Interview: Ethan Hawke on Paul Newman & The Last Movie Stars

Slap Shot. That was the movie I had to discuss with Ethan Hawke when he was making the rounds for his HBO Max documentary series, The Last Movie Stars. A loving but honest portrait of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, a generation-defining set of movie stars if ever there was one, in one episode, Hawke digs into how Newman, the star of such classics as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and The Hustler, had a special affinity for his 1977 hockey comedy, Slap Shot.

If you’ve seen the movie, it’s a surprisingly foul-mouthed, hard-R comedy for Newman, and it turned out that he loved it, which was nice to hear as I’m from Quebec, where Slap Shot is basically a religion. Hawke turned out to be a great guy, and among other things, Hawke gave me his picks for the essential Paul Newman movies he would recommend to readers of JoBlo, just in case some of you might be a little too young to have ever watched his films growing up. As Hawke says in the interview, he made at least 5-10 essential movies (including one of my favorites – The Color of Money), and if this is your launching point into the filmography of Paul Newman, that would be great.

Of course, if you’re already familiar with the man, you might be interested to hear Hawke’s thoughts on how Newman and Woodward’s off-screen relationship reflected their marriage. You might also be interested to learn how Newman directed (yes, he also directed) seven of the greatest moments in cinematic history in an otherwise not-great movie called Sometimes a Great Notion. Overall it’s a fascinating interview, and if you’re interested in learning more about Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, check out The Last Movie Stars, which is streaming now on HBO Max.