-Our first guest is a four-time Oscar nominee
starring in the acclaimed television series,
"The Good Lord Bird," which is available now on Showtime.
Here is Ethan Hawke, everybody!
[ Cheers and applause ]
That's what I'm talking about.
That's my man.
[ Chuckling ] Yeah.
That's what I'm talking about, buddy.
It's good to see you. and thank you so much
for coming on our show. It means a lot to us.
-Well, I wish I could be there in New York in real life,
you know. I mean, we're through this pandemic thing,
or it's at least in the side-view mirror.
So I wish I could be there and say hi to Tariq
and say hi to everybody else.
-Yeah, exactly. Well, you will be back.
Next time, we'll do it in person.
We have to. -Yes.
-I'm just happy you're here, 'cause I want to talk to you.
Last time, actually, you were nice enough to do our show
when we were doing it from home,
and we didn't really know what we were doing.
We were just doing something just to --
Yeah, everyone just -- We just figured
we'd just put something out there
and see if anyone needs something to look at,
so thank you for doing that.
And my girls jumped in and just crashed the interview
and thought you were so funny
and just wanted to just, like, interview --
like, interrupt the interview.
They just jumped in, and you were like, "Oh, my gosh."
But thank you. You obviously know how to deal with kids.
You were cool with them. You were making them laugh.
-Well, they were great, and those were dark days.
I mean, I was thinking back about that interview
and what a long, strange year it's been.
-Yeah. -We were just, kind of,
you know, we were juggling in thin air there,
trying to create some kind of entertainment
when there was none.
-Yeah, exactly. Right, yeah.
Right now, are you in --
Where are you? You're in Budapest?
-Okay, well, this amazing background I have,
the thing about the life of an actor
is you spend most of your life in beige hotel rooms
and beige apartments.
-That's interesting.
-It is very close to midnight here in Budapest, Hungary.
And I'm here. I've signed about 10,000 NDAs.
I'm not allowed to say what I'm here doing.
I will say that it's not for the government.
I'm not doing anything illicit.
I'm making quality entertainment
for a studio known as Marvel.
But they're very serious -- -That is what I'm talking about.
That's what I'm talking about, buddy.
Don't say anything. I don't want to get you in any trouble.
But I appreciate you even just staying up late
and doing the show for us.
And I know you want to give a shout-out to Tariq,
because you guys worked together.
I got to say, it was "Waiting for Godot,"
and Tariq told me about this.
I couldn't believe it. Thank you for doing it.
It's available still online if you go thenewgroup.org.
How did you come up with it?
And what was the purpose?
-What was the idea? -Yeah.
-Well, the thought was this.
Right around the time that your kids ruined my interview
and humiliated me in public in front of the nation...
[ Laughter ]
...none of us had anything to do, and so we didn't know.
You know, I have four kids,
and so I thought one night, I know what we'll do.
We'll read "Waiting for Godot."
Now, the kids were not as into this as I was,
but it was incredibly fun.
We lit a fire, and we read this play,
and I was kind of knocked out.
You know, there is something about this experience.
Even right now, you know, here I am on Zoom still,
and there is something so alienating about it
that the play seemed alive.
All my life, it seemed like
some existential, intellectual exercise.
And all of a sudden, I thought it was so funny.
And we were all --
You know, I mean you've heard a lot said about this.
But musicians and actors, the theater,
have taken a real kick in the teeth
like a lot of people have in the last year.
And so this is Tariq, Wally Shawn, John Leguizamo and I
decided to go to war for the theater.
And we did this production of "Waiting for Godot" over Zoom.
And you can download it, watch it,
and at least it's not going to be the same boring production
that you saw in high school.
It will be a little bit better. -Oh, yeah.
-Or maybe it won't, but at least we tried.
-No, it's unbelievable.
I don't even know how you pulled it off.
Because, again, we were all in lockdown.
And it was like, "Okay, I don't know what --"
I thought Tariq was saying that he was gonna go rehearse this.
And he was rehearsing, but it was all for online.
I was like, "How are you pulling this off?"
Like, you had to light it yourself and kind of --
It was amazing. -Well, yeah.
Listen, I mean, I had to build the set in my son's bedroom
with my wife while we had COVID. Alright?
-Holy moly. -So it was a dark day.
-Wow! -But we did it.
Tariq was there every step of the way.
This guy was money every day.
-Nah, listen -- Listen, man,
like, the fact that you guys pushed through
and, you know, really came through
and stuck with the project. Even, like, with COVID
and having to, you know, like, multitask
in the way that you did, it was --
It really set the precedent for me for professionalism.
And now I look at The Roots.
I'm like, "[Scoffs] These guys --"
No, I'm just joking.
No. No. [ Laughter ]
-He said the same thing about you.
Class act, dude. You know how to -- That's a pro.
-Right. -I want to talk about --
Speaking of being a pro, "The Good Lord Bird,"
man, you were, again, Ethan, I love you but unrecognizable.
And I go how did -- It's based on the book.
How did you hear about the book?
-Well, I was doing a scene with Denzel Washington
in "Magnificent Seven" and the camera operator said to me,
"You know, you should play John Brown."
And I remember thinking, "What makes you say that?"
And he said, "I'm reading this book
called 'The Good Lord Bird.'" and my --
You know, your brain gets obsessed with something.
I couldn't figure out what that title was.
And he said, "No, it's when you see a bird,
and it's so beautiful that you just say, 'Good Lord!'"
And so then the title stuck in my head,
and I was in an airport, and I picked it up,
and I just laughed my ass off.
And my wife said to me,
you know, "What are you laughing about?"
And I said, "This book."
And she said, "Isn't it about John Brown?"
And I said, "Yeah."
And that's kind of the miracle that McBride pulled off.
He manages to talk about some of the sins of this nation
and the foundation of this nation
and Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass and John Brown
in a way that knocks you sideways.
It's -- The story's told with so much love and so much humor
and so much silliness that the --
In the novel, anyway, it really opens your heart.
And so our goal was to do the same thing with movies.
-You change your look.
You changed your voice.
Pretty un-- I want to show a picture of you here.
This is what you look like there.
And look at this.
You knocked it out of the park yet again, bud.
Congrats on all the great reviews.
I want to show everyone a clip.
Here's Ethan Hawke in "The Good Lord Bird."
Take a look at this.
-My name is Captain John Brown!
And I am here in the name of the Great Redeemer!
The King of Kings! The man of the holy trinity!
And I hereby order you to git!
Git in his holy name! Git!
For he is on the side of justice,
and you are on the side of change!
-Brown!
[ Guns cock ]
Death is comin' for ya today!
[ Grunts ]
[ Yells ]
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Wow!
Wow!
Imagine having to do two takes of that!
I mean, come on.
Unbelievable. You are the man.
Ethan Hawke right there everybody.
"The Good Lord Bird" is available now on Showtime.