Hawke: Not Easy Being in Celeb Marriage

Hawke: Not Easy Being in Celeb Marriage

Ethan Hawke, whose split from Uma Thurman caused a tabloid frenzy, says being part of a celebrity couple can be hard on the ego.

"It's unfair when one person's career is taking off and the other is really suffering," the 36-year-old actor tells AMC's "Shootout" in an interview slated to air Sunday.

"What happens it's not that they're jealous of each other; it's that the person you share your life with isn't in the mood to support," Hawke says. "You want to have a pity party for yourself, but they're off to the Golden Globes and you don't want to go because everyone is going to think you are jealous."

Hawke and Thurman were married in 1998. She filed for divorce in 2004. The couple have two children.

"There's a certain geometry to life that life has a certain math equation to it and if you're never together, you can't build a home," Hawke says. "Joanne Woodward put her career on the back burner for that marriage (to Paul Newman) to last. And something's got to give."

Hawke received an Oscar nomination for his role in 2001's "Training Day." His film credits also include "Dead Poets Society," "Great Expectations" and "Before Sunset."

Thurman, 37, has starred in "The Producers" and the "Kill Bill" movies. She was nominated for an Oscar for her role in 1994's "Pulp Fiction."



Hawke Confesses Thurman's Success and His Failure Wrecked Marriage

HOLLYWOOD - Ethan Hawke's marriage to Uma Thurman floundered when her career took off and his began to fail, the actor has confessed.

The pair ended their six-year marriage in 2004, when Thurman's career was on the rise and Hawke's was beginning to wane.

Speaking on talk show Sunday Morning Shootout--due to air this weekend--the actor says, "It's unfair when one person's career is taking off and the other is really suffering.

"What happens--it's not that they're jealous of each other; it's that the person you share your life with isn't in the mood to support. You want to have a pity party for yourself, but they're off to the Golden Globes and you don't want to go because everyone is going to think you are jealous.

"There's a certain geometry to life--that life has a certain math equation to it and if you're never together, you can't build a home.


Ethan Hawke

A self-described "slob" who has been named repeatedly to People magazine's Worst Dressed List, Ethan Hawke began fashioning his career as a Gen-X Renaissance Man, publishing a modestly-acclaimed novel, co-founding a Manhattan theater company, and stepping behind the camera to helm music videos and films, in addition to acting. Possessing WASP-ish good looks and a disarming air of sincerity, he began taking acting classes at Princeton University's McCarter Theater, and his stage debut there at age 13 in "St....

Full Biography

A self-described "slob" who has been named repeatedly to People magazine's Worst Dressed List, Ethan Hawke began fashioning his career as a Gen-X Renaissance Man, publishing a modestly-acclaimed novel, co-founding a Manhattan theater company, and stepping behind the camera to helm music videos and films, in addition to acting. Possessing WASP-ish good looks and a disarming air of sincerity, he began taking acting classes at Princeton University's McCarter Theater, and his stage debut there at age 13 in "St. Joan" led to a successful audition for "Explorers" (1985), Joe Dante's underappreciated teen sci-fi film (which also marked the feature debut of River Phoenix). The film flopped, and Hawke, encouraged by his mother, left acting for several years before returning with a well-received performance as a shy, sensitive prep school student in Peter Weir's "Dead Poets Society" (1989), followed quickly that same year by "Dad", in which he played Jack Lemmon's grandson.
Hawke's early films invariably cast him in coming-of-age roles, and though he gave a strong performance as a young prospector in the Disney version of Jack London's adventure "White Fang", he also took the black comedy "Mystery Date" (both 1991), despite realizing the script had problems. He made his Off-Broadway debut in the New York Shakespeare Festival production of "Casanova" that year before returning to student mode for "Waterland" (1992), an arresting British film about a desperate, middle-aged high school history teacher (Jeremy Irons) seemingly trapped by his past. Hawke was also forceful and credible as the narrator and reluctant squad leader in the underrated but eloquent, antiwar drama "A Midnight Clear" (also 1992), adapted from the WWII-era novel by William Wharton. During a busy 1993, he appeared in three features (most notably "Alive", a surprisingly upbeat story about survival after a plane crash in the Andes); wrote, directed and edited the short film "Straight to One" about a pair of young honeymooners; and co-founded Malaparte., a not-for-profit theater group in NYC.

