From CNN Films and HBO Max, The Last Movie Stars is a unique movie in many ways. The family came to Hawke to ask him to make this documentary. Hawke brings life and color to this definitive history of Newman and Woodward’s dedication to their art, philanthropy, angst, love and passion. Through long-lost transcripts of interviews with Paul, Joanne and those close to them, brought to life by the voices of contemporary actors, we’re given an intimate front-row seat to the lives and careers of the couple that would go on to forge an unmatched cultural legacy. The golden couple worked on 16 movies together; five of them directed by Newman. Their combined film legacy includes The Hustler, HUD, The Three Faces of Eve, The Long, Hot Summer, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Rachel, Rachel, Butch Cassidy, and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, and their last film together, 1990’s Mr. and Mrs. Bridge. Their legacy also includes nurturing Newman’s Own grocery brand that has since 1982 proudly raised nearly $600 million to improve the lives of children who face adversity. In order to write about his legacy in the 1980s, Newman had hundreds of hours of interviews taped from 1986-1991, with family, friends, fellow actors, and directors in order to write a memoir, and then, in 1991, Newman decided to burn all of the tapes. Left behind were “hundreds of thousands of pages of transcripts,” that director Hawke enlisted his celebrity friends, including George Clooney, Laura Linney, Sam Rockwell, Billy Crudup, Sally Field and several others, to bring to life. Martin Scorsese served as a producer on the project. Hawke, an acclaimed actor, writer and director has been nominated for four Academy Awards, two Golden Globes and a Tony Award. He has directed several feature films, three off-Broadway plays and The Last Movie Stars. Hawke has also written three best-selling novels and a graphic novel. Samir Hussein/Getty Images Hawke broke out with the 1989 drama Dead Poets Society and kept his star rising with Richard Linklater’s trilogy Before Sunrise, Before Sunset and Before Midnight; Blaze; Training Day (with an Oscar-winning turn from Denzel Washington); Boyhood and Gattaca. His most recent movies include The Northman and The Black Phone, and he had a fan-favorite turn as villain Arthur Harrow in Marvel Studios’ Moon Knight. Hawke admits that he fell more in love with Newman and Woodward— twotruly complicated people living a complex life—the more he worked on conveying their unvarnished love story, warts and all. He appreciates their “old school Hollywood appeal” and the fact that throughout their lives they were the “creators of meaningful and substantive art.” “I think that it’s hard to find heroes, and we all need them, especially at the end of our lives, which can be the best part of our lives,” Hawke exclusively tells Parade.com. “I see them as a kind of North Star of how to live a meaningful, substantive life.” “I think about how hard it is, how much fun it is and how worthwhile it is. I can only speak for myself, and what I get out of it is having a type of compass showing you that it can be done.” Read on for more of how Hawke captured Newman and Woodward’s 50-year love story, film legacy, commitment to philanthropy, and more.
Your documentary is a bit like going to film school. How many movies of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward did you watch either before or while you were making The Last Movie Stars?
Ethan Hawke: Well, I had to watch all of them, which was a lot of work and so much fun. Because throughout their careers you do see it’s like a little teaching the last 50 years of cinema history. When you think about Paul’s career when he first started acting, he worked with Robert Weiss, Michael Cortez and Alfred Hitchcock, all masters of old Hollywood. And at the end of his life, he was working with Pixar. This is a huge journey. In between, there are some of the best minds in our industry. John Houston, Martin Scorsese, Sydney Pollack and Marty Ritt. The list is extremely long and filled with some of the greatest minds who ever tried to tell a story with a camera, including Sidney Lumet and Robert Altman. So, when you tell Paul and Joanne’s stories, you’re really talking about how cinema has changed.
Why do you think the family picked you to make this documentary?
I think they wanted an actor to direct it because at some level the world kind of treats Paul and Joanne like celebrities. I think the children thought of their parents as performing artists who dedicated their lives to it, and they were hopeful that an actor could see them as actors and not as celebrities. The list of actors who make documentaries is not that long, and I’d only made one, so I think that I popped into their head. HBO Max
Do you think that you were able to carry out Paul Newman’s wishes of him wanting to dispel the myth that everybody saw? Everything came easy to them and everything was perfect because they were this glamorous couple winning awards and accolades?
I don’t know; I just tried to follow my nose about what was interesting to me and hoped that like-minded people would find it interesting as well. It did feel like a great responsibility and there were times when it was kind of terrifying to be responsible for their story. I have so much respect for them. I wanted to both make something that they would like and admire. And simultaneously I know that most of us don’t like thinking about ourselves in the third person at all. Certainly, Paul and Joanne didn’t. I also knew that I had an uphill road to climb.
How unusual or unique do you think it is, for a couple to have that kind of bond and sexual energy as well as love and respect for 50 years?
