The road to Cannes began in the Oste. Ethan Hawke was born in Austin, Texas, on November 6, 1970. He spent the first years of his life there and filmed some of his most memorable films, Los Newton Boys y Boyhood, by his friend and countryman Richard Linklater. The first time she went to the movies she accompanied his father, one Sunday morning when the Hawkes skipped mass because her mother had stayed in bed with the flu. The movie was Pat Garrett y Billy the Kidby Sam Peckinpah, a western that ran between Texas and New Mexico.
So no one was very surprised that Ethan Hawke was Pedro Almodóvar’s choice for his cowboy film, the short film strange way of life, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last May. A memory: Almodóvar’s latest film tells the story of two cowboys, Sheriff Jake and farmer Silva, who They meet again 25 years after being lovers.
“Ethan has all the characteristics to embody the authority of a sheriff,” explained the director in Cannes. «He is a Texan, it is in his DNA. He is very American, but he is not your typical Hollywood actor. He is an adventurer, he changes his skin depending on the project. He knew that he can ride a horse because he had seen it in other movies. This calmed me down. I was sure he would express it well emotional distance what the relationship required. There is something secret, enigmatic about him, you never know exactly what he is thinking. When he said yes, it was a great gift.”
“It was a mutual gift,” says Hawke. “What does it mean to me to be in a Pedro Almodóvar film? I’m very excited. First of all, I realize that I had never seen an American actor act in an Almodóvar film, so I thought, somehow, that something like that couldn’t happen. When I received an email from Pedro shortly after Christmas, it seemed to me that he was dreaming. I am a grown man, I am over 50 years old, but inside I am like a little child. I was a little disappointed that there were no gifts for me under the tree, but in return I received an email from Almodóvar. It was the best Christmas gift I could have dreamed of, truly. I thought I must have done something good in life if this happened. I felt like I was part of a legend in the history of cinema. Throughout his career Pedro has always done new things, he has always raised the bar, and he has always maintained a unique and inimitable style.”
“I grew up with westerns” Hawke continues. “And I like that this movie doesn’t try to seem old-fashioned. See me in Spain, filming, with Pedro, doing a western American… Too much metacinema to not be true. It was a pleasure”.