Ethan Hawke says it’s ‘difficult’ for him to re-watch Before Sunrise: ‘Who I was then is so different from who I am now’

Actor says he put much of his real self into his character for the 1995 film

Ethan Hawke has said he finds it “difficult” to watch his 1995 film Before Sunrise because of how much of his real self he put into the movie.

Before Sunrise was the first film in the Before trilogy, which spanned 27 years and also included 2004’s Before Sunset and 2013’s Before Midnight.

The Richard Linklater movies starred Hawke and Julie Delpy as musing romantics Jesse and Céline, two strangers who meet on a train and disembark in Vienna to spend the night together.

In a new interview with The Independent, Hawke said: “There’s a lot of myself and my reality in those movies. They’re as deeply connected to me as anything could be.

“I can’t look at Before Sunrise now without remembering, so vividly, that time period. Who I was then is so different from who I am now; it’s difficult for me to watch it and exorcise it from my actual life.”

Between the second and third instalment, Hawke split from his wife, the actor Uma Thurman. The breakdown of their relationship was something Linklater encouraged Hawke to put on screen.

Hawke and Delpy in ‘Before Sunrise’ (Moviestore/Shutterstock)

“It was really nerve wracking to do,” said Hawke. “It was scary. Rick was really interested in blurring the line between character and actor in order to give the film a subconscious. We put a lot of ourselves into those movies.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Hawke discussed his new Marvel show Moon Knight, coping with failure, and “what a waste of time” it is to be jealous of other actors.