The Coppola Movie That Shaped Ethan Hawke's Life and Style
Long before he became a Hollywood icon, one film completely reshaped Ethan Hawke's world. Discover the classic movie that he credits as a defining experience, influencing not just his career but his personal identity in ways that still resonate decades later.
Ethan Hawke's professional journey has been anything but predictable. He sidestepped the easy path to becoming a leading-man heartthrob, instead carving out a niche by balancing small-budget independent pictures with major blockbusters. One moment he's complicating Greta Gerwig's plans in Rebecca Miller's quirky drama Maggie’s Plan; the next, he's popping up as a cowboy-hat-wearing character named Jolly the Pimp in Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. He has truly made the industry his own playground.
A Cinematic Awakening
Like many actors, Hawke’s passion was sparked by a love for motion pictures as a kid. One work in particular struck him with incredible force, completely rewiring his perspective while featuring a lineup of Tinseltown’s most promising young talent. At just 13 years old, his outlook was transformed when he first saw Francis Ford Coppola’s The Outsiders. The dramatic adaptation of S.E. Hinton’s novel of the same name chronicles the intense rivalry between two teenage gangs in 1960s Oklahoma. As anyone who remembers being a teen can confirm, no one is more open to emotional, cinematic hyperbole than an impressionable adolescent.
An All-Star Cast and Enduring Appeal
The actor was completely swept away, just like any other kid his age. In a conversation with Letterboxd alongside his daughter, Maya Hawke, he recalled seeing the picture for the first time as “one of the high points of my life,” adding that it “meant the world” to him. Even now, forty years later, it’s not hard to understand how this intense drama about teen angst could leave such a mark. Coppola’s direction is certainly commendable, but The Outsiders also boasts some truly unbelievable casting. It starred Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, Tom Cruise, Emilio Estevez, Matt Dillon, and Ralph Macchio before any of them hit the big time. It was a true case of capturing lightning in a bottle, and no matter how awkward the script gets, the performers are so magnetic that it’s impossible not to get caught up in the moment.
From Father to Daughter
When the director’s cut was released, Hawke brought his daughter to a screening. She was around the same age he was when the original came out, but her initial reaction was quite different. As they walked out of the theater, her only remark was, “Now I understand the way you dress.” While that might have been a crushing blow for the elder Hawke, the story came full circle. Discussing it again about ten years later, Maya Hawke admitted, “Since then, it’s become the way I dress”.
An Unforgettable Influence
Whether or not The Outsiders was the reason Hawke wanted to act, it was undeniably a formative event that stays with him today. During a 2024 Q&A with AnOther Magazine, he was asked to name the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. After mentioning the usuals (the birth of his children, the Grand Canyon), he also listed Diane Lane’s character in The Outsiders. Coming from a man who was once married to Uma Thurman, thats quite a statement.