Ethan Hawke has admitted there is a “danger” in falling for someone while working on a film. The 54-year-old actor, who met his first wife Uma Thurman during the making of Gattaca in 1997, explained that the “imaginative intimacy” actors experience on set can intensify emotions, even if it bears little relation to everyday life.
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Speaking to GQ Hype, Hawke said: “Have you ever played Spin the Bottle? There’s a certain intimacy to the work that we do. Imaginative intimacy. It’s such a high. It feels dangerous and thrilling. It turns the temperature up in your life. It can be like falling in love at summer camp. It doesn’t have any connection to the dailiness of real life. That’s the danger of it.” He admitted that the attention surrounding his relationship with Thurman was often uncomfortable, describing it as “humiliating, almost humiliating even when they’re saying positive things.”
Hawke also reflected on his career, recalling that he auditioned for the role of Jack Dawson in Titanic, but is relieved in hindsight that he did not get the part. “I don’t think I would have handled that success as well as Leo. He was a f****** Beatle,” he said. Now, he has grown accustomed to the attention fame brings, though he occasionally finds the behaviour of others “rude” – a reaction his wife argues is simply “normal.”
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He explained: “My wife is really funny. We’ll go out to dinner and I’ll go, ‘God, that waiter was rude.’ And she’ll say, ‘They weren’t rude. They [just] didn’t recognise you. They were normal. You’re just used to everybody smiling when they see you or offering you an extra thing or moving you up in line.’ The problem with that kind of attention is that a normal temperature feels cold. When you get tickets to the game and you’re sitting 10 rows back and not the front, you feel like someone f***** you over.”
