Ethan Hawke has opened up about his love story with ex-wife Uma Thurman – detailing the ‘dangerous’ intimacy they felt on set.
The former Hollywood power couple tied the knot in 1998 after meeting on set of the sci-fi film Gattaca in 1996.
However, the pair’s relationship fell apart in 2003 amid rumours that he was unfaithful.
Making rare comments about their ill-fated love story, Ethan, 54, spoke to GQ about the intensity it felt filming together.
‘Have you ever played Spin the Bottle?’ he said, when asked why actors often fall in love on set.
‘There’s a certain intimacy to the work that we do. Imaginative intimacy. It’s such a high. It feels dangerous and thrilling. It turns the temperature up in your life.’
Ethan Hawke has opened up about his love story with ex-wife Uma Thurman – detailing the ‘dangerous’ intimacy they felt on set
The former Hollywood power couple tied the knot in 1998 after meeting on set of the sci-fi film Gattaca in 1996 (pictured). However, the pair’s relationship fell apart in 2003
Ethan continued: ‘It can be like falling in love at summer camp. It doesn’t have any connection to the dailiness of real life. That’s the danger of it.’
The four-time Oscar nominee, who shares children Maya, 27, and Levon, 23, with Uma, 55, was involved in infidelity rumours at the time of their split.
He had been accused of cheating on Uma with their children’s nanny Ryan Shawhughes.
The Training Day actor denied the affair but he did begin publicly dating Shawhughes after he and Uma finalized their divorce in 2005.
Ethan and Ryan went on to marry in 2008 and they are the parents of two daughters: Clementine, 17, and Indiana, 14.
He noted in the GQ chat that he had come to the interview straight from a parent-teacher conference, musing: ‘When you first have kids you don’t realise how impermanent it is. I’m trying to not miss anything.’
In her first post-divorce interview with Oprah Winfrey in October 2005, Uma admitted that the split left her self-esteem ‘pretty mangled.’
She described the entire ordeal as ‘excruciating’ and admitted that even two years after their separation it was ‘very difficult’ communicating with Hawke.
Uma did not substantiate the affair rumours but she did suggest that there was ‘some betrayal’ between them.
Ethan, 54, spoke to GQ about the intensity it felt filming together. ‘Have you ever played Spin the Bottle?’ he said, when asked why actors often fall in love on set’
He continued: ‘There’s a certain intimacy to the work that we do. Imaginative intimacy. It’s such a high. It feels dangerous and thrilling. It turns the temperature up in your life’
The four-time Oscar nominee shares children Maya, 27, and Levon, 23, with Uma, 55. They have gone on to follow in their parents’ footsteps by pursuing acting careers (pictured in 2013)
Ethan previously admitted his life ‘fell apart’ when he divorced Uma, saying in 2018 that he had been forced to do commercial films to pay her alimony.
He noted that the divorce took place just a year after he received his first Oscar nomination for Training Day, which he described as ‘the best moment of my career’.
‘In a lot of ways, it could have been the beginning of something. Like, maybe, maybe, you could be commercially viable,’ he recalled.
‘But I got divorced and my personal life fell apart.’
He continued: ‘When you’re depressed, it’s really easy to see everything that is fake about other people and life, and I just started seeing all that. How phony celebrity was, how phony everything is. You channel your inner Holden Caulfield, you know?’
Ethan insisted in the interview he never wanted — and still doesn’t want — to make films just to make money; however he admitted he is now forced to do commercial films to pay alimony.
‘My best movies are not the ones that paid me: the Before trilogy, Boyhood, First Reformed, Dead Poets Society,’ he said.
‘But I’m 47 years old. I pay my alimony with my acting. I pay my kids’ health insurance with my acting. I pay everybody’s tuition with my acting. I’m helping various charities with my acting.
‘I’ve become a professional, and I never wanted to be a professional. I kind of hate professionals.’
He had been accused of cheating on Uma with their children’s nanny Ryan Shawhughes. The Training Day actor denied the affair. They married in 2008 and went on to welcome two daughters (pictured last month)
