-Our first guest tonight is an Academy Award-
and Tony-nominated actor, writer, and director
you know from films such as "Training Day,"
"Boyhood," and "The Magnificent Seven."
His graphic novel, "Meadowlark," is available now.
Please welcome back to the show our good friend Ethan Hawke.
Hello, Ethan! How are you?
-Hey, Seth! How are you doing?
Welcome to Budapest. -I mean, I miss you.
I don't like when you're this far away
on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
Are you enjoying your time there so far?
-I am, but I love New York, and I love my family,
and I wish I was there.
-You're there shooting "Moon Knight"
with Oscar Isaac for Disney+.
And I will say -- Look, you're indie-film royalty.
You know that. You might not want to admit it.
You've done some big films, too, but I got to imagine
this is sort of unlike anything you've done before,
being in the Marvel Universe.
-Well, one of the first things that made it unlike anything
I've ever done before is, I had to sign like 10,000 NDAs
about what I would and would not say, which I've never done,
and I don't respect, and I don't honor.
So I'm happy to talk to you about it completely.
-[ Laughs ] -No, yeah.
I'll tell you this about it. I've been acting since I was 13.
Like, I did my first movie in 1985, okay?
And that's a long time ago.
And these are the best sets I've ever been on in my life.
The costumes, the set, the production design,
the cinematography, all those elements
are kind of mind-boggling.
So I have entered some alternate universe,
and it is kind of interesting.
-I will say this, and I mean, if there's an indie-film character
in the Marvel Universe, I feel like Moon Knight
might be that character,
so I do kind of feel like this is a nice fit.
-Well, I heard about it from Oscar Isaac, who lives
like, you know, three blocks down the street
from me in Brooklyn. I was at a coffee shop,
and he came up to me, he's like,
"Hey, I really liked 'The Good Lord Bird.'"
I was like, "Oh, cool, yeah. I really like your work.
You're amazing." He's like, "Hey, want to be
in the 'Moon Knight' with me?" I was like, "Yeah."
[ Laughter ]
So it happened the right way, you know?
-Yeah. Born in Brooklyn, shoots in Budapest.
-Yeah. And, you know, we're conjuring ancient gods,
and we're fighting for good and evil.
And it's very exciting. -I thought --
By the way, I should note that with those glasses,
your long hair, and those candles,
you're giving off a real David Koresh vibe.
[ Laughter ]
-I've based my character on David Koresh.
-Have you really? -Yeah.
So, I mean, I -- I guess it's working.
I totally -- I wanted a Camaro, you know?
I want to ride in in a Camaro.
Yeah, I can't believe you -- I mean, you're good, Seth.
You're good. -Yeah.
-Or maybe I'm not out of character yet.
-I should say I was a huge fan of Mr. Koresh!
[ Laughter ]
-I don't know if we want to be on record saying that.
I will say that he is the basis
of great character inspiration, however.
-Yes, I think that is very fair. Hey, you talk about the fact --
I want to ask, 'cause we've been talking about how some people
now are starting to fake vaccine cards, right?
That's a very real thing. You mentioned
your first film when you were 15, and I know you weren't --
You didn't become world-famous off your first film,
but did Ethan Hawke ever have to have a fake I.D.?
-Oh, definitely. Well, see, the good news for me
was that my first movie that I did was a complete failure,
and nobody ever heard of it or knew who I was.
So, I mean, I don't know where you --
The fake I.D./fake vaccine card is very interesting.
But not only did I have a fake I.D.,
I had a backup, because I looked really young.
You know, I didn't have much facial hair, anything like that.
And I went to 42nd Street, and I got --
It said, "Ethan Hawke." They said, "Where do you live?"
And I said -- I had to make up a New York address.
The only thing I could think of was "Monopoly," you know?
I said, you know, Park Avenue.
And I know "Monopoly" is not set in New York,
but it is what I thought of.
