I thought Robin hated me,” Hawke, who had his breakthrough role in the Peter Weir film, shared. “He had a habit of making a ton of jokes on set. At 18, I found that incredibly irritating. He wouldn’t stop and I wouldn’t laugh at anything he did.”
Hawke, who played a teenage student taught by Williams’s unconventional and inspiring English teacher, remembered his co-star needling him during filming, but said he’s since come to see the older actor’s perspective.
Williams on the set of Dead Poets Society. (Photo: Touchstone Pictures/Getty Images)
“There was this scene in the film when he makes me spontaneously make up a poem in front of the class,” he recalled. “He made this joke at the end of it, saying that he found me intimidating. I thought it was a joke. As I get older, I realize there is something intimidating about young people’s earnestness, their intensity. It is intimidating — to be the person they think you are. Robin was that for me.”
What an interesting perspective. This movie has been one of the most enduring films of all time, a CLASSIC immediately then when it was released and no less important now for generation sense. There’s a certain ritual, almost a coming-of-age moment, in which dead poet society is filling a void in the mid time frame of life ..
This is also interesting look back from actor Ethan Hawke and his perspective on Robin Williams at the time..