#628 - Ethan Hawke and Willem Dafoe Discuss the Art of Acting

This week we’re excited to present a special conversation from the 63rd New York Film Festival between Ethan Hawke and Willem Dafoe, moderated by Film at Lincoln Center programmer Maddie Whittle. This talk is sponsored by The Hollywood Reporter. Two films in this year’s NYFF lineup center on artists confronting the passage of time: Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon stars Ethan Hawke as the legendary lyricist Lorenz Hart, fretful and embittered at the prospect of his one-time creative partner scaling the heights of musical-theater celebrity; Kent Jones’s Late Fame adapts Arthur Schnitzler’s novella about a once-upon-a-time New York poet, played by Willem Dafoe, who is intoxicated by the sudden attentions of a coterie of twentysomething would-be literati. Each film taps into extraordinary reserves of wit and melancholy via the contributions of their lead actors, titans of contemporary American cinema and exemplary interpreters of the cultural forces that have defined their respective generations. NYFF was thrilled to bring together Hawke and Dafoe for an in-depth discussion of their craft, their creative philosophies, and their portrayals of aging artists on the brink of an uncertain future. The 63rd New York Film Festival is presented in partnership with Rolex.