first novel Hawke’s first directing effort was a
mixed bag critically and financially unsuccessful. Ash Wednesday however was
met with better reviews and even landed on the New York Times’ best seller list
for hardcover fiction.
Hawke
has since been cast in a multitude of fairly critically successful films albeit
ones that haven’t fared well at the box office; Assault on Precinct 13 (2005), Lord
of War (2005), Fast Food Nation (2006),
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
(2007), What Doesn’t Kill You (2008),
Daybreakers (2010), The Woman in the Fifth (2012), and Sinister (2012). Hawke has stated on
multiple occasions he prefers to do smaller films with more creative integrity
if possible. Giving him the freedom to play characters the way the he and the
creative teams see best fit.
Throughout
his career Hawke hasn’t forgotten what originally got him into acting, the
stage. Paralleling his film career Hawke has made time to appear in plenty of
theatre plays; The Seagull (1992, his
Broadway debut), Buried Child (1995),
Camino Real (1999), Hurlyburly (2005), Coast of Utopia (2006, earned him a Tony Award nomination), The Cherry Orchard (2009), Winter’s Tale (2009), Ivanov (2012) are just a handful of
productions Hawke has been a part of.
Next on the docket
for Hawke is The Getaway with Selena
Gomez slated to be released late summer or early fall of this year. Although
there’s no telling if or when Hawke will have another Training Day in his career we can count on seeing solid
performances from him in an array of films for years to come.
