Ethan Hawke spent 10 years waiting for a 'great' movie-making experience

Ethan Hawke said it took him a decade to find a truly “great” movie-making experience. The 55-year-old actor, known for his breakthrough in Dead Poets Society, praised director Peter Weir for the working environment on set, but told Kyle MacLachlan during a book talk for MacLachlan’s memoir Fictional Selves that the film later shaped a mistaken idea of what making movies would always be like. Hawke said he then spent 10 years without similar creative conditions, describing Hollywood as often too “cold,” “crass” and focused on selling rather than respecting actors. The remarks came as Hawke and MacLachlan discussed long-running collaborations, including work with Richard Linklater and David Lynch, who died in January 2025 at 78.