Ethan Hawke in First Reformed
“I owe a lot to Youngblood Hawke, a novel by Herman Wouk. My mother loved that book, and then she met a guy named Jim Hawke. She thought, Oh, if I have a kid with this man, he would have the last name Hawke! I think that was part of why she fell in love with my father.”
When you were sent the script for First Reformed, did you immediately say yes?
Well, it was written by Paul Schrader, who wrote Taxi Driver. When I first moved to New York, I saw Taxi Driver and Raging Bull on a double bill. Afterward, I went into a little bit of a funk, because I realized everything I wanted to do with my life had already been done. They had already made sense out of the universe. So when I read Paul’s script for First Reformed, I knew that he was aware of the power of movies.
Where was your first kiss?
The Hamilton Roller Rink, in New Jersey. Her name was Cindy, and she was wearing a Black Sabbath T-shirt. It was a slow skate, and she was smoking hot. We skated around, and she said to me, “Do you like Jack Daniel’s?” And I said, “Yeah. Too bad he’s dead.” She said, “Is he dead?” I thought she meant Jimi Hendrix. Then she said, “Have you ever French kissed?” And I said, “Yeah, man.” But I actually hadn’t. So we snuck off behind the Coke machines and kissed.
How was it?
Well, I’m still talking about it, and that was a long time ago
Dior Men shirt.