Ethan Hawke: How I remember Robin

Ethan Hawke keeps a photo from Dead Poets Society on his desk.

The 43-year-old had his breakthrough role as student Todd Anderson in the hit 1989 movie, which also starred the late Robin Williams as English teacher John Keating.

Last month the legendary actor tragically took his own life after a long battle with depression, and Ethan still treasures his time on set with Robin.

"Good Will Hunting. He was such a dad in that. He was such a mentor. There's that great moment when he says, 'You think you know what it's like to be an adult because you think you can intellectually understand, but you didn't live any of these things. You don't really know anything about what...' - and it always stayed with me," Ethan said to hitfix.com.

"And Fisher King, he was amazing. I'll never forget seeing Fisher King and walking home and just being blown away. But he's been a part of my psyche obviously. I've had a picture from Dead Poets over my desk my whole life. It's a present [director] Peter Weir gave us of Robin and the seven poets and a poem."

One of Ethan's latest movies, Boyhood, got audiences buzzing upon its release. Director Richard Linklater shot the feature over a period of 12 years and Ethan felt privileged to have been part of the one-of-a-kind project.

"It's so unique to any other process I've ever been involved with. It was so much fun to think about and work on and imagine. Because the script was never written at one time; it was made kind of like a quilt," Ethan explained.