It's no surprise that the daughter of Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman turned out to be a star,
but her Hollywood future wasn't predetermined.
Although she broke out big time with her role on Stranger Things, she's still charting her
own unique Tinseltown path with features like Ladyworld.
This is the untold truth of Maya Hawke.
Hawke's famous parents, Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman, met on the set of the 1997 sci-fi
flick Gattaca, and welcomed their daughter the following year, along with a son in 2002.
The couple divorced in 2005.
Maya, who now also has three younger half-sisters, told Vogue that the older she gets, the more
important her family has become.
"The more independence that I get and the more freedom that I have, the more interested
I am in being a dedicated and involved family member.
My family is really supportive.
We fight and we talk and we lie and we tell the truth — not usually in that order — and
I really enjoy growing with them and fostering that dynamic."
When your parents are Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman, people automatically assume that
you're also going to become an actor, but their first-born was initially hesitant to
follow in their footsteps.
Maya Hawke told WWD,
"I resisted it a little bit because it was the family business, until I realized that
it made me the most happy and that it was what I was the best at.
[...] I didn't like studying for my SAT, didn't like writing essays, but I felt so alive and
capable in the theater at my school, and how do you say no to that?"
Both her mom and her dad expressed their joy via their respective Instagram accounts when
she made her debut on Stranger Things, but they were probably just being supportive,
right?
Not according to Maya.
"I know my parents don't B.S. me.
They're pretty rigorous in terms of their commentary when they like something or don't."
She added,
"I went into acting, not...
There was no pressure.
It was that I loved it more than anything else."
In 2019, Hawke followed in her mother's footsteps by appearing in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon
a Time in Hollywood.
Tarantino has famously described Hawke's mother Uma Thurman as his "muse," casting her in
Pulp Fiction as well as Kill Bill volumes 1 and 2.
The family actually relocated to China for six months during the filming of Kill Bill,
and Hawke, who was just four years old at the time, told Elle that she would
"watch my mom get the s--- kicked out of her while I ate gummy bears."
Hawke told Entertainment Weekly that she was thrilled to be able to work with Tarantino
like her mom did.
"I grew up around Quentin and around those movies.
They meant a lot to me and the story of my family and my growing up"
She added,
"It was wonderful to follow in her footsteps, just for a second, in that way, and relate
to her and experience some of what she experienced."
Hawke's first on-screen role was in the 2017 PBS miniseries Little Women, produced by the
BBC.
She played aspiring writer Jo March in the three-part adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's
coming-of-age classic.
Hawke described the experience as "a combination of total familiarity and total alienation"
in a 2019 interview with WWD.
"I'm so used to being on set, but the idea that I would be the one getting into costume
was … I was like, 'Me?
Okay.
I guess so.
Sure.'"
Critics loved the show, but more importantly, so did Maya's dad, Ethan Hawke.
He told People,
"It's one of the most amazing moments of my life watching her in Little Women.
She didn't do a good job, she did a great job.
To see your child thrive, and to see her thrive at a profession that you have a lot of respect
for, that I've dedicated my life to, I was so proud of her."
The four-time Oscar nominee was equally enamored with his daughter's performance in Stranger
Things season 3, telling Radio.com
"She's the real thing" "I know her, and I believe in her."
One reason Maya Hawke was so thrilled to make her acting debut in Little Women is the very
personal connection she forged with the book as a child.
In an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald, she revealed that as a child, she struggled
with dyslexia — and it was the courage of her Little Women character Jo March that helped
her get through school.
"Jo was a literary heroine of mine, especially when I was struggling with my dyslexia growing
up.
Her ambition, courage and drive to overcome her obstacles really inspired me.
And I always related to her clumsiness, her curiosity, her stubbornness, her always putting
her foot in her mouth.
When I heard the BBC was making Little Women, I rushed to audition."
Coincidentally, her Stranger Things co-star Winona Ryder also played Jo March in the 1994
feature film adaptation.
Hawke told Vulture,
"I did get to speak to her about it at the cast dinner beginning Stranger Things.
We just talked about what a wonderful honor it is to get to embody a person like that."
Hawke told Vogue that her dyslexia made school difficult.
"When you're growing up with a learning disability, it shoots your confidence and belief in what
you can accomplish academically."
Eventually, though, she landed a coveted spot at the world famous Juilliard School.
She told Vulture,
"I learned more in one year at that school than almost the rest of my life put together."
Unfortunately, though, Hawke was forced to choose between her dream school and her dream
role as Jo in Little Women, as the shooting schedule for the mini-series overlapped with
the school year.
She told The Sydney Morning Herald that she ended up dropping out.
