Hawke-ing the new ‘Hamlet’
By Fauzia Arain
Staff Writer

     Those crazy Hollywood types are at it again, combing the sands of classic literature to find a pearl with which to conquer the masses, both trying the nerves of the already-converted and introducing material for the first time to virgin minds.

     Filmmaker Michael Almereyda (director, writer) brings his brainchild-a stripped down, varnished and adorned modern version of the ever-popular film endeavor ‘Hamlet,’ set in current day New York City-to the table, calling on everyone’s favorite grungy, anti-fame actor Ethan Hawke to step up to the title role. And step up he does, in a very typically nonchalant and unkempt way, of course.

     Though Hawke confided that all actors and crewmembers were paid scale for their work on the low-budget production, he was not in poor company on the set. As if the impressive resurfacing of Kyle McLachlan (of “Twin Peaks” fame) playing Claudius, fresh-faced Julia Stiles in the role of the tragically doomed Ophelia and Liev Schreiber as her brother Laertes wasn’t enough, this cast’s VIP list is longer yet. Bill Murray is absolutely ideal as Polonius, his subtle absurdity playing perfectly within its boundaries, careful not to step on the fragility of Shakespearean dialogue with too much hee-haw fun.

     The distinguishable Steve Zahn (who worked previously with Hawke in theater and film, namely “Reality Bites”) and Casey Affleck are also aboard this ship of underpaid-yet-talented actors; but don’t blink, because as Rosencrantz and Fortinbras respectively, these guys’ combined screen time is brief and some might say misused-these actors and these roles could have been juiced much more than Almereyda chose to.

     Hawke’s Hamlet won’t bring fans of Shakespeare to tears of joy, but his noteworthy performance will at the very least raise a few eyebrows and cock a few heads. As the heir to the Denmark Corporation (one of many clever twists by Almereyda), Hawke triumphs in his angst-ridden performance, utilizing his experience playing confused youth on a dark, overgrown path to his benefit. Here, Hawke discusses being one of the youngest actors to take on the role of Hamlet, his fiction writing and future endeavors:

Q: I think that there’s a fine line between reciting and performing Shakespeare, so how did you go about making sure that it wasn’t the former?

A: Wow, that’s an interesting question. On film, Shakespeare has the capability of being much more subtle than it can onstage. I just wanted to try to know what I was saying, and to try to make it as personal as possible to me, and to kind of experience it like I would any kind of performing. Interesting question.

Q: With two previous film versions of ‘Hamlet’ out there, what makes your Hamlet worthwhile as something that speaks to a young adult audience?

A: One of the things I like about our production is that most of the times that I’ve seen the play done, it’s usually been an actor around 40 that’s playing the part, and when I read it, it always seems to me that it was a young man facing a young person’s dilemmas, all the struggles with his relationship with his parents-he’s being sent off to school, he’s trying to define himself. I’ve always felt that it coming from a 40-year-old seems a little infantile, and to somebody in their mid-20s it comes quite naturally. 

Q: Have you ever thought about doing any screenwriting?

A: I’ve done a bunch of fiction writing, and I really enjoy that. I guess because of my experience as an actor, what’s fun for me as prose writing is that it’s something else. I don’t know, I betcha someday I’ll do some screenwriting, and I’d imagine that I would, but for some reason I just haven’t been drawn to it. I just have, in my mind, some kind of separation between writing and acting. In one way that I make that differential is by not writing to act, writing for actors. I just write it for readers.

Q: So, you wouldn’t adapt your novels ever?

A: Well, y’know it’s kind of funny that you say that, because I’ve been thinking a lot about doing that recently. I’m kinda closing in on finishing my second book, and I had always kinda thought that when I had written a second book, maybe with some distance from the first one I could try to make a movie out of it. So sometimes I think about that, and I have tentative plans to try to do that when I’m done-but we’ll see, we’ll see.

Q: I heard a rumor that you caught the directing bug.

A: Yeah, I just directed a movie. I directed a feature shot on digital video. I used to run a theater company, so I got to collaborate with a lot of my friends. A young female writer named Nicole Brigette wrote the piece, and it starred a lot of my friends from the theater company. I’m cutting that right now, so hopefully I’ll be done with that soon. It’s called “Last Word on Paradise.”

“Hamlet” is currently playing in limited release at Piper’s Alley , 1608 N. Wells Ave.