Oscar-nominated Ethan Hawke sees a future where “massive movements” in the arts rebel against “the greedy bastards that think they control everybody.” He believes “they always lose in the end. And they’re all going in the grave eventually. They think they’re winning, but they’re losing because their lives are worthless.”
Hawke said this during an interview with the far-left GQ Magazine, which is owned by Condé Nast, a billion-dollar multinational corporation. Just saying.
Here’s the full quote:
I believe in rebellion. And I think we’re fundamentally not superficial. And I think people are going to wake up and punch back and there’s going to be massive movements in music and massive movements in live theater and massive movements of people getting together. We’re not done. We’re an ongoing poem. So it’s not like it all stopped today just with some kind of harsh reality. I believe in rebellion and it’s always churning up the soil. So don’t worry that the money and the greedy bastards that think they control everybody, they always lose in the end. And they’re all going in the grave eventually. They think they’re winning, but they’re losing because their lives are worthless.
The full context revolves around the 55-year-old Hawke’s understandable dissatisfaction with blockbuster filmmaking driven by the Almighty Algorithm. To explain this, he relates a nice anecdote about the great Paul Scofield who, in his later years, chose to perform at his local church instead of on the commercial stage, where he would have been most welcome.
When asked about this choice, Scofield answered, “Well, I really like walking to work, and I’ve always only performed for my maker anyway, so I really don’t care who’s in the audience.”
Of that, Hawke says, “And I feel that way—that all the work is in service of some dialogue that I’m having with whatever that other force is. It’s like giving birth to the universe.”
He added, “The accumulation of status and power and money and those things that seem to propel culture, I’ve always been incredibly suspicious of.”
Hawke is no hypocrite. His career bears that out. While I’m sure he makes a sweet living after 40 years of making movies, you still don’t see him in these massive franchises. Even Mr. Independent Cinema, the Sundance Kid himself, Robert Redford, popped up in a Marvel movie.
As far as his predicted rebellion, it’s probably coming — but not in the way Hawke likely predicts or approves of.
AI will drive this rebellion.
Already YouTube grabs 14.2 percent of TV viewing time, leaving second place Netflix (7.8 percent) in its wake. Most of what’s on YouTube is user-generated content made by everyday people outside the Hollywood ecosystem. With no budget, they have managed to attract a massive audience because what they create is more appealing than the algorithm-crap everywhere else.
Imagine what happens when these same people have the ability to reproduce Hollywood production values using AI?
In other words, how is Hollywood gonna compete with this…?
¡Viva la Revolución!