So I was Ethan Hawke who lived at 500 Park Place
and -- and people bought it. I mean, when people want
to make money off, you know, kids buying beer,
they'll generally -- if you've got the fake I.D.,
it's your fault, not theirs, right?
-Right, if you put the work in,
they're willing to just look the other way.
-Also, I had the backup, which was a fake
Rutgers University card, which I happened to really like
the photo of myself in.
I thought I looked really cool and tough.
-[ Laughs ]
-And it was largely there to impress girls.
-But, like, how quickly after "Dead Poets" did you --
could you walk into pretty much any bar?
-Well, the trouble was that I was living in New York City
after "Dead Poets," right? -Yeah.
-I moved there. And New York City,
one of the sad realities of it is,
those delis don't really card very much.
-I see. [ Laughter ]
-And I was a pretty low-rent date, Seth.
I wasn't going to bars, you know?
I wasn't going to Studio 54 and stuff.
I was, you know, buying a six-pack
and taking it back and playing the guitar.
That was more my thing. -Well, you have your --
You have your Texas roots, and that is --
You kind of pulled on your Texas roots
to write this fantastic graphic novel, and Greg Ruth --
Is it pronounced "Ruh-th" or "Rooth"?
-Greg "Rooth." -"Rooth."
-He's the genius behind the whole operation.
I'm kind of the star of a graphic novel.
I helped write it. He's the director,
he's the costume designer, he's the hair-and-makeup artist.
He's, you know, I mean -- It's his artistry
that really makes it, and I'm so grateful
to be on your show even talking about it, Seth.
I really appreciate it. I'm so proud of this book.
-Well, we are big fans of graphic novels here,
and you're not lying when you say you're the star,
'cause you're kind of -- I mean, he definitely drew it
to be Ethan Hawke.
Did he know your face enough, or did you have to do
some modelling work for the book?
-We're pretty good friends. We did another graphic novel
called "Indeh" first, and after "Indeh" was over,
we wanted to do something -- That was historical fiction.
It was about the Apache wars, the life of Geronimo,
and that whole situation that happened down
in the Northwest -- I mean, the Southwest, sorry.
And so, this was -- it was born right after I had finished
shooting "Magnificent Seven," and I had this big, long goatee
in "Mag Seven," and when I chopped it off,
I had a little kind of Fu Manchu mustache, so to speak.
And Greg -- I sent Greg some pictures.
He's like, "That's gonna be your --
That's your look for the graphic novel!" and he just worked it.
-It's a really great, very exciting book.
It takes place over one day,
but it's really, at its core, a father/son story.
Is this based on your relationships,
Greg's relationship, both of your relationships?
-Well, we each had sons that were turning 16
when we first started. And we --
Because we're friends,
we talked about this strange thing that happens.
You have a young person,
a young boy, and he's growing up,
and he looks up to you so much, and he thinks you're --
You're dad, you know? And then, this weird thing
called adolescence happens, and all of a sudden,
they stand up, and they're as tall as you are,
and they're looking at you in the eyes,
and there's this profound feeling
of disappointment coming from them, you know?
That they really wish --
"You mean this is who I got stuck with?"
[ Laughter ] "You're my dad?
Like, couldn't you --" And they're there to call out
everything fake you've ever thought,
any way that your behavior is hypocritical,
and you have this sense of just being such a disappointment.
You know, you can't lead them any farther than you've gone
in your own development, and to Greg and I,
as we started talking about it, it felt kind of Greek to us,
and we had this idea of, "What if we wrote a book
that was a father/son story, but at its secret subconscious
was kind of a Greek myth?" And we set it --
We're both from Texas, so we're kind of hodgepodging
our own childhood with our sons' childhood
and our experiences as a father
and trying to write great crime fiction, you know?
Like, to set a myth as if it was crime fiction.
Which is what I think, you know, a lot of the best writing --
Jim Thompson's one of my favorite crime writers, and so,
I had just read a Jim Thompson book, and I was like,
"What if we could channel our inner Jim Thompson
and make a really original graphic novel?"
So that was the thesis behind it.