--- title: Ethan Hawke on Why Being Pretentious is Okay | TIME description: "I've been accused of being pretentious my whole life, rightfully so," says Ethan Hawke. The actor reflects on the course of his career and discusses his new documentary "Seymour," which focuses on the virtue of stepping out of the limelight canonical: https://time.com/video/annrQOUO/ og:title: Ethan Hawke on Why Being Pretentious is Okay og:description: "I've been accused of being pretentious my whole life, rightfully so," says Ethan Hawke. The actor reflects on the course of his career and discusses his new documentary "Seymour," which focuses on the virtue of stepping out of the limelight og:url: https://time.com/video/annrQOUO/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/annrQOUO/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ethan Hawke on Why Being Pretentious is Okay twitter:description: "I've been accused of being pretentious my whole life, rightfully so," says Ethan Hawke. The actor reflects on the course of his career and discusses his new documentary "Seymour," which focuses on the virtue of stepping out of the limelight twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/annrQOUO/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Ethan Hawke on Why Being Pretentious is Okay > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Ethan Hawke on Why Being Pretentious is Okay [Watch (HLS stream): Ethan Hawke on Why Being Pretentious is Okay](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/annrQOUO.m3u8) (3:14)  _Published 2015-03-12. "I've been accused of being pretentious my whole life, rightfully so," says Ethan Hawke. The actor reflects on the course of his career and discusses his new documentary "Seymour," which focuses on the virtue of stepping out of the limelight_ --- Oct 11, 2023 6:25 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Ethan Hawke and Tom Hiddleston Bond Over Playing Music Legends](/video/ibXKP971/) ### Ethan Hawke and Tom Hiddleston Bond Over Playing Music Legends [Watch Ethan Hawke and Emma Watson in the Trailer for 'Regression'](/video/AOl8impb/) ### Watch Ethan Hawke and Emma Watson in the Trailer for 'Regression' [Ethan Hawke's Bob Dylan Lullaby](/video/qTATilap/) ### Ethan Hawke's Bob Dylan Lullaby --- ## Transcript I've only ever done what I wanted to do. It's pretentious if you have if you want a result, or you want people to think this. I never wanted to make a documentary. I never even really wanted to write a novel. It just made sense at the time. Tell me about that blanket. You, you, you push it. Stretch it. It'll never be enough. I've been accused of being pretentious my whole life, rightfully so. I always encourage young people to be pretentious, in a way, because if you do it with a sense of humor, if you have a sense of humor about yourself, it means your aspiring for something. You have to set goals for yourself. And they might as well be lofty. It did used to bother me when I was younger, but I realized is that your only portentous if you can't laugh. As somebody who didn't do a professional Shakespeare play until I was in my 30s, there's a lot of pride you get. To be or not to be, that is the question. [ INAUDIBLE ] You know, I didn't go to RADA. Most American actors don't. And so, for us to learn about it, for us to care about it, for us to do it well, is meaningful. And so it starts to become fun. And that's not pretentious. I didn't tell anyone, and I arranged a farewell concert. And that was the last concert I ever played [ MUSIC ] It's interesting to talk to Seymour about why he stopped performing. I mean, he was this guy who played the concert halls all over the world and then just suddenly stopped. So, of course, that would be interesting to me. Like, what would happen if I had stopped? And, what did you gain by stopping? Do you miss it? Is your life better? All that stuff fascinated me. Being a movie star is kind of a young person's game, you know, its whole orientation is about youth, but I've always loved directing. I started a theater company when I was in my early twenties. Directing plays. That's been the great joy of my life and so my hope is that when it really becomes necessary to have a second career I'll already have some experience. So often it's our anxiety that trips us up from being our best self. A great bulk of my life is a war with my nervous system, you know, and I think a lot of people. I don't feel that way. I decided to confide with him that I've been performing with a crippling stage fright. The bottom line of the conversation: most artists are not nervous enough. When I was younger, I had so much confidence. Making my Broadway debut I was actually, I was 21. I remember being backstage and seeing the lights shift and change and I think, god, is this funny. You'd think I would be nervous. And I just can't wait. And now I, I'd be a wreck. I was just so excited to be a part of it, of anything creative. I wrote ten pages, look, you should read it. You know, and now as you get older you're like, okay, wait, there's a lot of things you should read before I waste your time with. Y, y, y, y, and you have to hopefully create a little bit of balance at maintaining that youthful huberts or else you won't get anything done. [ MUSIC ] ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Ethan Hawke on Why Being Pretentious is Okay","description":"\"I've been accused of being pretentious my whole life, rightfully so,\" says Ethan Hawke. 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