Ethan Hawke tells Jimmy Fallon his wife urged him to play John Brown in 'The Good Lord Bird'
Oscar-winning actor Ethan Hawke made an appearance on 'The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon' on Tuesday night.
The at-home episode began with Hawke and Fallon discussing the 8th week of quarantine and the former worrying about the challenges that he and other parents are up for, with summer holidays around the corner. On one of Fallon's shows, Hawke had seen the host's VW camper van after which he scoured the internet to buy one for himself. He revealed plans of wanting to spend the whole summer driving a VW camper van with his wife, kids, and dogs.
He asked if the van still works and Fallon decided to give a virtual tour of the van to the actor. Hawke joked that he's "exploding with envy" but the "bad feelings in his chest" are quelled by the fact that Fallon works really hard.
Later in the episode, he shared a funny experience featuring his 12-year-old daughter, Clementine. "I was hiking with my daughter, we were out in the woods. It was a really beautiful moment, the sun was just right, it had just stopped raining and there was a pond," he said describing the locale. He was grateful to share this beautiful moment with his daughter and went ahead to tell her how much he loves her, to which she responded saying, "You know dad sometimes not everything needs to be said."
His son Levon Roan Thurman-Hawke is graduating this year and the proud father had words of praise for every student graduating college or high school this year that has proved to be tough.
"I have this bet, that when people tell you in the future that they graduated in 2020 whether its college or high school, this generation is not going to take anything for granted be it dancing or sporting events. When they are going to see Young Rippa solo in concert, they are going to know its magic. I think they will take their voting rights seriously and will understand the context as a community and do something remarkable."
Speaking about how his Showtime 'The Good Lord Bird' came into being, he revealed that he and his wife Ryan fell in love with the book that the show is based on. Written by James McBride, it won the National Book award a few years ago and managed to tell the story of John Brown and the abolitionist movement in a funny way, stated Hawke.
"So my wife was like, 'You have to play John Brown'. So we met the author of the book and for the last two years, I have been trying to put this show together. It's huge, it has seven parts, it's hysterically weird and funny and I have a feeling, I hope it means something to people."
Towards the end of the interview, Fallon's daughters Frances and Winnie walked in to say hello to their father and giggled at Hawke who described it as "one of the best moments I've ever had on television".