Ethan Hawke truly has a gorgeous mane. I never would have thought that his hair would hold up so well at his age. It doesn’t look like he’s been making any trips to Turkey either – some guys are just lucky enough to keep a full head of hair. Anyway, these are photos of Ethan at the Berlin Film Festival this week, where he premiered Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon. While he was in Berlin, he was asked about some comments his daughter Maya Hawke recently made about her generation of actors. Basically, Maya revealed (as many other young actors have revealed) that producers are often hiring younger actors based on their Instagram follower count. As in, if someone doesn’t have at least a million followers, they’re not getting cast in whatever movie or TV show. Well, Ethan had a lot to say about that.

Ethan Hawke is weighing in on his daughter Maya’s comments about certain producers wanting to cast actors based on the amount of Instagram followers they have. In an interview on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast last week, Maya Hawke revealed that she knows several “smart directors” who have been told by producers that they must cast actors with a certain amount of Instagram followers in order for a project to move forward. “I don’t care about Instagram. Instagram sucks,” she said. “Right, well just so you know, if you have over this many followers you can get the movie funded. It’s a really confusing line to walk.”

When asked by press at Berlin Film Festival about his daughter’s remarks, Ethan Hawke said he’s encountered this phenomenon as well and it’s “crazy.”

“I really feel for these people. It’s really hard,” he said. “Sometimes I’ll be setting a movie up and someone will say, ‘Oh, you should cast Suzie.’ I’m like, ‘Who is she?’ ‘She has 10 million followers.’ I’m like, ‘OK cool, has she acted before?’ ‘No, but…’ And you’re like, ‘Wow, so this is going to help me get the movie made? This is crazy.’”

Hawke continued, “So if I don’t have this public-facing [platform], I don’t have a career? And if I get more followers I might get that part? What?”

The Oscar-nominated actor, who is premiering “Blue Moon” — his latest collaboration with Richard Linklater — at the fest, went on to say that he meets “so many young actors that think being an actor is protein shakes and going to the gym.”

“I wish they could meet Phil Hoffman like I did when I was 18, because it’s a much more substantive and enjoyable life,” Hawke said. “I mean, go to the gym if you want to, but that doesn’t make you — Robert De Niro is not great because he has a six-pack. If the part calls for it, he’ll do it, and that’s awesome. But he’s so much more than that.”

[From Variety]

I feel like Ethan name-checks the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman in every interview he’s done for years. It’s always a gut-punch – Ethan loved and admired Hoffman, and Ethan must think about his friend Phil every single day. It’s a reminder that we really lost the most talented actor of his generation when Hoffman passed in 2014. Anyway, as for what Ethan is saying… yeah, that’s how we get TikTokers and influencers in movies and TV shows. No one is going to acting school anymore, I guess. Why do that when there are so many other avenues to “get famous.”

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.