Many actors, when they prepare for a role, create backstories for their characters. But how many of them work on forwardstories?

Well, not all actors are Ethan Hawke, who is also a playwright, screenwriter, novelist, songwriter, producer, and director. (Busy guy!) During a recent visit to Entertainment Weekly’s 2025 Toronto International Film Festival studio, where he and director Richard Linklater were on hand to promote their film about lyricist Lorenz Hart, Blue Moon, Hawke found himself thinking about a previous creative character he played — Troy in Reality Bites.

Steve Zahn, Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke, and Janeane Garofalo in ‘Reality Bites’.

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“Some people were approaching [Reality Bites director and costar] Ben [Stiller] about whether or not he’d ever make a sequel,” Hawke said, making it unclear if the “some people” in his story were movie fans or studio big shots who can greenlight a picture.

“I was like, ‘Well, Troy and Lelaina are still married,” he said, about the characters he and Winona Ryder played back in 1994, “but Troy lives in the basement and she lives on the top floor, and he’s recording records with his kids.'”

Troy Dyer, if you recall, was the angst-heavy rocker who spat in the eye of commercialism, leading Ryder’s Lelaina to a tough decision over whether to choose him or Stiller’s more stable (but a little lame) Michael as a partner in love.

Hawke said that ever since the movie came out “people have been debating [who she should end up with] because there’s a certain kind of person that puts a very high priority on somebody who’s gonna make a lot of money. And if you’re that type of person, you think she should be with Ben Stiller.”

Hawke then added with fairness, “And, also Troy is not such a great guy.”

Ethan Hawke on the far right with his colleagues from ‘Reality Bites’ at a reunion screening in New York City in 2019.

Theo Wargo/Getty

Reflecting further — like the philosopher he often portrays in Richard Linklater films — Hawke addressed his cohort in Generation X. “You were young when that movie came out,” he said. “You’re getting to the age now where you see that movie and you think, ‘Wait, is that the right choice?'”

He continued, “If you’d been your age now when that movie came out, you would have had the same thought,” which is either super depressing or plain logical depending on your point of view.

Ethan Hawke at the Toronto premiere of ‘Blue Moon’ in 2025.

Emma McIntyre/Getty

Reality Bites — along with Singles, Chasing Amy, High Fidelity, and a few others (let’s throw in the Hawke-Linklater Before Sunrise) — captured the flashpoint of Gen X about to plunge into adulthood in the 1990s and into the early aughts. It also took a nice dig at MTV’s cultural dominance, lampooning The Real World a little bit. It was a box office hit upon its release, but not a box office phenomenon. Over the years, however, it has remained a steady touchstone for the period.

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If it has been a while since you’ve watched Reality Bites, here’s a scene that distills Hawke’s character Troy: the charismatic but irresponsible artist surely everyone reading has known in their lives, who brings with them a complicated mixture of joy and grief.