Hawke enjoyed a high profile lead as Winona Ryder's grubby, cynical boyfriend with artistic pretensions in the Gen-X romantic comedy "Reality Bites" (1994), which opened to extremely mixed reviews and disappointing box office. He went on to team with Richard Linklater for the first time on "Before Sunrise" (1995), a radical departure from the Texas slacker scene of the director's first two features. A European train journey introduces Hawke to the beautiful Julie Delpy, and their mutual attraction causes them to detrain and explore Venice, sharing their first kiss on the same Ferris wheel Orson Welles featured in "The Third Man" (1940). Linklater's literate, sensitive treatment of a brief romantic interlude between two young people with their lives stretching out before them upped Hawke's sensitive hunk quotient with the ladies, who were certain he was just the man to listen attentively to their hopes and aspirations. He then disappeared from the screen for two years to write a novel, "The Hottest State" (Little, Brown, 1996), which garnered him ridicule, despite some good reviews and one critic telling him, "Well, I was going to put it on my list of the year's 10 best books. But then I figured you didn't need it." (Daily Telegraph, February 11, 2000).

After undergoing an intense exercise regimen with a personal trainer, Hawke returned to the screen looking buff for his first "adult" role in the futuristic thriller "Gattaca" (1997), his biggest-budget feature to that time. He delivered a strong performance as a genetically-inferior man who assumes the identity of a superior athlete in order to realize his dream of space travel. He also got the girl on screen and off, later marrying co-star Uma Thurman. Alfonso Cuaron's modern-day version of "Great Expectations" (also 1997) teamed him romantically with Gwyneth Paltrow and gave him a chance to act with Robert De Niro, though the box office numbers were uninspiring. He then reteamed with Linklater alongside Matthew McConaughey, Skeet Ulrich and Vincent D'Onofrio for the Texas director's biopic of the bank-robbing "The Newton Boys" (1998), playing Jess Newton, the drunken, charming brother. He also had small roles in "The Velocity of Gary", which reunited him with executive producer-star D'Onofrio, and in "Joe the King" (both 1999), the feature directorial debut of his Malaparte. mate Frank Whaley.

Hawke once again provided a film's still center as star of Scott Hicks' "Snow Falling on Cedars" (1999), essaying an American journalist in a doomed interracial love affair. Having never remained long from the stage, he appeared as Kilroy in that year's Williamstown Theatre Festival revival of Tennessee Williams' "Camino Real" before taking on the Bard as Michael Almereyda's Gen-X "Hamlet" (2000), delivering the immortal "To be or not to be" monologue in the aisles of a Blockbuster video store. The youngest actor to ever play the role onscreen, Hawke's "slacker prince" came across a bit too bland, allowing supporting players Sam Shepard (as the ghost of Hamlet's father) and Kyle MacLachlan (as the usurping Claudius) to steal this engaging "Hamlet"-lite. He reteamed with Julie Delpy for one scene in Richard Linklater's eye-popping animated feature "Waking Life" and then starred with his wife, Uma Thurman, and Robert Sean Leonard in Linklater's digitally-shot "Tape" (both 2001). That same year, Hawke held his own opposite Denzel Washington playing a rookie L.A. policeman paired with a loose cannon partner who plays by his own rules in the uneven "Training Day". While Washington earned the lion's share of critical acclaim, Academy voters didn't overlook the younger actor's contributions and bestowed on Hawke a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination.

Having directed a short and a music video, it was only to be a matter of time before Hawke would turn his attention to feature filmmaking. Joining the ranks of those intrigued by digital video, he shot "Chelsea Walls" (filmed in 1999; released theatrically in 2002), an adaptation of Dylan Thomas' "Under Milkwood" set at NYC's famed Chelsea Hotel. Among the ensemble cast were Thurman and old Malaparte. pals Frank Whaley, Steve Zahn and Robert Sean Leonard. Hawke also had a featured role in Whaley's second film "The Jimmy Show" (2002) and found time to write and publish a second novel, "Ash Wednesday" (Alfred A. Knopf, 2002). His next project, which came on the heels of his highly publicized spilt from Uma Thurman amid allegations of infidelity on his part, was the subpar erotic thriller "Taking Lives" (2004) opposite Angelina Jolie. The actor fared better in the well-assembled remake of the police thriller "Assault on Precinct 13" (2005), playing a burnt-out desk sergeant mourning the death of two partners who must defend his precinct house against a violent invasion to free a drug lord.


Uma Thurman

This daughter of a Columbia University professor and a former model-turned-psychotherapist is named after a Hindu goddess. Tall, sylph-like and solemn-eyed, Uma Thurman moved to NYC at age 16 and like her mother, began her career as a Click model, posing for numerous magazines. The blonde beauty segued to acting in 1987 with the independent feature "Kiss Daddy Good Night", as a young seductress who entices men only to rob them. Thurman received wide attention as the perfectly buxom, virginal victim of John Malkovich's seduction in Stephen Frears' "Dangerous Liaisons" (1998) before furthering her visibility as the Goddess of Love in Terry Gilliam's madcap opus "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" (1989)....

