Ethan Hawke has spent decades moving through movie sets and talk-show green rooms, but one failed attempt to meet Bruce Springsteen still affects how he behaves around musicians.
While promoting The Weight, Hawke recalled arriving at an unnamed talk show with his copy of Springsteen’s The River and hoping to get it signed. He never reached Springsteen. Security guards stopped him before he could approach the singer, Hawke said in a USA Today interview syndicated by AOL.
The experience stuck with him. “So I’ve never approached musicians backstage since,” Hawke said. “I felt kind of humiliated.”
Hawke was talking about Lynyrd Skynyrd while discussing the ending of his new Depression-era thriller. The band’s recording of “Call Me the Breeze” plays over the film’s final scene.
The Springsteen Attempt Ended at Security
Hawke remembered bringing his copy of Springsteen’s The River specifically because he hoped to have the musician sign it. The album was already a major piece of Springsteen history.
Columbia Records released the double album in October 1980, and it became Springsteen’s first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200. Hawke’s plan never reached the autograph stage. “Security guards wouldn’t let me,” he told USA Today.
Lynyrd Skynyrd Brought the Memory Back
Years later, Hawke found himself backstage near another group he admired. He and Lynyrd Skynyrd appeared on the Oct. 1, 2012 episode of The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson. Contemporary coverage of the episode listed Hawke as a guest and Lynyrd Skynyrd as the musical act.
Hawke remembered seeing the band rehearsing and encountering its members in the hallways backstage, but he still did not approach them.
“They’re rehearsing and you pass in the hallways and stuff,” he told USA Today before explaining that the earlier Springsteen experience was why he stayed back.
Hawke described himself as a lifelong Lynyrd Skynyrd fan. By then, the failed autograph attempt had become a rule he continued following around musicians he admired.
‘The Weight’ Brought Lynyrd Skynyrd Back Into the Conversation
The story surfaced because Lynyrd Skynyrd’s version of “Call Me the Breeze” closes Hawke’s new film The Weight. J.J. Cale wrote and originally recorded the song, releasing it on his 1972 debut album Naturally. Lynyrd Skynyrd later recorded its own version for the band’s 1974 album Second Helping.
Director Padraic McKinley chose the song for The Weight, which stars Hawke as Samuel Murphy, a single father separated from his daughter after being sent to a work camp in Depression-era Oregon. Warden Clancy, played by Russell Crowe, offers Murphy a chance at freedom if he participates in a dangerous gold-smuggling operation. Julia Jones, Austin Amelio, Avi Nash and Lucas Lynggaard Tønnesen are also among the cast.
The film opened in U.S. theaters on Sept. 18. The Associated Press described the story as a wilderness thriller set in 1933. “It’s a period movie, so in a way, it’s really incongruous to play a Lynyrd Skynyrd song at the end of it,” Hawke told USA Today. “But I thought it worked perfectly.”