Ethan Hawke recalls hard reality check after filming 'Dead Poets Society'

Ethan Hawke thought making movies would always feel as magical as Dead Poets Society, but reality quickly proved otherwise.

The five-time Oscar nominee looked back on his decades-long career while helping promote his The Lowdown costar Kyle MacLachlan’s new memoir, Fictional Selves, at a book talk on September 28, per People magazine.

Hawke, 55, noted he had a “great experience” on the set of his 1989 breakout film, which also starred Robin Williams, Robert Sean Leonard, and more.

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“I had great experience with [director] Peter Weir, and then I went 10 years without having a great experience,” he admitted. “I thought Dead Poets Society is what making a movie was like. It’s not what it’s like.”

Hawke was only 18 years old when he rose to prominence with Dead Poets Society. Over the next decade, he went on to establish himself as a leading man with films like Reality Bites, Gattaca, and Great Expectations.

During that time, he was given a harsh reality check about what the film industry is really 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,” he reflected.

Thankfully, Hawke was able to have more great set experiences when he first worked with Richard Linklater on 1995’s Before Sunrise. The duo would go on to collaborate on many projects, including Boyhood and Blue Moon.

“The creative space that I know from working with Richard Linklater… is a very safe place,” he said during the book talk. “And you can talk about anything if you’re among friends, right? You can share the darkest thought if you know you’re loved. And that’s what a Linklater set feels like.” 

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