Ethan Hawke has no problem with daughter Maya Hawke doing sex scenes.
Ethan directs Maya in upcoming Flannery O’Connor biopic “Wildcat,” which premiered at Telluride. Maya plays the author as well as six other characters in O’Connor’s short stories, some of which include sex scenes.
Ethan told Variety that he had no hesitation directing Maya in those moments, which co-starred Rafael Casal and Cooper Hoffman. To note, the cast of “Wildcat” received a SAG-AFTRA interim agreement to promote the film amid the ongoing strike.
“We needed to take care of Rafael and Cooper,” Ethan said. “I think it was weird for them. We were so comfortable with it. I couldn’t care less.”
Maya added, “We made sure to have an intimacy coordinator on set for them. So that they felt safe and comfortable and not like they were being spied on…” to which Ethan said, “…by some creepy dad.”
Ethan added to Variety of Maya portraying O’Connor that “young actresses very rarely get that opportunity to be brilliant, complicated, mean, sexual, asexual. Making movies about imperfect women is hard.”
The “Training Day” alum directs, produces, and co-wrote “Wildcat” with Shelby Gaines; Maya executive produces. Ethan previously starred opposite Maya on limited series “The Good Lord Bird.”
Maya told Entertainment Weekly at the time that working with her father was a “great” experience, saying, “I hope to work with my dad my whole life. He’s my greatest teacher and my greatest adviser, and it’s an honor to get to work alongside him.”
As for representing femininity onscreen as a whole, the “Stranger Things” star said in conversation with Margaret Qualley for Interview magazine that empowered female sexuality can take many forms.
“You’ll go to see an all-female Shakespeare production or something, which is so awesome, but so often the way in which women try to be powerful is by impersonating men. You don’t have to sit with your legs separated to be taken seriously,” Maya said. “That’s an option, and if that works for you, that’s a great option.”
She continued, “I’m so sick, in my own life and in movies, for all the women to have to do all the work to make the moment special, for them to have to peacock around and look so beautiful. I feel so fluid in my own gender. I love getting dressed up and being sparkly and peacocking around, and I also love not doing that.”
