Ethan Hawke has revealed that his latest collaboration, Blue Moon, with director Richard Linklater has been in the works for over 10 years.
Starring Hawke as Broadway lyricist Lorenz Hart, Blue Moon follows him as he confronts his shattered self-confidence while his former collaborator, Richard Rodgers — one-half of the legendary duo Rodgers and Hammerstein — celebrates the opening night of his groundbreaking hit musical Oklahoma!.
The musical drama, which also stars Margaret Qualley, Andrew Scott and Bobby Cannavale, marks Hawke’s ninth movie with Linklater.
While in conversation with Sydney Sweeney for Thursday’s Variety & CNN Actors on Actors interview, Hawke reflected on the beginning of his decades-long friendship with Linklater.
“When I was 23 or 24 years old, I auditioned for Richard Linklater and got cast in this movie Before Sunrise, and started a friendship that’s over 30 years on now,” said the Oscar-nominated actor, 55. “He gave me the [Blue Moon] script over 10 years ago. I was like, ‘We gotta make this movie.’ And he said, ‘Yeah, we’re gonna make it, but not yet.’”
Confused, Hawke recalled insisting that “we make it now,” but was told by Linklater, “No. You’re not ready. Let’s just keep dreaming about it.”
“So we’d do a reading and talk about it about every 18 months for almost 10 years,” the actor revealed. “Finally, we did a reading at my kitchen table, and everybody left, and I looked at Rick. And he was like, ‘We’re ready.’”
After they got the money together, indicating it was go time, Hawke said that’s when “the fear came.”
“I was like, ‘Wait a second. This is so much verbiage. I need more time,’” Hawke recalled. “[Linklater] said, ‘We don’t have more time. You gotta work.’”
Earlier this week, Hawke received a Golden Globe nomination for his earnest portrayal of Hart. The film also received a nod for Best Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy.
“Larry is the smallest person in the room and the biggest person in the room,” Hawke told Sweeney of his character. “He’s gay and he’s in love with a woman. He’s eroding from the inside with jealousy — and warm and empathetic.”
Released in October, Blue Moon has become a critical success. “Linklater skillfully evokes the Broadway milieu of the 1940s in all its brittle wit and elegance,” The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey praised in a three-star review. “The film has plenty of clever dialogue, too, with sharp jokes about everything from Frank Sinatra to Stuart Little.”
However, she argued that the movie’s issue is “that the longer we spend in the bar with Hart, the more claustrophobic and dispiriting the storytelling becomes.”
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