Actor Ethan Hawke opens up to Parade magazine about his public divorce from actress Uma Thurman and the effects this has had on their two children–daughter Maya, 8, and son Levon, 4.
How celebrity affected his marriage: “To be honest, it was an undue pressure on my marriage. I didn’t like being famous when I was single, and what it did to my celebrity status to be married to another famous person was a huge pressure – one I didn’t enjoy. And it had nothing to do with her. Nothing to do with her.”
Don’t you love it when celebrities say they “hate being famous?” Why did they choose to be an actor and star in movies if that is not what they want?
On being a father: “the greatest pleasure in my life. It’s the only role that, if I fail, I will consider my life a failure.”
His relationship with Uma: “Our burden is just getting along, not hurting each other’s feelings, and letting each other grow – letting the tides take our lives away from each other and dealing with the disappointment of a dream that didn’t happen. We live down the street from each other. If we lived down the street from each other in Minneapolis, I’d have to watch every car go in and out of the driveway. I’d know how late she stayed out. I don’t have to know any of that stuff.”
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Uma as a mother: “She’s my children’s mother,” he says. “You have to keep that above anything else. If you bring two people into the world together, that supersedes anything else. She’s a great mother, and raising the kids is a priority for both of us. We’re so fortunate that we have each other’s back in that way. Because I write and act in theater, it’s a lot easier for me to stay in the city. But my ex-wife has done a phenomenal job of that as well. She plans all her movies to shoot in New York.”