Ethan Hawke says childhood costar River Phoenix was struggling with how phony Hollywood was
The young actor's malaise may have inspired his most lasting project choice.By Jordan Hoffman
September 13, 2025 10:30 a.m. ET
Leave a Comment
River Phoenix in the 1992 film 'Sneakers'.Credit:
Universal Pictures/Getty
Ethan Hawke and his frequent collaborator, director Richard Linklater, popped by Entertainment Weekly's 2025 Toronto International Film Festival studio just as lucky ticket holders got an early look at their latest project, Blue Moon.
The new movie also touches on collaboration, as it focuses on the lyricist Lorenz ("Larry") Hart, who is probably best known for not being Oscar Hammerstein II — in other words, the guy who worked with composer Richard Rodgers during the earlier years, before he went full blockbuster. As such, the conversation turned to that of artistic partnerships, bringing Hawke all the way back to his very first project — Joe Dante's wide-eyed science-fiction fantasy Explorers, where Hawke first met his soon-to-be-pal with a similarly ornithological last name, River Phoenix.
Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix in the 1985 film 'Explorers'.
Paramount/Courtesy Everett
Hawke, in discussing some of the pressures of "a life in the performing arts," explained how Phoenix, who tragically died at the age of 23, found himself "struggling" during much of his limited career.
"He was met with success much earlier than I was," Hawke said, referring specifically to the response to Rob Reiner's movie Stand by Me, which "launched this huge career at an extremely young age."
Ethan Hawke and Post Malone experiment on Taylor Swift's mind in surreal 'Fortnight' music video
Ethan Hawke is glad he lost out on 'Titanic' role to Leonardo DiCaprio: 'He was a f---ing Beatle'
He shared that Phoenix was "vibrating off of how phony that was, whenever you're getting a lot of accolades and you're not even in control of your own art."
He added that "people are trying to make money off you [and] if you're self-aware at all, you understand how dangerous that is."
While this was no doubt a source of great tumult, Hawke noted that it also "led him to do the best work of his short life with Gus Van Sant."
Hawke was referring to the movie My Own Private Idaho, a counterculture riff on Shakespeare's history plays costarring Keanu Reeves.
"He was punk rock as an actor when he took that job," Hawke continued. "That was a really dangerous job for him to take — a gay hustler for a teen idol — and he was brilliant in that."
River Phoenix in 1988.
George Rose/Getty
The part secured Phoenix with some of the best reviews of his career, plus the prestigious Volpi Cup at the Venice Film Festival, a best actor prize at the Independent Spirit Awards and from the National Society of Film Critics.
But if 9-year-olds in the summer of 1985 could give out trophies, some surely would have gone to the Hawke-Phoenix collab Explorers!
The movie, which wouldn't exactly beat the charges of being an E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial knockoff, saw the two future stars (plus a young Jason Presson) building a spaceship in their backyard. They zoom off to a distant star and meet some aliens and have adventures. The film includes performances by James Cromwell, Dick Smith, Dana Ivey, Mary Kay Place, and, in multiple roles, Robert Picardo. Phoenix is cast against type as the dorky kid.
Explorers was a significant box office dud, but over time it became something of a cult favorite.
Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.
If it has been a while since you've last thought about Explorers, take another look at the trailer below.