Full Biography

This daughter of a Columbia University professor and a former model-turned-psychotherapist is named after a Hindu goddess. Tall, sylph-like and solemn-eyed, Uma Thurman moved to NYC at age 16 and like her mother, began her career as a Click model, posing for numerous magazines. The blonde beauty segued to acting in 1987 with the independent feature "Kiss Daddy Good Night", as a young seductress who entices men only to rob them. Thurman received wide attention as the perfectly buxom, virginal victim of John Malkovich's seduction in Stephen Frears' "Dangerous Liaisons" (1998) before furthering her visibility as the Goddess of Love in Terry Gilliam's madcap opus "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" (1989).
Thurman's powerful performance as June, the controlling wife of Henry Miller in Philip Kaufman's "Henry and June" (1990), revealed her to be an actress with considerable depth and ability. She turned in another strong performance as a blind woman targeted by a serial killer in Bruce Robinson's dark "Jennifer 8" (1992) and played an indentured servant to cop Robert De Niro and gangster Bill Murray in the unusual gangster romance "Mad Dog and Glory" (1993). Gus Van Sant's lumbering "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues" (1994), a long-awaited but unsatisfying adaptation of the popular Tom Robbins novel, virtually wasted the actress in the leading role of hitchhiker Sissy Hankshaw. But these roles were merely warm-ups for her strong turn as a drug addicted gangster's wife in Quentin Tarantino's acclaimed "Pulp Fiction" (1994). After engaging in a twist with co-star John Travolta, her character overdoses and in a truly shocking and disturbing scene, Travolta is forced to plunge a needle in her chest. For her efforts, she was rewarded with a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination.

While Thurman garnered praise for her turn as a young coquette flirting with Edward Fox in John Irving's "A Month by the Lake" (1995), the film stumbled at the box office. She fared slightly better in Ted Demme's ensemble drama "Beautiful Girls" (1996), as an outsider visiting a small town. Thurman next played against type as a less than intellectual blonde helping friend Janeane Garofalo win a handsome beau in the comedy "The Truth About Cats and Dogs" (1996). Shifting gears, she offered a scene-stealing turn as villainess Poison Ivy to George Clooney's Dark Knight in "Batman & Robin" (1997). Thurman then returned to a more conventional role as the upright, somewhat frosty and passive worker in a futuristic space program who is romanced by a co-worker in the futuristic thriller "Gattaca" (also 1997). She followed with a highly-praised performance as Fantine in Bille August's 1998 remake of "Les Miserables" before teaming with Ralph Fiennes as Emma Peel to his John Steed in a big screen version of the hit 60s TV show "The Avengers" (also 1998), which was poorly received by critics and audiences alike.

There was a noticable slowing down of Thurman's career as she settled into her new role as wife and mother. However, she did find time to take roles which appealed to her. She appeared to good effect in small roles in non-mainstream projects, both in Woody Allen's winning "The Sweet and the Lowdown" in 1999 and her husband Hawke's high-minded art film "Chelsea Walls" in 2001. In 2002, she received positive reviews for her role in the HBO film "Hysterical Blindness." Thurman played successfully against type as a desperately insecure working-class girl from New Jersey who, along with her best friend from high school (Juliette Lewis), spends her nights patrolling the local bar for love and some kind of direction. By 2003 she was a media darling all over again, for both professional and personal reasons: shortly after her high-profile separation from Hawke, she returned to screens under the direction of Quentin Tarantino in "Kill Bill, Vol. 1" (2003) and "Kill Bill, Vol. 2" (2004), the writer-director's bloody two-part magnum opus and tribute to the beloved exploitation films and Sergio Leone movies of his youth, based on a notion he and Thurman cooked up on the set of "Pulp Fiction" years earlier. Thurman, in a bravura performance, played The Bride, a nameless woman beaten and left for dead who arises from a coma to wrek ultra-violent vengeance on her betrayer and his martial artist minions. The actress never looked more beautiful or formidable on screen. In between "Bill" instalments, Thurman also appeared opposite Ben Affleck in the John Woo-directed sci fi thriller "Paycheck" (2003).

Thurman looked resplendent as a one-time rock group costumer-turned-record exec who falls for John Travolta's Chili Palmer in "Be Cool" (2005), the entertaining sequel to "Get Shorty"--reunited with her "Pulp Fiction" co-star, Thurman enjoyed another on-screen dance sequence with Travolta--this time more sensual and romantic then frenetic, and equally compelling. Next she went toe-to-toe with Meryl Streep in the romantic comedy "Prime" (2005) as a 37-year-old woman reeling from a divorce woking through intimacy issues with her therapist (Streep), reinvigorated by her affair with a much-younger man who happens to be her therapist's son. Then it was on to singing and dancing Mel Brooks-style alongside Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane in "The Producers: The Movie Musical" (2005) as the Broadway duo's sensual, leggy and English-challenged secretary Ulla. She then joined Luke Wilson for "Super Ex Girlfriend" (2006), in which Wilson learns his girlfriend is a superhero and breaks up with her when she gets too controlling and neurotic, prompting her to use her powers to exact revenge by tormenting and embarrassing him.