"Juilliard has a zero-tolerance policy for absences due to work.
I only would have missed five days, and I wrote them a really nice letter asking them
please to take me back, but I was ready to accept the repercussions of my choice."
Hawke's Stranger Things character Robin Buckley was a new fan favorite, but the version that
appeared on screen wasn't the way the character was written.
Hawke told WWD that showrunners Matt and Ross Duffer tweaked the character to better fit
Hawke's unique personality.
"I'm a super joyful, exuberant person, especially on set.
I bring a lot of energy, maybe from nerves or something, but they kind of tapped into
that and then started to write the character more along those lines."
Interestingly, Robin's biggest character moment wasn't originally a sure thing.
Hawke told Variety that the decision to have Robin come out as LGBTQ happened pretty late
in the process.
"It wasn't until episode… until we were shooting episode 4 and 5 I think that we made
the final decision."
She added,
"It was kind of a collaborative conversation, and I'm really, really happy with the way
that it went."
Before Hawke's Stranger Things character Robin came out, some fans were shipping Robin and
co-star Joe Keery's character Steve Harrington pretty hard.
So once she came out, many of those fans simply switched gears and began shipping the actors
instead.
Well, sorry to burst your bubble, but Hawke and Keery are not actually dating.
According to Seventeen, Keery has been dating actress Maika Monroe since 2018.
And Hawke?
Well, she hasn't officially confirmed it, but based on their Instagram feeds, Hawke
seems to be dating Gus Wenner, son of Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner.
Coming into an established show as a new character is never easy, as Maya Hawke discovered when
she arrived on the set of Stranger Things.
She told WWD,
"It was hard to find my footing.
But everyone who works on the show loves the show, everyone is really devoted to it, and
so it was probably only me that made it hard, just psychologically."
Luckily, Hawke's character Robin was part of a "new family" for Season 3: the Scoops
Troop, which also featured characters Steve, Dustin, and Erica.
Hawke told Collider,
"I think that I came in really excited to join and to play and to become a part of it,
and I was lucky because the group of people that I came into … like, Dustin and Steve
and Erica, have not spent that much time together."
Acting is the biggest love in her life, but Maya Hawke also likes to write music.
The Stranger Things star put out her first songs in 2019, bringing her brand of folksy
jazz to the world.
She told WWD,
"I'm more nervous about it than any other part of my life.
I'm not trying to say I'm an awesome musician or anything like that — I'm not.
But I love music and I love lyrics and songwriting.
… People aren't that interested in poetry these days, but lyrics are a way to present
poetry to the world where they know how to take it in and how to absorb it."
Maya Hawke always looks well put together, but when it comes to fashion, she isn't your
typical rich girl.
When The Sydney Morning Herald asked which designers she was wearing during the interview,
she refused to say.
Instead, she said,
"This isn't how I normally dress.
I'm going to a birthday party, so I'm kind of dressed up.
These are my mum's clothes — I stole them.
And I don't want to be written about as this girl who's wearing this ridiculously expensive
outfit."
She told the Australian outlet that she usually opts for a stripy t-shirt and double denim,
a style she described as, quote, "an attempt at a contemporary Annie Hall."
Like most women her age, Hawke does care about how she looks, but
"...in a way that is about comfort and practicality.
I always want to look like me."
While she takes inspiration from Diane Keaton's Annie Hall, Hawke told Vogue in 2017 that
she also has a real-life style icon — her Little Women co-star, Angela Lansbury.
"She is 92 years old and full of energy, and she is beautiful.
Her face is still her face.
She dresses awesome, and she has been working as an actress forever — ever since she was
doing vaudeville with her mum."
Back in 2017, Hawke told The Sydney Morning Herald that unlike most of her peers, she
wasn't really that into social media.
"I'm not particularly interested in my phone.
I'm interested in human contact.
I think phones have created a certain social incapacity; it's made people socially deficient.
And if it's fun to spend time alone, then there's not the incentive to go out and meet
people and make yourself vulnerable."
Her Instagram account was private at the time, but she later went public — and blew up
in a big way thanks to her casting in Stranger Things.
She told Vulture,
"I wasn't aware of how insanely popular [the show] was.
It got announced and I got, like, 40,000 Instagram followers in, like, 30 seconds.
I didn't expect that to happen.
I don't think I'll fully understand what kind of impact it will have on my life until after
it comes out."
Well, now she knows: when Season 3 of Stranger Things dropped on July 4, 2019, she experienced
an ever bigger surge — over 2 million people now follow her exploits on Instagram.
Like all of them, we also can't wait to see what Hawke does next.
Check out one of our newest videos right here!
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