Ethan Hawke and his daughter, Stranger Things star Maya, have collaborated on their latest film together – which saw him direct his daughter in sex scenes.
However, the Oscar-nominated actor and writer, 52, insists that it wasn’t weird for them at all.
Maya, 25, takes on the lead role in their indie flick Wildcat, which tells the story of American writer Flannery O’Connor, who died in 1964 at the age of 39, while her dad sits in the director’s chair.
In Wildcat, O’Connor imagines acting out certain scenes from her novels and works, and that includes a quite literal role in the hay at one point.
Based on her short story Good Country People, Maya as O’Connor’s character plays a woman with a wooden leg who has sex with a Bible salesman, portrayed by Cooper Hoffman.
There’s also another sequence from O’Connor’s short story Parker’s Back, where she gets felt up in a pick up truck by a ‘ne’er do well’, with Rafael Casal in the cameo role.
But Strange Way of Life actor Ethan and Maya brush any suggestion of awkwardness when it comes to those sequences under the carpet.
‘We needed to take care of Rafael and Cooper. I think it was weird for them,’ the Dead Poet’s Society star admitted to Variety.
‘We were so comfortable with it. I couldn’t care less.’
Maya added: ‘We made sure to have an intimacy coordinator on set for them. So that they felt safe and comfortable and not like they were being spied on …’
‘… by some creepy dad,’ Ethan chimed in.
In Wild Cat, which the duo are free to promote during the actors’ strike due to having a Sag-Aftra agreement in place, Maya is also joined by Laura Linney as O’Connor’s mother Regina, as well as Philip Ettinger and Vincent D’Onofrio, Steve Zahn and Liam Neeson among the cameo parts.
Elsewhere in their interview, Ethan proudly shared that he was ‘a nepo dad’ after Maya invited him to direct her project, which she also produces, and said that it was ‘totally fair’ if someone wanted to criticise them for working together.
‘I had moments of insecurity about it while we were shooting the movie but the internet doesn’t have a lot of nuances,’ she stated.
‘My dad has been a massive teacher for me, and we want to work together. We like being with each other.’
Wildcat premiered on September 1 at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado, and is set to screen again at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 11.
Maya is the daughter of Ethan and Kill Bill star Uma Thurman, who were married after meeting on 1997 film Gattaca, and also share son Levon, 21, together.
They divorced in 2005, and Ethan shares two daughters with his second wife, Ryan, who he married in 2008.
Asteroid City star Maya also previously revealed that she lied to her famous father the night she lost her virginity.
‘I said I was going to therapy and I really went to lose my virginity,’ Maya revealed on Andy Cohen’s Watch What Happens Live, when asked the worst trouble she got into with her famous parents.
She confirmed that her dad had been ‘very, very upset’.
‘He went, “Where were you? Where did you go?’ And I said, “How am I supposed to have secrets if I can’t tell lies?”’ she added.
Wildcat is yet to receive a UK release date.
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