Ethan Hawke, Margaret Qualley in Richard Linklater’s ‘Blue Moon’
Richard Linklater’s “Blue Moon” follows lyricist Lorenz Hart (Ethan Hawke) on the opening night of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1943 musical “Oklahoma!”
Ethan Hawke is looking back on working with his captain Robin Williams.
During an appearance on “CBS Sunday Morning” that aired Dec. 7., the “Blue Moon” star, 55, reflected on starring opposite Williams in the classic 1989 film “Dead Poets Society.”
“Even at 18, I was aware of the complexity of his emotional life,” Hawke said. “I’ve had a lot of depression in my family, and it was obvious to me that all that power and that charisma came at a certain cost. He was a deeply, deeply sensitive person, who was highly attuned to the energy of a room.”
Hawke went on to recall an instance where he saw Williams, after making everyone laugh on set, going off and “hiding in the dark by himself.”
“I [thought], ‘Oh, OK. That makes a lot more sense to me now, actually,’ Hawke said. “It was a lot. It was taxing. There’s a lot of stories about clowns and the happiness that they give, and at what cost.”
But when asked if he’s able to still watch “Dead Poets Society” today in light of Williams’ 2014 death, Hawke said this doesn’t “fundamentally change the way I watch the movie,” adding, “The end of his life does not define his life to me. When I watch the movie, I think of the spirit of the man that I knew on those days, and how powerful it was, and how much he weathered that storm of his own psyche for us and for other people. I admire him tremendously.”
Williams starred as inspirational English teacher John Keating in “Dead Poets Society,” which earned him an Oscar nomination for best actor. Hawke, in one of his earliest roles, played high school student Todd Anderson.
Williams died by suicide in 2014. He was 63. After his death, it was determined that the comedian had Lewy body dementia. According to the Mayo Clinic, this “second most common type of dementia after Alzheimer’s disease” causes a “decline in mental abilities that gradually gets worse over time.”
Hawke, who received a Golden Globe nomination on Dec. 8 for his performance as Lorenz Hart in “Blue Moon,” also told “CBS Sunday Morning” that he was initially skeptical that “Dead Poets Society” was a success after he was humbled by the failure of his first movie, “Explorers.”
“I just kept saying, ‘We’ll see. We’ll see. I don’t know. I don’t know,'” he said. “And then slowly it dawned on me, I guess this kind of is a success.”
If you or someone you know is in crisis, contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988 or visiting 988lifeline.org.
