His divorce and a Broadway production of Shakespeare are the focus of his book ‘A Bright Ray of Darkness’
In 2003, when the actor’s wedding Ethan Hawke and star Uma Thurmanmother of his two children, broke down, came to the Broadway stage to take part in a production of Shakespeare’s Henry IV, in which she played the warrior Hotspur.
The 20 years that have passed since then were the “fertilizer” to write it “A Bright Ray of Darkness”a novel released in 2021 in the United States and received the best reviews.
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Marital problems with an also-famous actress brought to light and a Broadway production of the same Shakespeare play are just two of the common biographical details the famous actor shares with his book’s protagonist.
William Harding is an actor in the middle of a personal crisis who has just passed his thirties, whose parents divorced when he was very young, who grew up with his young mother and who became famous in his teens thanks to the movies.
“My life is the clay with which I have tried to mold a story that makes sense and is not a waste of time for the readers.” said the actor in an interview with “El Pais”. “The danger in using one’s own life is that it turns the situation into a psychoanalyst’s couch“, explained.
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A Bright Ray of Darkness is the actor’s third book of fiction—among other genres, he has written the graphic novel “Indeh: A Story of the Apache Wars” and the historical novel “Rules For a Knight,” as well as screenplays—and the first in which he narrates with humor what an actor experiences.
Structured as a play (it has a prologue and five acts, each with several scenes), the novel explores the “ins and outs” of the actors’ lives—their anxieties, insecurities, egos, miseries, and grandeur amid the strange collective energy activated behind the curtains- ‘run’ parallel to Harding’s descent into hell.
“I believe that being an actor has allowed me to grow as a person,” he says, adding that this helps him explain to himself why he has remained in the world of showbiz after all these years.
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“When I published my second novel, during a dinner in Germany, my publisher asked me why I avoid the subject of acting in my books. He told me that this is what I know and I should think about writing about itwhat”, he remembers.
“Actors’ lives make headlines in the press, but there are very few novels of substance that talk about it that aren’t first-person autobiographical books. There’s a James Baldwin book and a few other things, but I saw there was an opportunity». And it was this theme, he explains, that led him to structure the book the way he did: “I wanted to write about the lives of the actors and the only way to create the context in which I could do that was through the production of a play, from the rehearsals, the doubles days, the school plays, the premiere . This was there from the beginning».
And the theater? “I thought about King Lear, but I preferred the other play because I know it deeply and it talks about masculinity, the father-son relationship,” points out. Hawke is no stranger to these themes and has touched on them in many of his films, including the ones he made with Richard Linklater. “I have devoted a large part of my work to these subjects, but the interesting thing about books is that I do them myself. There is an incredible pleasure in working together and making something as a team, but in literature you produce something much more intimate“, points out.
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Fame is another subject the book touches on. “When I was younger, I was more embarrassed about what other people might think of me, but as you get older, you realize that the interest in you doesn’t even last that long, and now I take it with more of a sense of humor,” she says.
He continues: “The strange thing about fame is that you never make a first impression when you’re introduced or meet someone. He already has his idea or opinion about you. If you don’t want to live in isolation and you like to socialize, it creates this weird dynamic where you can end up treating your actor as if they were another person and talking about yourself in the third person. That’s how you go crazy,” he says with disarming honesty.
Asked if he cares about other people’s lives, Ethan Hawke says: “Before, I would have said no, but after the Paul Newman and Joan Woodward documentary, ‘The Last Movie Stars,’ probably yes. The work interests me, the way each person tells stories and how actors try to understand themselves.”
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The debate surrounding who has the right to play a role or write a book or imagine the life of a person of a different gender has escalated in recent years. As the actor points out, “probably, this is because the world needs some truth and there is something exciting about authenticity. But you have to understand what is authentic. I think the conversation is important, but, as Emerson said, I feel like I was born on a ladder and I don’t quite see what’s coming…“, concludes the actor.
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Source :Skai
I am Frederick Tuttle, who works in 247 News Agency as an author and mostly cover entertainment news. I have worked in this industry for 10 years and have gained a lot of experience. I am a very hard worker and always strive to get the best out of my work. I am also very passionate about my work and always try to keep up with the latest news and trends.
