Ethan Hawke wants to be forgotten: “I don’t want to be remembered”

Spain.- The actor Ethan Hawke went to the Doré cinema in Madridwhere he presented his latest work as a director ‘Blaze’ (2018), just one day after he finished filming his western with Pedro Almodóvar in which Pedro Pascal (“Mandalorian”) participated. The director was also in front of a crowd eagerly awaiting his fourth feature.

Ethan Hawke and Pedro Almodóvar have finished shooting their western in Almeríaand in less than 24 hours, the protagonist of ‘The Black Phone’ (2022), took a crowd bath in present his feature film ‘Blaze’the fourth he has directed in his career and deals with the history of country-folk musician Blaze Foley, who wanted to become a legend and ended up becoming a cursed artist.

In his presentation at the Doré cinema with an overflowing audience, Hawke stressed that contrary to what is suddenly thought in this race, does not pretend to be remembered by the publicon the contrary, he wishes to be forgotten and explained his reason.

I don’t want to be remembered, I want to be forgotten… we all struggle with the idea of ​​seeing each other in the third person, but the real goal is complete immersion in the moment you live, ”Hawke said.

Pedro Almodóvar praises the work of Ethan Hawke

Filming on “Strange way of life”, a 30-minute western starring Hawke and Chilean Pedro Pascal, wrapped Sunday at 1am, according to Almodóvar himself after the Texan actor revealed he was sitting at the back. to the room.

“I am very happy with the film”said the director of La Mancha,” proud “to have worked with Hawke in” difficult “conditions due, among other things, to the high summer temperatures in Almeria.

“A film works when the whole team falls in love with the same idea and they succeed as big as Almodóvar,” replied Hawke, who in recent years has developed his career as an actor and, more calmly, as a director in parallel.

“Raymond and Ray” among Ethan Hawke’s upcoming releases

At the last Cannes Film Festival he premiered a new series of documentaries he directed about Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, while as an interpreter he has several projects in development, from the sequel to ‘Daggers in the Back’ to a film by Rodrigo García, “Raymond and Ray”, alongside Ewan McGregor.

The great directors have only been on their film set, while I as an actor have been on many, which allows you to steal from many people, “he said during a ceremony presented by the Deputy Director of the Spanish Film Library, Carlos Reviriego.

Since I was a child I have had many teachers, I have seen that there is no one way to make a film but many and I have been able to understand what works for each one and why “, he added.

Out of all those teachers Richard Linklater, a Texan like him, stands out. “He is my best friend, we grew up together, we made nine films and one of them took 12 years“, he mentioned in reference to ‘Boyhood’ (2014).

Hawke said Linklater was the first person he called when he decided to do “Blaze”, a low-budget independent filmfunded largely by the actor himself.

The advice he gave me was: ‘think you are 19’ (…), have the humility of a student “, and it was the best advice he could give me, because people are not pretentious at all, they say a popular song is three chords and one truth, and it fits into that. ‘

The actors who play the musicians in the film, and most notably Ben Dickie as Foley and Charlie Sexton as Townes Van Zandt, are real musicians, something that has been at the heart of the project from the very beginning, Hawke revealed.

Dickey is a friend of his and years ago on New Year’s Eve at his home he started crying because after several decades of career he had not been able to make it and he did not feel “a true musicianHawke was reminded of the case of Blaze Foley, whom they both admired but who was the victim of self-destruction.

“He started playing ‘Clay Pigeons’ and then I had that idea for the first time – that of Dickey playing Foley in a movie – and I quickly realized I had to do it, so I suggested he take some acting classes. he said sure, but I thought he was joking“, he recalled.

The story of Foley has something in common with that of Chet Baker, who Hawke brought to life in the film “Born to be blue” (2015). “Even then I learned that there are artists who give their best in their music, but they are not exactly great in their lives,” he recalled. (With information from EFE).