Ethan Hawke thought he and director Richard Linklater were ready to make their new movie Blue Moon years ago.
The Oscar-nominated actor has worked with the acclaimed director many times since the '90s, with their projects including Before Sunrise and its sequels, Tape, The Newton Boys, and Boyhood.
In their latest collaboration, Blue Moon, Hawke stars as lyricist Lorenz Hart, who goes to a bar after seeing the opening night performance of Oklahoma!, his songwriting partner Richard Rodgers's first Broadway musical without him.
Hawke, 55, felt ready to take on the role of the 47-year-old Hart many years ago, but Linklater didn't think the time was quite right.
"Rick and I have been talking about making Blue Moon for 12 years, and we've slowly kind of worked on this and developed the script," he explained to Variety. "Every 18 months or two years, we'd take it out and do a reading in my apartment or somewhere else and think about it. And then finally, I don't know, 18 months ago or something, it was, I think we're ready. Let's make this thing.' And I thought we were ready for years."
The Dead Poets Society actor went on to praise Linklater for waiting for him to age into the part and giving him the role of the desperate and bitter Hart in the first place.
"I mean, 99% of directors, if they had a great script that they thought one of their favourite actors was 10 years too young for, they would just cast someone else. They wouldn't say, 'I'll wait 10 years.' Who does that?" he praised.
"The great advantage of working with friends is that I don't think anybody else in the world would have cast me in this part. It's the fact that Rick knows me so well. If I insert another great director here, I doubt they would've cast me. And I'm really glad he did."
Blue Moon, also starring Andrew Scott, Margaret Qualley and Bobby Cannavale, is in U.K. cinemas now.
