Ethan Hawke is one of the most talented actors in the film industry. Throughout his lengthy, versatile career, he has established himself as an extremely skilled actor. The diversity in his characters is prominent in a way that has made fans love him as much as they do, starring in all types of roles, wearing all types of faces, and doing it exceptionally well.
For these skills, he has even been nominated for an Oscar four times in his career. Being as successful as he is, there is no doubt that he has worked with some of the most well-respected directors in the film industry.
When it comes to directing a movie, pretty much anyone from Hollywood can do it if they want to. Two of the most common people to become directors, however, are actors and cinematographers. It would seem that Hawke shows favoritism towards one of these categories and doesn’t have very positive feelings about the other.
Ethan Hawke Thinks That Actors Make Better Directors
Ethan Hawke gave a talk about films at the Lincoln Centre, where he was asked questions about making movies, touching on everything about making a movie, from start to finish. Here, he talked about a very specific thing that he was extremely passionate about; the directors he has worked with, and which ones he thinks are the best. Having worked in his fair share of movies, he has learned to favor a very specific kind of director, like Clint Eastwood, Woody Allen, and Robert Redford.
“can I say one thing that drives me crazy? Every film school that you go to, they always teach cinematography. And they say this, ‘it’s a visual medium’. It is a visual medium. But if you think about the history of cinema, and how many great film directors were cinematographers, not very many, actually. If you think about, in the history of cinema, how many great filmmakers are actors. It’s a lot.”
“Woody Allen, Orson Welles, Spike Lee, Warren Beatty, Robert Redford, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton. Understanding acting and directing are the same. They’re an interpretive art. They’re about taking great writing and sharing it.”
The actor revealed that he has a firm belief that people who have learned what it’s like to act or acted at some point in their career, are more likely to be better directors. He used some examples, talking about how he does not like that film schools do not teach acting and have a very big emphasis on cinematography. He then went on to say something that can be considered extremely controversial in Hollywood.
Ethan Hawke Has Had Bad Experiences With Cinematographers
Ethan Hawke then went on to say that he does not think that cinematographers are as good of directors as actors are. He believes cinematographers lack an understanding when it comes to acting and directing the actors that are starring in their movies. He believes that cinematography is two-dimensional and much easier compared to acting as a profession.
He said:
“It bothers me that film school don’t teach acting. That’s what bothers me. They love cinematography, and I think cinematography is super easy to understand. It’s two-dimensional. You can sit back behind the monitor. You don’t have to get messy, you don’t have to get in a fight with anybody.”
“I walk on the set, all the time and a lot of directors, they have this attitude like, ‘Is he gonna f*ck up my shot list? So I thought character would be over here’ and I might say, ‘Why’?, and they go ‘Oh my god!’. I’m just asking why.”
This makes them lack an understanding of how the translation of stories works on screen with those who are in front of the camera, only having the perspective of being behind the camera. Using an example, he stated that oftentimes, when he is working with directors who are also cinematographers, he finds it very difficult to get direction from them.
Hawke stated that they often have a sense of arrogance and do not want to explain their intentions to the actors, which makes their vision get lost in translation.
