Ash Wednesday by Ethan Hawke

ETHAN HAWKE was born in 1970 in Austin, Texas. His parents split up when he was just a toddler. The next few years were spent with his mother, travelling around the US. Finally she remarried and the new family settled down in New Jersey, across the river from the shining lights of New York.

At the age of 14, Ethan made his first appearance in a film, a science-fiction movie called Explorers. He starred alongside River Phoenix, who was also making his film-acting debut, and who quickly went on to gain widespread recognition. Ethan, however, disappeared back into obscurity. But the acting bug had bitten. When he finished high school he enrolled on the acting course at the Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Ethan left the course without finishing it, but in 1988 he was offered the role of Todd in Dead Poets Society, directed by Peter Weir. The film was a huge international success, and Ethan was critically acclaimed for his performance. Since then, Ethan Hawke has been one of the brightest young talents in Hollywood. Some of his films have not scored the commercial success of Dead Poets, but all have a depth and integrity that is often lacking in Hollywood. In 2002 he was nominated for an Oscar Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor in Training Day.

Film acting isn’t everything for Ethan. He is the co-founder of Malparte, a theatre company in New York, and he directed the music video for his friend Lisa Loeb’s song ‘Stay’. His first book The Hottest State was published in 1995 and received widespread critical acclaim in both the US and the UK. The Times wrote, ‘His writing is searingly open; his prose, full of the freshness of love and the agony of loss, is beguiling. The Hottest State captures beautifully the awfulness of being captured.’

His new novel, Ash Wednesday, sparked huge interest when it was auctioned around the world in late 2001. The word from editors is that it is a contemporary masterpiece, and that as a result Ethan Hawke will become known as much for his writing as for his films.

Ethan Hawke lives in New York and LA with his wife, Uma Thurman, and their two young children.

Filmography

Corso: The Last Beat (2002)
The Jimmy Show (2002) — Ray
Chelsea Walls (2001) — director
Training Day (2001) — Jake Hoyt
Tape (2001) — Vince
Waking Life (2001) — Jesse
Tell Me (2000)
Hamlet (2001) — Hamlet
Snow Falling on Cedars (1999) — Ishmael Chambers
Joe the King (1999) — Len Coles
The Velocity of Gary (1998) — Nat
The Newton Boys (1998) — Jess Newton
Great Expectations (1998) — Finnegan 'Finn' Bell
Gattaca (1997) — Vincent Freeman
Search and Destroy (1995) — Roger
Before Sunrise (1995) — Jesse
Floundering (1994) — Jimmy
Quiz Show (1994) (uncredited) — Don Quixote Student
White Fang II: Myth of the White Wolf (1994) — Jack Conroy
Reality Bites (1994) — Troy Dyer
Alive (1993) — Nando Parrado
Rich in Love (1992) — Wayne Frobiness
Waterland (1992) — Mathew Price
A Midnight Clear (1991) — Will Knott
Mystery Date (1991) — Tom McHugh
White Fang (1991) — Jack
Dad (1989) — Billy Tremont
Dead Poets Society (1989) — Todd A. Anderson
Explorers (1985) — Ben Crandall

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