Ethan Hawke says he spent 10 years waiting for a 'great' movie-making experience

LOS ANGELES — Hollywood actor Ethan Hawke has shared that he had to spend 10 years in search of a "great" movie-making experience after ‘Dead Poets Society’.

The 55-year-old actor got his Hollywood breakthrough in the coming-of-age film, which also starred the late Robin Williams and Robert Sean Leonard.

Ethan praised director Peter Weir for the on-set environment, but admitted it left him with an impression of what "making a movie was like" before he eventually realised it had been a rare way of working.

The actor moderated a book talk for Kyle MacLachlan's memoir ‘Fictional Selves’ in New York City. He told the Twin Peaks star, “And that for me was the hard part of growing up, which I feel for you when I read (Fictional Selves). What happens is when you have these beautiful experiences. I had great experience with Peter Weir, and then I went 10 years without having a great experience”.

He further mentioned, “I thought Dead Poets Society is what making a movie was like. It’s not what it’s like. A lot of people are really cold and crass and mean and they really want to sell something and they want to manipulate you and they don’t respect actors”.

The topic surfaced when the Lowdown co-stars were discussing their long-running relationships with Richard Linklater, with whom Ethan has made 9 movies and is currently working with on his 10th, and David Lynch.

Kyle sai that David Lynch had been hugely influential on why he enjoys his work so much. He said, “I love what I do. I love coming to set. And I get this from David too, because the sense of joy and creative freedom and excitement was always present on David’s set. Even when (Dennis Hopper) and (Isabella Rossellini) were doing some of that very heavy stuff [on Blue Velvet], there was still this sense of joy and creativity that was there. And I just tried to embrace that and do that. I'm in my creative, happy place when that’s happening on set”.

Ethan shared that he and Kyle are "extremely lucky" because it is rare to find such a long and fruitful collaborative relationship in Hollywood.

He said, “But we’re extremely lucky for many reasons, but one is: young actors dream of having a creative relationship with a filmmaker. I got to have that with Richard Linklater. You got to have that with David Lynch”.