Ethan Hawke on Ewan McGregor: 'Your first instinct, even if they're good, is to be jealous'
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Ethan Hawke and Ewan McGregor play half-brothers in Rodrigo García's Raymond & Ray (out today), and Hawke, fittingly, felt a bit of sibling rivalry while prepping for the role. "It is true that Ewan was cast first, which always hurt my feelings a little bit — why go to Ewan and ask if I was okay. Why not go to me and ask if Ewan's okay?" joked Hawke at the PEOPLE and EW video studio at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. "People of your own generation, your first instinct, even if they're good, is to just be jealous and discount them. [But then] you actually decide, No, I'm not going to waste any time being jealous, this person is just flat-out great at what they do."
McGregor, who first met Hawke through their mutual friend Jude Law in the mid '90s, was excited to collaborate with his longtime peer: "I always assumed I would work with Ethan, I always hoped I would."
The film follows McGregor and Hawke's characters (their father named them Raymond and Ray, respectively, as a twisted joke) as they reunite to travel to their estranged dad's funeral. Along the way they meet people who knew a very different kind of man than the abusive patriarch they remember. Hawke sat down with EW last week to talk about fatherhood, why acting is like music, and what Reality Bites' Troy Dyer would think about his career trajectory.
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ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How is it that you and Ewan have not worked together yet? I feel like you've been in each other's orbit for a while.
ETHAN HAWKE: Funnily enough, we were attached to being in an Andrew Niccol film together. I want to say it was like 2000, 2001 or something. And I don't remember what happened. The financing never came through or something like that. But it was a great script by the same guy who wrote Gattaca. We'd been on each other's radar for a long time. I remember when [Ewan] drove the motorcycles around the world, when he arrived back in New York, he had a big party and I saw him there. I've seen him throughout the years many times and hung out, and I always thought we'd do a play together or do something together, but I guess we were just waiting for this.
What was it about this character that drew you in?
I was craving to do something simple and human. In the last few years, I've been playing different kinds of characters, whether it's Black Phone or The Northman, a Viking king or the bad guy in the Marvel thing, or even John Brown in Good Lord Bird, bigger-than-life characters. And I wanted to do something simple and human. And it is true that streaming is changing the dynamics at work in our industry where this is the kind of movie that we made back in the 90's, just a simple story of a couple brothers, family dynamics. There was something simple about it that, as an audience member, I find really appealing. So I just wanted to make something like this, where the movie relies on intimacy and human behavior. As an actor, you're always drawn to those kinds of materials.
Speaking of those movies in the 90's, you reminded me of Reality Bites back in the day. What would your character Troy Dyer think of your career arc?
I wonder. It's funny. Oftentimes I thought, because [Raymond & Ray director] Rodrigo [García] was the camera operator on Reality Bites, there was an aspect of Ray that reminded me of a little bit of 'Troy looks at 50.' It was a similar kind of character. What Troy would think of my career, I don't know. He didn't seem to be very impressed with anybody or anything.
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Ray definitely does seem like Troy at 50 in some ways. What kind of direction did you get from Rodrigo? Did you base him on anybody?
Well, what's wonderful is when you get a script that's extremely well-conceived, when the characters are all three-dimensional, it becomes a lot easier. In the DNA of this project, all the characters have a lot of eccentricity that allows you to sink deeply into them. You don't have to fabricate a lot of it. I just related to the guy. I think that's why I wanted to play it — his worldview is one that's easily accessible to me, whereas playing a cult leader in Marvel or a Viking king, some of that stuff's harder on your imagination. You have to really think a lot about it. Whereas this guy just felt like I knew him.
One of the throughlines in the movie is the brothers' complicated relationship with their father, who was often absent and, like you said, you could relate. Did you bring any of your own relationship with your father into playing this character?
Well, I don't think our experiences as human beings are extraordinarily unique. A lot of the things that we feel most deeply we have in common with each other. The specifics are not like my family at all. But on some base level, that's what acting is, just to imagine that you are in this situation and you bring your own experiences with life to try to help it. But really the play is the thing. I mean, I can come up with whatever whimsy I want to in my brain, but it doesn't help tell the story if the story's not well-written. And so I think this rumination on fatherhood and death and what brotherhood means are very alive for Rodrigo. He's thinking about them a lot. And I do as well. I think the appeal of a movie like this is that all of us are working out our own family dynamics throughout our life, trying to understand our past, how it connects to the present, how it shapes the future. And so it's all interesting.
I just saw August Wilson's play, The Piano Lesson, last night and it's a beautiful play, about family and history and how we as individuals are a part of a much bigger river of our community. It's a kind of storytelling — family dynamics and just the exploration of these real intimate relationships that we all have. I find it endlessly interesting.
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It's endlessly fascinating no matter what your family dynamic is. I have half-siblings, it's complicated, and there also is a real love there and a real connection because of your family. What did you and Ewan talk about in terms of getting that relationship right and making it feel authentic?
Well, the joy of working with Ewan is that he's always authentic. I mean, it's part of who he is and what makes him a good actor. He's an extremely honest person and extremely funny and he's a good leader. The easiest analogy about acting is it's so much like being a part of a sports team. There's similar dynamics as far as team building and working well with others. And are you the type of actor or player that wants your teammates to succeed or are you the kind that wants to create room for yourself?
It's like a piece of music. It's like: When is it your turn to solo and when is it your turn to harmonize or do background vocals? There's a place and time in any band. He's so good at it and he's so experienced. And I think for the two of us, we both started young and we've had similar career trajectories and we both have a shared love of all kinds of movies. He's been in all different kinds of films throughout his career, and so have I. So we have a similar aesthetic. It made it extremely easy.
Is there a particular role of Ewan's that's your favorite?
One of my favorites is Big Fish. I always thought he was incredible in that movie. And I mean, his consistency is extremely impressive. I mean, you can talk about Trainspotting or Moulin Rouge or Big Fish or Obi-Wan. I can't imagine the pressure he must have felt in trying to play Obi-Wan Kenobi after Alec Guinness and with the whole world watching. And the grace and ease and poise he has through all those performances. But if I had to pick, I'd say Big Fish.
On that note, what do you think Mark Renton, Ewan's character in Trainspotting, would think of his career trajectory?
It would be fun to put his Trainspotting character and my Reality Bites character together. And they would probably take the piss out of both of us.
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