'That’s what Paul Newman would do': Ethan Hawke REVEALS why he did Marvel's 'Moon Knight'
Ethan Hawke made his Marvel debut in 2022 with 'Moon Knight'. Recalling the villainous role of Arthur Harrow in the show, Hawke shared in a new interview what led him to take this role. He said it was a 'family chat at the dinner table' and he was in a bit of a quandary about whether to take the role or not. His daughter Indiana, who was then 10, said, "Well, Dad, what would Paul do?” "And the whole table, Maya and Levon were there. We all had this talk: Well, what would he do?” recollected Hawke.
Talking to Insider over a Zoom chat on July 18, 51-year-old Hawke revealed that he was reluctant to feature in ‘Moon Knight.’ However, after a discussion with his family, he went ahead with the role. “I remember I was sitting at my dinner table and I had just been offered ‘Moon Knight’ and I was trying to decide whether to do that or not. And my youngest, Indiana, who was 10 at the time, said, ‘Well, Dad, what would Paul do?',” he said. Hawke said that it was a reasonable question by his daughter, who overheard him and his wife, Ryan Shawhughes, talk obsessively about the 'Hustle' star. Shawhughes is a producer on the docuseries, ‘The Last Movie Stars,’ a six-part documentary that Hawke directed about the life and careers of Paul Newman and his wife Joanne Woodward.
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'I’m glad I did'
While Newman, who died in 2008, never starred in superhero films, Hawke says that a few of his later roles would have embraced today’s franchise-driven entertainment landscape, as per IndieWire. “Do I think he admired blockbusters and superhero movies? No, I don’t. He hated doing ‘Towering Inferno.’ That was his idea of a giant sellout. You see him in physical pain in that movie," said the actor pointing out the movie that got Newman a best picture Oscar nomination and was the highest-grossing movie of 1974. Hawke said he made the decision to appear in 'Moon Knight' for financial reasons, something that he thinks Newman would have also done to support his family. It’s still a job. You still have to put food on the table. That is how I pay my kids’ medical bills, that’s how I put a roof over our heads. And my job is not to change the world and make it the perfect place. My job is to do good work to the best of my ability. So we all decided, ‘I think you should do it.’ And I’m glad I did,” he said while praising the creative freedom that Marvel gave him as an actor.
'The Last Movie Stars'
The docuseries consists of six episodes, each one running roughly an hour. According to 'The New Yorker,' it comprises three main elements: clips from the actors’ films, archival footage, and Zoom appearances by Hawke and his actor friends. It reflects the life of Newman and Woodward, who were famous on live TV dramas of the fifties. While Woodward got her famous through ‘The Three Faces of Eve’ in 1957, for which she won an Oscar for ‘Best Actress,’ Newman was popular in the late 1950s and 60s, who appeared in films like ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,’ ‘Cool Hand Luke,’ ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,’ among others. 'The Last Movie Stars' premiered on July 21 on HBO Max.