In the Envelope: The Actor’s Podcast features in-depth conversations with today’s most noteworthy actors and creators. Join host and senior editor Vinnie Mancuso for this guide to living the creative life from those who are doing it every day.
“Blue Moon” is a story about (among many other things that artists will find relatable) what happens when you push a longtime creative partnership to its limits. So it’s just a bit ironic that it’s also a film built on a longtime creative partnership, reuniting Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater for the ninth time, an actor-director relationship that stretches back to 1995’s “Before Sunrise.”
In “Blue Moon” (out in limited theaters Oct. 17 and nationwide Oct. 24), Hawke plays legendary lyricist Lorenz Hart, waxing poetic to the patrons at Sardi’s restaurant on the night his musical other half, composer Richard Rodgers (Andrew Scott), hits it big on Broadway with “Oklahoma!”—which Rodgers wrote with a different lyricist, Oscar Hammerstein II (Simon Delaney). “It’s much harder to find a friend than it is to find a job,” Hawke tells us, discussing what it takes to keep an artistic bond going across decades. “When people put too much of an agenda on their friendships, they can stifle them.
“[It’s about] making sure you don’t get edgy when [Linklater] wants to cast, say, Billy Crudup instead of you,” he continues. “And understand that that’d be good for him, and if you care about him, you should care about that.”
In thinking about Rodgers and Hart—who, like Hawke and Linklater, started working together in the early part of their career—the actor couldn’t help but bring up a third iconic example. “It’s hard not to think about John Lennon and Paul McCartney; those guys were turning 30, and they decided to break up,” Hawke says. “What they didn’t realize is, they just need to give each other more space. The intensity of youthful friendships is going to be unsustainable, but a lower burn can burn for a long time.”
On this episode of In the Envelope: The Actor’s Podcast, Hawke goes deep on his entire career, looking back at the arc from “Dead Poets Society” to “Blue Moon” and the endless amounts of acting wisdom he’s picked up along the way. Listen and subscribe to hear the full conversation:
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