ANDthan Hawke is an actor, writer and director, star of the films Dead Poets society, Training Day and Childhood. He was nominated for an Oscar for his performance and his writings in Before sunset and Before midnight. Hawke describes theater as his first love and appeared in several plays by Sam Shepard, as well as productions of works by Shakespeare, Chekhov and his own second cousin, Tennessee Williams.
Hawke’s first novel, The hottest state, was published in 1996. Its second, Ash Wednesday, was launched in 2002. Now, with A Bright Ray of Darkness, Hawke brings us a novel structured around a staging of Henry IV, Part 1. The book’s narrator, William Harding, is an alcoholic film star who seeks to overcome a period of personal turmoil by launching himself into the role of Henry Percy.
Hawke lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two daughters. He has two older children from a previous marriage.
Have you ever thought about what your life might have been like if you had fully committed to the books?
One of the weird things about turning 50 is that you feel like the path has been opened. There is a lot of road behind you. To my surprise, here I am, aged 50, as a very young novelist. I am a very old actor – I know all the tricks. My life as a writer is touching the foundation of a much younger self. When I was younger, I was really passionate about writing. What’s nice about writing is that it’s something you can be in charge of. When I’m acting, I can be on a movie set with Paweł Pawlikowski or in a rehearsal room with Sam Shepard. Now, this is gratifying. But the rest – auditions, the hyperbole of celebrity – all of this is a bore and leads most people to a very frivolous life. My goal was never to be Tom Cruise.
This book seems to play with the division between the narrator’s life and yours. Was that intentional?
When I wrote Ash Wednesday it was my attempt to prove that I was not an amateur. I was shocked by the reaction to the book. Critics were always trying to break the scaffold I put in and asked “Where’s the actor here?” At the time, I met a German publisher during my book tour who told me: “If you want to write a serious novel, you have to start acting, not run away from it. At the moment you are just a famous person who writes. You are not a famous writer. To do this, you have to face the demon that stands in your way. “So I took the plane back from Germany and the idea came to me in a flash. But then 20 years went by. If my acting career hadn’t been as rewarding as it ended up, I would have come to that much sooner.
It is a book in which sex is described regularly and frankly. [The protagonist has a relationship with a much younger woman.] Did you find this difficult in the current environment?
Our sexual identity and the relationship we have through it, with ourselves and with others, are decisive in our lives. And in the light of the culture of cancellation and shame – although much of this moment is very useful – it is a difficult moment to say: “I want to be open about the idiosyncrasies of human sexuality”. What is that great Mark Twain line? “The goal of art is to alleviate shame.” We are in this period when you cannot even write about bad behavior, because it may seem that you are tolerating it. You have to be able to create a character that does things that you wish you hadn’t done. I went and came back about it, because it’s just a petrifying moment to talk about male sexuality. If you can’t light dark corners, the demons that live there will never go away.
How do you react to the negative reviews of your novels?
I can accept bad reviews as a writer, because if critics don’t like it, they actually just don’t like the way my brain works, and I’m fine with that. I know people in restaurants who hate me. And 70 million people voted for Trump. There is no accounting for taste.
Who is your favorite living writer?
I think because we feel at one point in history, Doris Kearns Goodwin comes to mind. I gained a lot of knowledge from your research on the history of American presidents. Her book No normal time about Franklin and Eleanor [Roosevelt] it is extremely inspiring.
How are your books organized?
Very bad. It is a source of many problems for me. When I was younger, I had a bookcase full of books I liked – James Baldwin, Salinger and Mark Twain. I have adult children now, I have a 19 and a 22 who are reading, they steal all my books and I can’t find anything. If I had a magic elf, I would have them rearranged everything in alphabetical order.
How did the block change your reading habits?
My reading habits were destroyed by an acting career and children. If we were best friends, what I would confess to you, one thing that really hurts, is the amount of books I read. And it has decreased in recent years, because I have so many scripts that people want me to read. Whenever I want to open a novel, I am amazed that I have not read the four scripts that my friends sent me. Therefore, the blockade allowed me to do some reading for pleasure.
What book would you give to a 10 year old child?
Randall Jarrell’s The Animal Family. I don’t know if it’s printed anymore. This book surprised me. My kids are different ages, and I read it to my older kids 10 years ago, but the first thing we did when the pandemic happened was everyone sat down, lit a fire and my wife read it to us all. It was so wonderful.
• A Bright Ray of Darkness is published by Cornerstone (£ 16.99). To order a copy, go to guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply
• Night in With Ethan Hawke will be broadcast globally from Southbank Center, London, on February 8; tickets are already on sale