Ethan Hawke ‘shedding skin’

Ethan Hawke feels like he’s “shedding skin” at this point in his career.

The 43-year-old actor has achieved many professional triumphs in the past two years. He released the close of Richard Linklater’s trilogy, Before Midnight, in 2013 and this summer his film Boyhood premiered in cinemas - a project the star took 12 years to shoot.

Now Ethan is promoting a documentary he directed entitled Seymour: An Introduction at the New York Film Festival and upon reflection the star feels like he’s come a long way since making his debut as an actor in 1985 picture Explorers.

“It’s feeling like a shedding of a skin of some kind,” he explained to Entertainment Weekly. “Basically like a decades worth of work has been manifesting.”

Ethan became a household name after appearing in 1989 drama Dead Poets Society.

And filming the Academy Award-winning feature was a pivotal moment for him.

“You can’t underestimate the experience of Dead Poets Society,” he said. “I was 18 years old working with Robin Williams and Peter Weir with a group of young actors who are all really talented. It was like a crash course in the professional arts.

“[My co-star Norman Lloyd] came up to me once and he said, ‘you have no idea how significant this experience is in your life,’ And I remember thinking, ‘what’s this old guy being so intense about'’ And I realise now how right he was. I didn’t realise what a blessed experience it was and how much my ethos was being formed by that movie.”