Ethan Hawke and Winona Ryder's Reunion at the Gotham Awards Makes Us Nostalgic for the ’90s
Winona Ryder and Ethan Hawke reunited Monday at the Gotham Awards — 22 years after they co-starred together in Reality Bites — and suddenly we feel the urge to cue up “My Sharona” and dance.
The stars served us a healthy dose of ’90s nostalgia at the New York City awards show honoring indie filmmaking. Hawke, 46, received a special award for his career, a Gotham Tribute, and 45-year-old Ryder, his co-star back in 1994, was on hand to present it at the star-studded Cipriani Wall Street bash. According to Deadline, Ryder was “emotional” during her tribute to Hawke and it included a friendly congratulatory kiss.
It was not a Lelaina and Troy kiss, but c’est la vie. (He’s been married to his wife, Ryan, since 2008 anyway.)
The audience at the awards show enjoyed the ’90s reunion as much as we did. Jessica Jones star Krysten Ritter posted a (grainy) photo of the pair, writing, “Dear young Krysten, when you grow up you will be in the same room as Winona Ryder and Ethan Hawke. Bye,” along with a few crying emojis.
Ryder and Hawke have maintained a sweet friendship over the years. Over the weekend, she attended a screening of his film Born to Be Blue and praised his work, telling Variety that he is “unparalleled in his vulnerability and intimacy as an actor.” In 2004, she stepped out to support him in Before Sunset — the Before Sunrise sequel.
Ethan talked about how Ryder gave him his break in Reality Bites during a 2014 interview on IMDb: What to Watch. While he had already appeared in Dead Poets Society four years earlier, filmmakers weren’t eager to take a chance on him.
“At the time, Winona was as hot as — she was Beyoncé,” he said. “She was working with Scorsese. Everything she did was a huge hit and critically acclaimed.”
He continued, “At that moment, I was feeling a little passé. It happens in an actor’s life — you constantly are going out of fashion. I was the kid in Dead Poets Society that didn’t really pan out. I was the kid from Explorers that didn’t really pan out… But Winona liked me. So she fought to get me this job in this movie that was really interesting. It was the whole Gen X thing. Slacker was just coming out. Doug Coupland’s book. Nirvana. My whole generation was kind of finding itself.”
The trailer:
Outside the film, Ryder and Hawke were big ’90s fixtures. With her Mia Farrow cut and string of interesting romances, she was a paparazzi favorite. (That year, her boyfriend was Dave Pirner, the Soul Asylum singer with the crazy hair.) Hawke’s star continued to rise after the film — and his personal life also became very interesting to the public, especially his high-profile romance with first wife Uma Thurman, which started a few years later on the set of Gattaca.
Oh, the ’90s. Weren’t they somethin’?
