{"id":48250,"date":"2025-09-28T12:39:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-28T12:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/48250\/"},"modified":"2025-09-28T12:39:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T12:39:10","slug":"ethan-hawke-recounts-first-meeting-with-robert-redford-during-audition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/48250\/","title":{"rendered":"Ethan Hawke Recounts First Meeting With Robert Redford During Audition"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tBefore Ethan Hawke<\/a> was the four-time Oscar-nominated performer and writer he is today, as a young up-and-comer The Lowdown star crossed paths with Robert Redford<\/a> during an audition for his 1992 period drama A River Runs Through It<\/a>. Sharing a fond memory of that first meeting on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the established screen actor called Redford, with whom he became friendly throughout the years, \u201cone of the heroes of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Blue Moon star paid tribute to both Redford and his good friend and collaborator, the late Paul Newman, citing both venerated performers as quintessential role models of what an \u201cAmerican man\u201d should be like.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThose are people that use their power, their privilege and their good fortune to empower other people,\u201d he said, noting the duo imparted \u201ca tremendous impact\u201d on his life and pointing to their philanthropy and Redford\u2019s founding of the Sundance Institute as the ways in which the two icons gave back to the world.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen Before Sunrise came out, and nobody liked it, Robert Redford liked it,\u201d he continued. \u201cAnd he used it to open the 1995 Sundance Film Festival. He was a champion of other people and he understood how to use his power to empower others.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut long before the two colleagues became friends, Hawke walked into Redford\u2019s audition room for the rural Montana-set film, presumably to try out for the part that eventually went to Brad Pitt (who is seven years his senior), who co-starred in the tale of two diametrically opposed brothers alongside Craig Sheffer. Having spent all night prepping for the page-and-a-half-long speech he had to deliver, Hawke recounted arriving half an hour early to the meeting only to get in his head about meeting the prominent figure. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMy brain started to break,\u201d he recalled, taking stock of the famous memorabilia Redford had hung up in his office, including the framed pistols from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and the hat from Jeremiah Johnson.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHe goes, \u2018So, you ready to read?\u2019\u201d Hawke said. \u201cAnd I was like, \u2018To be totally honest, sir, I think I\u2019m starstruck. I\u2019m not sure I can breathe right now, and if I could just have, like, 60 seconds to step out of the room and come back in again, I\u2019ll be ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHowever, Redford told him to come back again the next day: \u201cI don\u2019t want to come back tomorrow \u2014 dude I didn\u2019t sleep all night! Now I\u2019ve got the same speech to come in [and perform],\u201d Hawke explained, describing the process as \u201cabsolute torture.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tUltimately, Hawke gave a solid audition, remembering: \u201cI do the audition and he\u2019s really cool. He looks at me and he goes, \u2018You know, I\u2019m an actor.\u2019 I was like, \u2018Yeah, I know.\u2019 He said, \u2018I always give actors a second chance. I give \u2018em some notes and I let \u2018em try it one more time to see what they\u2019re made of, but you nailed it. And you\u2019re gonna have a great career, and you\u2019re too young for this part, but it was a pleasure to meet you.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThough Hawke admitted he was \u201cstunned,\u201d he noted his gratitude in Redford saving him \u201cweeks and weeks of worrying.\u201d He added, \u201cIt hurt not to get the part and to know it immediately and to say it to my face, but it was the truth. And he also said something nice, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tA couple of months afterward, unbeknownst to Hawke until later, Redford found his way at the back of the house for an \u201cOff-Off-Broadway\u201d play in which the former was starring. \u201cAnd, afterwards, he came backstage and said, \u2018Good job, I tell you, keep doing what you\u2019re doing, it\u2019s gonna go great.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThough Hawke granted that Redford\u2019s numerous accomplishments spoke for themselves, the Black Phone actor wanted to highlight \u201cthe kind of human being he was.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tHe concluded, \u201cIt was a leadership in not just my life, but in my entire community\u2019s life. And when you do the good that you have the power to do \u2014\u00a0that\u2019s all any of us have to do. And I thought he led his life by example.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWatch the full episode below:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before Ethan Hawke was the four-time Oscar-nominated performer and writer he is today, as a young up-and-comer The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48251,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[41951,156,2595,111,139,69,26287,437],"class_list":{"0":"post-48250","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-a-river-runs-through-it","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ethan-hawke","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-robert-redford","15":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}