Larger than life despite being just 5ft tall, playing Lorenz Hart was “one of the most complex asks” Oscar nominee Ethan Hawkes has ever had. One half of the musical duo Rodgers and Hart, he was famous for hits including Blue Moon - which the movie is named after - The Lady is a Tramp and My Funny Valentine.

The 2025 Richard Linklater movie, set in 1943 - which is also Oscar nominated for best original screenplay - sees Lorenz, known as Larry to friends, confront his shattered confidence in a bar, after the break-up of their 24 year partnership. His former collaborator, Richard Rodgers, is celebrating the opening night of his hit musical Oklahoma! - written with his new partner Oscar Hammerstein. The Broadway lyricist is heard saying: “We work together for quarter of a century and the first show he writes with someone else is going to be the biggest hit he ever had. Am I bitter? Yes.”

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Ethan, 55, who is up against Timothée Chalamet, Leonardo DiCaprio, Wagner Moura and Michael B. Jordan for the best actor gong at the Academy Awards on March 15, said cinematic trickery was needed as well as skill, to make his portrayal of Larry convincing - as he is nearly 9 inches taller than the musical genius. He says: “We did every trick you could think of. You know, the history of cinema has spent a ton of energy making very short men look incredibly big and large and powerful. It’s basically an inverse.”

Drawing on tricks used by film icons from the past, he adds: “What would Charlie Chaplin do? You know, raise and lower the bar, you raise and lower the pictures in the background. You put them lower in the frame. You put people on boxes, I would walk in a trench. If you can think of it, we did it.”

Born in Texas, USA, the son of insurance actuary James and charity worker and teacher Leslie, who divorced in 1974, Ethan married Ryan Shawhughes, former nanny to his children with ex-wife Uma Thurman, in 2008. He has four children, Maya and Levon, both actors, who he shares with Uma, and Clementine and Indiana, who he shares with Ryan.

Starring in Netflix smash hit Stranger Things, Maya has followed in her father’s footsteps to become an in-demand Hollywood actress. Last month, 27-year-old Maya married musician Christian Lee Hutson in a surprise Valentine’s Day ceremony in New York. Proud parents Uma and Ethan were in attendance, alongside many of Maya’s Stranger Things co-stars, including Joe Keery and Sadie Sink. In a recent interview proud “nepo baby” Maya recalled a funny moment when walking down the street with her father.

Someone stopped them, only to make clear he wasn’t interested in Hawke senior at all. “Sorry, I’m not doing any pictures today,” he told them. And the fan replied, “I don’t know who you are, man. I wanted to talk to Robin.” When asked about the encounter, Ethan added that his daughter actually understated the moment. “She’s actually being shy,” he said, and in fact the same thing has happened to them, “like five times.”

It’s a role reversal he loves. “It’s been one of the most incredible feelings I’ve ever had in my life,” he said. Filmmaking has been a family affair for Ethan at times, and he directed Maya, in 2023’s indie flick “Wildcat,” a biographical drama about the author Flannery O’Connor. He has said that one day he’d like to act alongside her. “Heck yeah, are you kidding me?” Ethan said. “I want to be with the star of ‘Stranger Things’…”

With the Netflix juggernaut coming to an end after 10 years in December 2025, pro Ethan offered some advice to his offspring now that the show has ended. He said: “Time to move on. You got to do it, and move on,” he said. “Don’t look back.” Ethan, who previously received two Oscar nominations for best adapted screenplay for his writing contributions to Before Sunset (2004) and its sequel Before Midnight (2013) and two for best supporting actor for Training Day (2001) and Boyhood (2014), admits his latest was a challenging role.

He says of playing Larry, who was famously self-conscious of his short stature: “I had an acting teacher say to me once that one of the things that makes something very dynamic to look at is this correlation of opposites. So a very large person who’s overweight who has extreme grace and is a wonderful dancer is fascinating to look at. Marlon Brando is a great example. He’s extremely masculine and extremely feminine at the same time and it creates dynamics.”

And what Larry lacked in physical size, he made up for through the impact of his personality, according to Ethan. He says: “Larry is the smallest person in every room and the biggest person in every room. The world is an extremely heightest place. We imbue tall people with a power and strength they haven’t earned. And we do the inverse to people who are small - imagine that they are not strong and not powerful. It creates a fire in Larry and so we knew it was important for the dynamics of the film.”

During a 40 year stage and screen career, Ethan - who made his film debut aged 14 in Explorer (1985) and won plaudits for starring in Dead Poets Society (1989) - has gained admiration for his versatility as an actor, as well as being an accomplished writer and director. Ethan lives in Brooklyn, New York, and says it would have been easier to have portrayed Larry physically, if he’d been an unknown actor.

He says: “If this was my first part - it would have been an easy magic trick to pull off. The problem with magic tricks, if you know someone’s doing a magic trick, is you’re just watching to see how they did it - you’re not tricked. And so, we had to try to make it as effortless as possible and also make sure it wasn’t a trick, it was in service of soul, of what’s going to unlock Larry’s soul and let you really see him and what he’s going through. It was one of the most complex asks I’ve ever been asked to do.”

Despite playing several artists and musicians - like jazz artist Chet Baker in Born to Be Blue (2015) and washed-up rock musician Everett Lewis in Maudie (2016) - Ethan says he doesn’t regard creatives as ‘heroes.’ He says: “Not any more than I see all human beings’ effort as heroic when people care about what they do and have an aspiration for excellence. It’s just what I know about.

“I remember when I was young, one of my favourite directors was Bob Fosse and one time I realised, ‘all his movies are about artists.’ And I thought ‘was that a problem?’ And I realised, ‘well, basically no, he’s writing about what he knows.’” But while Larry, when he was working as Rodgers and Hart, was supremely successful, according to Ethan, most artists are not.

He says of people in the arts: “For the vast majority of us, we’re not going to be met with that level of success. The actual foundation of the artistic community is made up of people who are not very successful. I take a certain appreciation in loving these people who are swimming against the stream.”

*Ethan Hawke was interviewed by ABC National Radio host Jason di Rosso. The interview can be heard on The Arts Hour on BBC Sounds.

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