Ethan Hawke is thankful that his daughter’s imagination didn’t get lost in the Upside Down.
The Dead Poets Society alum reflected on the moment he knew Maya Hawke, whom he shares with ex-wife Uma Thurman, was destined to have a career in the arts.
“I knew when she was about 4 that she was gonna be an artist. And I knew that she was gonna be a very good one,” Ethan, 55, told Sydney Sweeney in their Variety’s Actors on Actors conversation on Dec. 11. “That was her safe place—watercoloring, dancing, and singing all throughout her childhood. There were a lot of things about her childhood that were really, really hard and complicated, and things I regret for her.”
While the Sinister actor didn’t share the hardships Maya, 27, went through growing up, he noticed that she thrived in environments that involved “human communication.”
In fact, Ethan—also dad to son Levon, 23, with Uma, as well as daughters Clementine Jane, 17, and Indiana, 14, with wife Ryan Shawhughes—had a front row seat to the moment she found her artistic voice as a teen.
“I remember some teacher said, ‘Maya, are you happy?’ ‘Cause they were worried about her,” he recalled. “And she said something to the effect of, ‘Do you really think that’s the question?’ I thought, ‘I love this kid.’ She was about 13.”
He continued, “[Maya said], ‘I don’t think that’s a very interesting question. I think there’s a lot more interesting questions than whether I’m happy or not. Am I happy? No. But I don’t aspire to be happy.’ So I never worried about her going into the arts, because I knew that was gonna save her life.”
Indeed, that brooding confidence led the Stranger Things star to wear many hats in her career so far. (After all, she’s also a painter and folk-pop singer.) And while she’s always had a soft spot for acting, she admitted her dad’s skills inspired her more than she realized.
“I get asked all the time what movies made me become an actress,” she explained to Autre in October. “But really, the three things that made me want to be an actress were my dad doing The Winter’s Tale with Rebecca Hall, [and Lily Rabe] in The Merchant of Venice and As You Like It. Those three shows made me realize: that’s the kind of woman I want to become, with that kind of strength and grace.”
Keep reading to see more stars bonding with their kids—both personally and professionally…
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