Well, it’s just so rare. A lot of us dream of a lifelong love affair. People talk about it like it’s rare in acting, but it’s rare in any profession or in any field. All of us as kids long for parents to be in love forever or we want that for ourselves, and we want that for our best friends. I think they have remarkable careers, but what is truly revelatory about them is that they did it together. HBO Max There are a few examples in the entertainment world—Ossie Davis and his wife Ruby Dee and Samuel L. Jackson and his wife LaTanya Jackson. There are a handful of couples that have been in the entertainment business and loved each other and built a family. It’s just really rare!
How difficult was it to get George Clooney, Sam Rockwell, Laura Linney and all of the other amazing talented actors to come along on this journey with you?
It’s not hard to talk people into talking about Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. If you’re an actor, we’re all the generation that grew up watching them and loving them. I think revisiting that generation for my generation was really enjoyable. I can’t think of a person I reached out to who didn’t want to do it.
Can you think about one or two things that you learned about yourself or your craft from making this documentary?
The biggest thing I learned by watching them that I think is in the subtext of the film is how hard it is to grow up and to let yourself age and to do it with grace. The rewards of doing so are so powerful. I find it really beautiful to look at these two people and see that in their 70s they were the happiest, the most productive and the most fulfilled. I think that’s a great thing to put into the universe. We’re all kind of told this narrative that being 23 is the best time of your life or something. It’s so insulting to all of us saying that experience doesn’t have value, wisdom doesn’t have value, grace doesn’t have value and education doesn’t have value. These are two amazing examples of people who kept putting one foot in front of the other and evolved into really beautiful human beings.
You have mentioned that when the family initially came to you, you were afraid of this project and it seemed very overwhelming. How do you then say, “OK, I’m going to do this anyway and push past that fear?”
There were many times during the process that if I could have gone back and said no, I would have. It’s just a very big story. When I first started the only way I thought I would make it [was] really small—just tell a delicate little love story, great, be 90 minutes, get in and get out. The problem with their lives is that it’s seeing them in totality that makes them so remarkable. It demanded that I had to cover the entire 50-year marriage. That’s what was so interesting. Picking one moment. You could easily pick the ‘50s of them in acting class with James Dean, Brando and Marilyn Monroe. You can make a meal out of that. But then you’d miss the grace of their older years, of what they accomplished as citizens and members of the community. It just kept expanding and it really broke my brain on many occasions trying to hold all these movies together, how can I use their work to tell the story of their life. I found little ways to do it and I just kept plugging at it. I don’t think I would have been able to do it if it weren’t for the pandemic. There was so much time to watch movies and edit and play and play and go down false paths and come out.
Did you wish that you had the audio tapes?
Many times. I was so disappointed I didn’t have them. But then I became really grateful that I didn’t have them because it was a wonderful opportunity as actors; we are making a documentary about actors, and we should have actors performing in the documentary. It just seemed to start to make sense to me that it was a real addition to the movie to have Clooney playing Paula and Laura playing Joanne and all these wonderful people joining in because it makes it bigger. HBO Max It’s not just the story of Paul and Joanne, it’s the story of the last 50 years. And now with using contemporary actors it’s why is this relevant to us today. It just started working for me. What I thought was a negative turned into a positive.
Overall, why do you think everyone needs to see The Last Movie Stars?
These are two white people that were born with a lot and did a lot with it. They gave a lot back, they took care of each other, they took care of their friends, and they worked hard for their community and for others and it’s really inspiring. And they managed to love each other and have fun while they were doing it. It’s like, “Wow, this path has been carved and there’s a lot to learn from it.”
Will you stay in touch with the Newman children?
I don’t know. I saw them the other night. We were premiering the film for them and it was wonderful to see them last night. It’s nerve-wracking for them. One of the things that’s hard about the documentary is they’re smart enough to know that if you just make a puff piece, it won’t be interesting. They don’t want anybody to say a negative word about their mom or dad. I have to kind of keep telling them that if you don’t have shadows, you don’t have light. We need to see them in their totality for it to be interesting. I think they’re nervous about people seeing it, but they’re also excited. I’ll be curious what people make out of it. That will inform their feelings.
One of the lines in your movie that really struck me was Paul Newman saying that Joanne gave him the promise that anything and everything is possible. A lot of people yearn for that feeling in their lives. How did that strike you?
I remember when I read that line. It was so beautiful. I remember when Clooney read it (as Paul Newman), he felt the same way about it. I decided to use that as the end of Episode 1 because I found it so moving that he would feel that way about her so passionately and with so all-encompassing love. It definitely moves me. HBO Max Joanne always said that about Paul. I think what was the most surprising about working on this and watching their interviews over the years, is that both of them were so incredibly funny. I think that there’s a great lesson in that. Whether they were marching for civil rights or whether they were acting in a show or with their kids or things were good were happening or things that were bad were happening they always managed to be really funny. They kept their sense of humor through it all. I think that shows a lot of wisdom.
So, what is your next project?
Well, I’m about to do a movie with Pedro Almodovar, called Strange Way of Life which I’m really excited about. I’ve always loved his films and I think it’s going to be really fun to go to Spain and work with a true master. The Last Movie Stars, an epic 6-part documentary, debuts on HBO Max on July 21. Next, go inside Ethan Hawke’s own real-life love story with wife Ryan!
