While I’ve loved Ethan Hawke as an actor for a long time, I actually can’t stand Reality Bites, one of his most famous films. Reality Bites is considered a Generation X classic and representative of ‘90s culture (white culture). I couldn’t stand the movie because Ethan Hawke’s Troy Dyer treats Winona Ryder’s Lelaina Pierce like sh-t throughout the whole movie. Like, I get that it was “real” in the sense that it really was representative of “romance” and relationships at the time. But I just hated it. Ethan sort of hated it for a while too, or rather, he didn’t want to be solely associated with playing a loser like Troy forever. Nowadays, he feels differently about it. I mean, it’s been thirty years and of course he’s had an incredibly varied career since then.

Ethan Hawke did not always love being associated with one of his most iconic roles. In an interview with PEOPLE about his new movie Wildcat, the actor, 53, recalls his 1994 classic Reality Bites, a comedy-drama about recent college graduates that cemented Hawke’s status as a Generation X star.

“There was a time when it annoyed me because I was worried it was going to somehow be prohibitive of growing up, but now I kind of love it,” he now says. “I like Gen X.”

“The thing about Reality Bites that I’m amazed by is I think Ben [Stiller] turned into one of the best directors of my generation,” Hawke says. “I think he’s brilliant, and that was his first film, and that movie exists as kind of a great — I’m proud of it as it’s representative of its moment.”

Despite Reality Bites’ status as a cult classic, Hawke says most fans don’t recognize him from the film. “The weird thing about my career is there’s certain people that just think I’m the guy from Moon Knight,” he says, referencing his 2022 Disney+ superhero series for Marvel Studios. “There’s certain people that don’t know I was in any other movie besides Training Day.”

“There’s a certain connectivity between the Reality Bites fans and the Before trilogy fans, and then I have horror movie fans that [know] Sinister or Black Phone, they don’t know I was in another movie,” Hawke adds. “And I’ll get the odd person that doesn’t think I’ve done anything with my life since Dead Poets Society.”

[From People]

People do forget that it was Ben’s first film as a director, and he cast himself as the “suit,” the guy who “sold out” and had a real job, unlike the dirtbag romantic hero Troy. I really wanted Lelaina to end up with Stiller’s character too, but of course that didn’t happen. Anyway, I agree with Ethan that it’s basically a nostalgic period piece and a decent primer on Gen X. At the time, Ethan was probably offered variations of Troy Dyer for several years. But I remember when he did Gattaca and it sort of altered his career trajectory again.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, ‘Reality Bites’ poster.