Ethan Hawke was still a teenager during the filming of Dead Poets Society alongside Robin Williams, but he noticed the late actor’s mental plight.
In the beloved 1989 film, Williams played inspiring English teacher John Keating, and off-camera, his comedy skills kept the cast and crew laughing.
Hawke, who’s seen depression in his family, was attuned to its signs and noticed that the Mrs. Doubtfire star was struggling. The comedian ultimately committed suicide in 2014, leaving his fans reeling.
But does that change the way the Black Phone star rewatches Dead Poets Society?
Hawke said that it "does not fundamentally change the way I watch the movie."
"Even at 18, I was aware of the complexity of his emotional life,” he shared during an inetrview with CBS Sunday Morning. "I’ve had a lot of depression in my family, and it was obvious to me that all that power and that charisma came at a certain cost. He was a deeply, deeply sensitive person who was highly attuned to the energy of a room."
The Oscar-nominated actor recalled that one time William’s was "making up lines and everyone was laughing and praising him," but a while later Hawke went to get a glass of water and saw the Jumanji star "hiding in the corner in the dark by himself."
"I thought, ‘Oh, OK. It makes a lot more sense to me now,'" Hawke said. "It was a lot. It was taxing. There’s a lot of stories about clowns and the happiness they give and at what cost. So I say all that to say, the end of his life does not define his life to me. And when I watch the movie, I think of the spirit of the man I knew in those days and how powerful it was and how much he weathered that storm of his psyche for us and for other people."
Ethan Hawke's fans can see him play songwriter Lorenz Hart in his latest film Blue Moon.
