It’s been four decades since Ethan Hawke made his screen debut, and in that time, he’s been given the opportunity to work with some of the most distinguished names in the industry on either side of the camera, all while forging his own path as a multi-talented performer.
Only half of Hawke’s four Academy Award nominations have been for his acting prowess, with the other two recognising his writing abilities after he penned Before Sunset and Before Midnight alongside director Richard Linklater and co-star Julie Delpy.
He also wrote and directed the feature-length adaptation of his own novel The Hottest State, helmed a documentary about classic pianist Seymour Bernstein, and added biographical dramas Blaze and Wildcat to his directorial filmography, not to mention his status as the co-creator, producer, and star of episodic historical drama The Good Lord Bird, never mind his spoken-word appearance on a Fall Out Boy album or recent outing in a Taylor Swift music video.
He’s been around the block and back a few times, then, which puts him in a very qualified position to pass judgement on which actor deserves to be called the greatest of their generation. Not that there’s much in the way of controversy to be found when there are plenty of cinephiles and industry veterans alike who’d be in full agreement with his choice.
Reflecting on his time spent working with Denzel Washington on Antoine Fuqua’s incendiary Training Day, Hawke couldn’t have made himself any clearer. “When all is said and done, he’s the greatest actor of our generation,” he proclaimed to the titular host of CNN’s Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace.
Not that he was going to leave it at that, though, with Hawke going on to compare the two-time Oscar winner and all-round icon to another timeless legend of their day job. “That experience and that voice I started having every day, acting with Denzel, you know, his imagination is so complete,” Hawke continued. “I imagine it would be interesting to see how Babe Ruth tied his shoes. You know how he thought about various pitchers.”
The pair would reunite on Training Day director Fuqua’s remake of The Magnificent Seven, an invitation he wouldn’t have dreamed of declining. Hawke compared Washington’s “tremendous amount of energy and thought” to the way he approaches his craft as akin to an entrance to “all these other rooms that you can go into in the profession,” which they’ve both walked through after each segueing into filmmaking.
With Washington being heralded as his generation’s finest thespian and Hawke previously singling Nicolas Cage out for having an impact on acting at large similar to that of Marlon Brando, it’s clear that those two are names he’s happy to put up on the highest pedestal above almost everyone else in the business.