Inside Ethan Hawke's Relationship With Daughter Maya Hawke
A child of Hollywood royalty, Maya Hawke burst onto the acting scene and appeared in Netflix hit Stranger Things. The 22-year-old actress credits her parents with many things, including her ability to rise above bullying and getting kicked out of her school for not being able to read. People reports that Hawke was diagnosed with dyslexia at a young age and still is "limited" in that capacity. However, parents Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman helped her move through her struggles.
"It was deeply difficult, you know, to be in the slow class," she said on NPR. "Every grade that went by, you get dropped down into a lower and lower reading group. And other kids find out. And there's bullying in place. But my parents did a wonderful job of encouraging me to be creative."
Hawke is also singer-songwriter and a model, but her work in Hollywood was anything but planned. Nylon explains that when it came time to apply to colleges, Hawke struggled to find a place where she could get admitted due to her SAT scores. After staying involved in theater throughout her time at school, she continued her schooling at Juilliard. She landed her first part in the BBC series, Little Women and the rest is history.
As for her father, Hawke explains that he's a "brilliant and sort of a philosopher himself. You know, a loving father who really wants me to become my best self and is supportive and encouraging and has high standards all at the same time." While her parents split up when she was five, their daughter didn't seem to miss a beat.
Ethan Hawke prioritizes his daughter's independence
As far as her relationship with her father goes, the two seem decidedly close. W Magazine shared Hawke's refreshing perspective on raising a daughter.
"There's this thing that goes around with men that they're supposed to be scared of their daughter's sexuality," he explained on the Filmspotting podcast. "I remember my oldest daughter Maya, when she was turning sixteen. 'Oh, I better keep these guys away, keep a shotgun at the door' or something. I was like, you know what, I'm going to give Maya permission to be her own shotgun. And if you act all scared of her sexuality, how is she supposed to feel?"
"She can handle herself and she can go and have a good time, and she can make mistakes and she can recover from them," he continued. We're allowed to grow up, and if we don't then we're just going to live in a little tiny, tiny glass world."
Clearly an egalitarian, modern household, the Hawkes seem to stay rather close throughout their successful careers. On screen, the two are set to work together for the first time. Variety reports that the two signed on for a coming-of-age comedy that stars Maya and her father, called Revolver. As the name suggests, the story takes place in 1966 and centers around the Beatles as well as the subsequent Beatlemania.