Ethan Hawke has revealed that he once found his late co-star of the “Dead Poets Society” Robin Williams “incredibly irritating” and assumed the sentiment was mutual.
The 1989 school day drama is now a much-loved film classic, but for an unconditional Hawke teenager, Williams ’iconic fast-fire comic styles weren’t cold at all.
“‘I thought Robin hated me. I used to make a lot of jokes on set,'” said the 50-year-old “Reality Bites” star, who dropped the bomb revelation during a session of questions and answers at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic, the Daily Mail reported.
“At 18, I found it incredibly irritating,” continued the four-time Oscar nominee. “I wouldn’t stop and I wouldn’t laugh at anything I did.”
Hawke attended the President’s Award, which is presented at the annual party to actors, directors and producers “who have made a fundamental contribution to the development of contemporary world cinema,” according to Deadline.
“There was this scene in the film when it makes me spontaneously invent a poem in front of the class,” Hawke said of his iconic co-star, who won the Oscar head for Best Actor for his performance. like John Keating, a nonconformist teacher using poetry to challenge his boarding school students — including Hawkes as the serious Todd Anderson — to new levels of personal expression.
“He made that joke in the end, saying I found it intimidating,” Hawke recalled. “I thought it was a joke.”
Hawke, now a father of four, stressed that in retrospect, he now sees his teenage anxiety experience filming “Dead Poets Society” as an old man.
“As I get older, I realize there’s something intimidating about young people’s seriousness, their intensity,” he told the Karlovy crowd. “It’s intimidating: being the person they think you are. Robin was that to me. “
The star of “Training Day” and “Boyhood” also revealed that, in an ironic twist of fate, it was actually Williams who helped the young actor sign with his first agent: “[My-manager-to-be] he said, “Robin Williams says you’ll do very well.” “
After influencing Hawke and several generations of movie buffs, Williams tragically died by suicide in 2014. Two years before his death, doctors told him he had Parkinson’s disease, a disorder of the nervous system. central that affects the movements, causing their tremors.
But an autopsy would later reveal that he and his medical team had treated the wrong disease. “It simply came to our notice then [with] the experience of many Parkinson’s patients, ”Zak Williams, 38-year-old Robin’s son, revealed earlier this year during an emotional episode of the podcast“ The Great Life ”.