In the Apple TV+ film, Hawke plays Ray, a jazz musician and recovering addict who shares a name with his older half-brother Raymond (Ewan McGregor), and who, like his sibling, has a deep resentment for their late father, Harris.
After their father dies, Raymond and Ray learn that the patriarch wants them to dig his grave, an act that forces the estranged brothers to face the issues they’ve been ignoring for years, both in their relationship and their lives outside of it.
Ethan Hawke on How ‘Raymond & Ray’ Will Make People See Life Differently
Hawke told Newsweek that he hoped the film would help with “understanding our past” and trying to see the humor in even the most difficult of times.
“I think when a movie like this works [well] it makes you think about your own life, you know?” Hawke said. “If you get deeply involved in another family’s dynamics, you kind of can see your own with new eyes, and whenever we can see our own dynamics in a forgiving gaze, in an understanding gaze, it can help us, especially when you realize that a lot of our problems are not as unique as we think they are.
“A lot of people are going through [the same thing] and a lot of them are secretly really funny, when you keep your sense of humor about your life and realize that this is kind of ridiculous and funny then good things happen.”
When asked about the way the film presents relationships between fathers and sons, the Moon Knight actor added: “I don’t know that the film has any agenda or specific kind of didactic thing to say about it.
“I think we’re all obsessed with our own families, whether we’re avoiding it or looking at it, or want something different or wish something else, we all go through that in our life and the journey of growing up is to understand your parents and where you come from.
“And so it’s endlessly interesting to me, I love family dramas. I’m always surprised by them, I always learn from them. It’s a well that seems to draw never-ending water.”
On Finding Humor in the Ridiculousness of Real Life
Hawke joined the project because of director Rodrigo García, who he first met when García worked as a camera operator on 1994 film Reality Bites and he later reconnected with while serving on the jury of Sundance Film Festival in 2020. It was at this event that García approached him about Raymond & Ray, which already had Ewan McGregor attached to star in it.
“The idea of getting to work with Rodrigo and Ewan at the same time, it just felt like a room I wanted to be in just to see how that went,” Hawke explained. “And then I found there’s a kind of simplicity and gentle humaneness to the script that moved me, that’s my favourite kind of movie.”
Of the director, he added: “He’s extremely experienced at this point in his life, you work with so many young directors and people who aren’t sure what they’re doing, [but] because Rodrigo has a real depth of knowledge about the camera, starting as a camera operator, and because he’s so experienced as a writer, […] it’s so relaxing to be on set with somebody who knows what they’re doing.
“I mean, whether you like the movie or don’t like the movie, it’s the movie he wanted to make, you know? And when you have that clarity of vision everything gets easier because the person in charge knows what the movie is and what the movie is not.
“And you add that to being opposite Ewan, who is extremely professional, disciplined, [and] funny. He knows exactly what he wants from himself and this script was very well built, it’s a very well made screenplay, which just really put the production in a position to succeed.
“If you’re making this kind of movie, it rests on intimacy. Can you create a feeling? The kind of unique human tone where it’s funny because real life is funny, it’s not a comedy where you’re trying to get laughs it’s just funny because people are ridiculous.”
Reflecting on the scene in which Raymond and Ray dig their father’s grave and the many surprises that moment reveals, particularly regarding the relationship Maribel Verdú’s Lucia shared with their father, Hawke went on: “That was my favourite aspect of the script and the shooting, that’s when the whole piece kind of felt like a [Anton] Chekhov short story to me.
“Two half-brothers with the same name burying the father they hate [and] hilarity ensues, that was definitely my favorite experience. All the other actors that we had there were so good, that’s when the movie really sings I think.”
On Working With Ewan McGregor and Sophie Okonedo
Hawke was keen to act alongside McGregor, and said that while they’re “not brothers” their “professional lives have mirrored each other in some way,” so it helped them create a brotherly bond when filming Raymond and Ray’s deep and meaningful discussions, no matter how confrontational.
The actor explained: “He started young, we both had really powerful experiences young, Dead Poets Society [for me] and him with Training Day, and we’ve both been doing this for 30 years.
“That, in a way, [meant] we’re professional siblings, you know? We’ve lived a similar life, there’s a lot of ways that we can relate to one another and understand one another that made it very, very easy [and] enjoyable to do.”
He added: “I’ve been a fan of his acting and I think it would be actively difficult to be bad in a movie that stars Ewan McGregor. He’s so generous, so good at facilitating scenes and understanding how scenes work, and what makes a good scene and what makes a bad scene that, yeah, that aspect was easy for me.”
Hawke also called his co-star Sophie Okonedo “a magical actress.” Okonedo portrays Kiera, the former nurse of Raymond and Ray’s father who Ray takes a shine to.
“She’s so smart [and] funny, we were lucky to have her,” Hawke said. “The whole ensemble in that way I was extremely impressed by, but particularly [Sophie], she comes from the theater [and] we have a lot in common, she and I. We could talk for hours, we had a ball together.”
Raymond & Ray is out on Apple TV+ now.
