Ethan Hawke & Maya Hawke Interview: Wildcat and Flannery O’Connor
84Academy Award-nominee Ethan Hawke returns to the director’s chair for Wildcat, a biographical drama on the life of a young Flannery O’Connor he co-wrote, which celebrated its second screening at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. Along with executive producer and star Maya Hawke (Asteroid City) and Ethan, Editor-in-Chief Steve Weintraub sat down with the father and daughter to discuss their film at Collider’s studio in the Cinema Center by MARBL to talk about their work dynamic and bringing this American writer’s first publication to the silver screen.
Wildcat examines the life of an artist through O’Connor’s (Maya Hawke) process of publishing her first novel. Under the direction of Hawke, the film becomes a study within a study of stories within the story about an artist’s pride and the lifeblood they pour into their work. As the young author did in her novels, Hawke places his own family in his production, and Maya Hawke portrays the strong-willed writer as she wrestles with her purpose in life. The director enlists the talent of previous collaborators for Wildcat, including Laura Linney (The Hottest State), Philip Ettinger (First Reformed), Steve Zahn (Blaze), and Vincent D’Onofrio (Chelsea Walls).
While in the studio at TIFF, the duo explains why they chose O’Connor’s work and why Maya has “been sitting with the dream of this project for so long.” They discuss their time on set, why Maya was never anxious about her father directing, the important part Linney played on set, and how unique it is to see actors double-cast in dramas. Ethan also opens up about working with his daughter, the joy he found in the editing of Wildcat, and the “unnameable” thoughts he experiences in the response to past projects like Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise.
#EthanHawke #MayaHawke #Wildcat
For interviews, movie reviews, and more visit https://collider.com
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL
https://twitter.com/collider
https://instagram.com/collider
https://facebook.com/collider