Ethan Hawke has opened up about his notable divorce from actress Uma Thurman, offering a glimpse into their past relationship.
The two met in 1996 during the filming of the sci-fi movie Gattaca and were married two years later. However, by 2003 the couple separated, and Thurman, who hails from Boston, initiated divorce proceedings in the following year, with the divorce being finalized in 2005.
Hawke and Thurman have two children together: Maya, who is 27, and Levon, who is 23.
In a conversation with GQ, the 54-year-old actor from Austin shared insights into their breakup and discussed why he thinks many prominent Hollywood couples marry only to eventually part ways.
“Have you ever played Spin the Bottle?” Hawke responded to GQ’s Alex Frank when questioned about why actors often become romantically involved with co-stars.
“There’s a certain intimacy to the work that we do. Imaginative intimacy. It’s such a high. It feels dangerous and thrilling. It turns the temperature up in your life. It can be like falling in love at summer camp. It doesn’t have any connection to the dailiness of real life. That’s the danger of it.”
The actor, known for his role in Blue Moon, described how he attempted to maintain a low profile, but the divorce attracted global attention.
He said: “It’s humiliating. It’s almost humiliating even when they’re saying positive things.”
Three years after finalizing the divorce, Hawke married Ryan Shawhughes, who had worked as a nanny for the family.
Discussing Ryan with GQ, he mentioned: “My wife is really funny. We’ll go out to dinner and I’ll go, ‘God, that waiter was rude.’ And she’ll say, ‘They weren’t rude. They [just] didn’t recognise you. They were normal. You’re just used to everybody smiling when they see you or offering you an extra thing or moving you up in line’.
“The problem with that kind of attention is that a normal temperature feels cold. When you get tickets to the game and you’re sitting 10 rows back and not the front, you feel like someone f**ked you over.”
In a 2009 interview with The Guardian, Hawke delved deeper into their relationship.
“I was very cautious during that period of my life and desperately wanted to stay single,” he explained. “But sometimes life happens to you. Now, I love Ryan tremendously. The bottom line is we’re incredibly compatible. We grew up in the same town, you know, all that old school s**t your grandma told you.”
Hawke further commented: “She has always been an extremely sensible, no-bulls**t woman, and frankly I thought that might be good for a half-madman like me.”