The sincerity of Ethan Hawke isn’t exclusive to his performances. Sitting in a London hotel on a Friday morning, the actor’s outlook matches the weather outside: warm and inviting — perhaps no surprise considering this is an actor whose past credits include – sure, films where he plays characters of intense depth — but primarily affable roles ensconced in reality.

Hawke can add another performance to that list with new film Maudie, a biographical tale centred on artist Maud Lewis played by Sally Hawkins. Hawke plays her husband, Everett — a role he accepted due to his fondness of the shoot’s location of Canadian island, Newfoundland. The film has scored rave reviews since its premiere during last year’s festival season.

Excerpts from a candid interview…

Q Do you think about your films in that context a lot?

Well, you see the power of the zeitgeist and how it moves around. Like, when Gattaca came out (in 1997), the zeitgeist wasn’t interested in that movie. But over ten, fifteen years, it comes up all the time, people always want to talk to me about it. Whereas a film like Boyhood (2014) hits the zeitgeist — it’s somehow what we wanted to be talking about then. The success of a movie is dictated – obviously by the quality – but it’s also an intersection of what people want to be thinking and talking about. Sometimes you’re in the right place at the right time and sometimes you can’t get anybody to sit and listen to you.

Q Gattaca — that film has really endured.

My gauge is what people want to talk to me about. Movies are different than theatre because when you’re in the theatre, you have a direct
relationship with the audience. But I wasn’t there when you watched Gattaca. If you see me in a play, we’re in a room together. But movies that people want to talk to me about — that’s my relationship to the audience.

I had a cop pull me over the other day — this is a strange story – but I did this movie that very few people have seen called Predestination.
It’s about time travel and stuff, and a cop actually pulled me over and was like, “Sorry to bother you, I just had, what happened at the end of that movie?” (laughs). So I’m watching Predestination establish a cult status because the audience has a mysterious relationship with it. It was the most illegally downloaded movie of its year so it’s not exactly box office, but it’s something.

Q You’re very much an audience’s actor — if you’re in a film, people will want to go and see it regardless of whether they even wanted to in the first place.

Oh, that’s nice of you to say. I think that if any human being in any profession, whatever amount of time they spend thinking about their status is directly proportion to what kind of blowhard jerk they are. I think Donald Trump spends a lot of time thinking about his status and it’s exactly why I wouldn’t want to be at a dinner table with him.

Q Which of your many films has stayed with you the longest?

The Before trilogy…Boyhood and the Before trilogy are deeply connected to my soul for lack of a better word. I’ve worked on Jesse, which is the main character from the Before movies, at nine-year intervals. I started working on that character when I was 25 and the last time when I was 41, so it’s been with me and I’ve gotten to put a lot of my own life into those movies. Boyhood is only short a couple of years
— it was 12 years working on that character. So those movies are part of me in a way that other movies are one window. Training Day (2001) was an important moment in my life (Hawke was Oscar-nominated for Best Supporting Actor) but it was just a short little window. I did this movie with Richard Linklater called Tape (2001) that very few people have seen but that, for me personally, was kind of a breakthrough for my creative life, for taking acting to a more grown up level.

Q You’ve worked with several directors on numerous occasion (Andrew Niccol and Antoine Fuqua included) but would you describe your working relationship with Richard Linklater as your most defining?

Well, yeah — I’ve done nine movies with him. I’ve done three with Andrew, I’ve done three with Antoine, I’ve done two with the Spierig brothers. I’ve worked with a bunch of people twice. I’m proud of that, working with people again because being creative together is hard but if it goes well you can get into the next room with each other. For example, I finished Before Sunrise (1995) and I felt ready to start it. You get to a level of intimacy, you get into the deep end of the pool and you’re like, “I wish we started here”.

Well, on Before Sunset I got to; we were already in it. With Antoine and Denzel it’s the same thing — you get to skip the boring five weeks of getting to know you and dive right in. I like that.

Q I interviewed Linklater last year and he mentioned how he views the Before… films to be a Rorschach test for couples

I agree. I did an interview with a guy at the New Yorker about Before Midnight (2013) and he found the movie so depressing. I remember
saying, “Man, that’s something you’ve got to think about.” Because I meet other people that find the movie absolutely uplifting.I explained that to him and he said, “Nobody finds that movie uplifting” — that’s not true; people who are happily married find it uplifting. It stopped him. All three of those movies in their own way are their own Rorschach test about where you are… Before Sunrise ends with them saying, “Let’s meet again in six months.” People who believe in love think they’re definitely going to meet again. People who are deeply cynical or carrying a lot of hurt around with them are like, “That’s over.”

The ending of Before Sunset (2004) is its own zen koan, he’s missing his plane and everything. But Before Midnight is definitely the
hardest of the films because both the other two films deal with romantic projection and the third film deals with romantic reality. I’ve always found it a deeply optimistic film because of how engaged with each they are. People often think that because people are fighting
something bad is happening, and often times, the opposite is true. If I look back at my own life and I see the most hurtful, scratchiest parts, those are the parts where the most growing had happened. At the end of Before Midnight, I have a lot of hope for Jesse and Celine
because at least they’re not living a lie — they’re engaged with each other. It’s a hard relationship, for sure, but I see a lot of love in that
movie.

Q Do you reckon there’ll be another Before film?

I don’t know. I would have said after the second there was definitely going to be a third one but I do feel complete in that the first one starts with the older couple arguing on the train and by the end of the third one we’ve become that couple. If it were to continue it would change shape. It would be something else. Julie, Rick and I might work together again, we might revisit those characters but it’ll need a new burst of energy. I don’t know what it is. We’re not allowed to think about it until five years after – that’s how we’ve done it every time.

Waking Life was five years after Before Sunrise and Before Midnight we met five years after Before Sunset. So we’re gonna meet five years
after the release of Before Midnight, talk about it and see where we wind up.

(The Independent)