Ethan Hawke surprised many fans by taking the role of Moon Knight villain Arthur Harrow. The actor, known for taking his craft seriously, had previously made comments interpreted as derisive of superhero movies, saying they didn’t deserve to be considered great movies on a par with the works of Ingmar Bergman. But his daughter Maya, now one of the stars of Stranger Things, convinced him he needed to do a Marvel project anyway. The elder Hawke revealed this in a conversation with Indiewire:
“Maya would say to me, ‘Why are you sitting on the outside and telling everyone their sandbox is bad? Why don’t you go into their sandbox, play with them, and show them what you have to offer?'” he recalls. “I said to Oscar Isaac, ‘We’ve got to go play in Marvel’s sandbox and try to do what we do. We don’t have to change Marvel. We just want to show them what we’re capable of doing and see if they find it interesting.’ So we had a lot of rehearsals and worked on things a lot. We had a really good experience.”
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He has nothing but praise for Marvel Studios’ boss. “I think Kevin Feige had a great thing happen with Robert Downey Jr.,” says Hawke. “And he understood that Downey’s passion was a large part of the success. When actors are excited by a part, audiences get excited about watching them. Feige understood the algorithm there, so they’re extremely respectful toward the process.” But don’t expect Harrow to return, necessarily. Hawke adds “I’m not interested in long-term commitments. I protected myself because I didn’t know what it was going to be. I just wanted to know what that sandbox was like. And it’s what young people are watching, so why are we going to sit there and tell them it’s not good?”
Still, he stands by his previous thoughts that Marvel is not Bergman. “It needs to be somebody in the community saying, ‘Hey, everybody, this is not Fanny and Alexander.’ If you keep reviewing these movies that are basically made for 14-year-olds like they’re Fanny and Alexander or Winter Light, then who the hell’s going to get to make Winter Light? I appreciate the elder statesmen of the community reminding people not to set the bar too low.”
What do you think of Hawke’s comments, and his performance as Arthur Harrow? Let us know in comments.
Recommended Reading: Moon Knight by Lemire & Smallwood
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