Ethan Hawke surprised Drew Barrymore by telling her he could not believe they had never dated.
The actor, 55, joined the host, 51, on the episode of The Drew Barrymore Show that aired October 16 to discuss season two of The Lowdown. In the FX series, Hawke plays Lee Raybon, a Tulsa journalist whose investigations repeatedly land him in trouble.
It was their first meeting in person. Hawke said he could not remember a time when he had been unaware of Barrymore, who told him she had always felt the same familiarity with him.
Hawke broke through in Dead Poets Society in 1989 before starring in Reality Bites in 1994 and Before Sunrise in 1995. Barrymore was a child star in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial before her adult roles in films including Boys on the Side and The Wedding Singer.
Barrymore Asks Why Hawke Never Called Her
Barrymore joked that she, along with plenty of other women, would have welcomed a date with him.
In the 1990s, Hawke would head to a party thinking, “Maybe Drew will be there,” according to PEOPLE.
Barrymore fell back against the couch. “Why didn’t you call me? We still had phones back then,” she asked.
Hawke said he had been trying to play it cool. “I wanted it to happen organically,” he explained.
Barrymore’s verdict was immediate: “And look what happened,” she told him, “nothing!” The exchange drew laughter from the studio audience, as Entertainment Weekly reported.
Both Stars Went On to Marry and Raise Children
Hawke married Uma Thurman in 1998 after meeting her while making Gattaca. They welcomed daughter Maya and son Levon, separated in 2003 and finalized their divorce in 2005.
He married producer Ryan Shawhughes in June 2008. They have two daughters, Clementine and Indiana. Ryan is also an executive producer of The Lowdown.
As TheWrap noted, Barrymore married bar owner Jeremy Thomas in 1994 and comedian Tom Green in 2001. Her third marriage, to art consultant Will Kopelman, began in 2012 and ended in divorce in 2016. She and Kopelman share daughters Olive and Frankie.
She and Thomas separated within weeks, while Green filed for divorce five months after their wedding.
Hawke Says He Would Not Go Back to His Younger Years
During the conversation, Hawke recalled being insecure and nervous when he was young. He said his current stage of life continues to bring experiences he could not have imagined then.
One was walking Maya down the aisle. She married musician Christian Lee Hutson in New York City on February 14, 2026, according to PEOPLE.
Recalling the walk with Entertainment Tonight at April’s TIME100 Gala, Hawke said, “I felt like I was 13, experiencing life for the first time.” He also praised his new son-in-law.
Barrymore shared his preference for the present. She told him she felt more capable of dealing with life now than she had been in her younger years.
A Scene From Boyhood Brings Barrymore to Tears
Barrymore became emotional while discussing Boyhood, Richard Linklater’s 2014 drama filmed between 2002 and 2013 with the same cast. The story follows Mason, played by Ellar Coltrane, as he grows up, with Hawke and Patricia Arquette portraying his separated parents.
The film’s 12th-anniversary celebrations included a theatrical rerelease scheduled by Independent Film Company for July 31, with a recorded cast-and-filmmaker reunion available to participating theaters.
She singled out a late scene in which Hawke’s character tells Arquette’s that she has been a good mother. Barrymore said it reflected the hope of mothers to measure up in someone else’s eyes.
Speaking on the show, Hawke explained that parenting requires putting a child’s needs ahead of one’s own ego.
Rewatching the movie at an anniversary screening, Hawke felt the parents might have been well suited to each other if his character had been more mature at 25.