Maya Hawke Talks About Nepotism And How She Got Into Acting
Mainstream and Stranger Things Actress Maya Hawke Opens Up About Making Her Own Way in Hollywood https://t.co/ay3qi48oPu
- People (@people) May 12, 2021
The daughter of Oscar nominees Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman, Maya Hawke says she didn't always think she'd go into acting.
"There was no moment," the 22-year-old says. "I was always just doing school plays and acting camp over the summer. I guess it clicked for me that I wanted to do it professionally was when I realized that there were no school plays for adults. The happiest place in the world for me was on set or on stage."
The actress/model understands that her parents' names gave her a hand with getting started in show business. "I'm very grateful for the fact that they made it so easy for me to do the thing that I love," Hawke says. "I think I'll get a couple chances on their name and then if I suck, I'll get kicked out of the kingdom. And that's what should happen. So I'm just going to try not to suck."
Last year she appeared with her dad, 50, in a TV show. The two did a November episode of Showtime's The Good Lord Bird together, a collaboration the actress says "we've been thinking about forever."
"But we're always working together in one way or another," Hawke continues. "Whether it's me calling him being like, 'How do I do this? I need help.' Or him helping me with audition tapes. There's a real network of communication there. I really see him as my teacher more than almost anything else."
However, Maya believes her parents still value her personal accomplishments over her career.
"I don't think that either of my parents would be like, 'I'm so proud of my daughter because of how good she was in this one thing, or that other thing,'" the Stranger Things star says. "My parents are proud of me because of the way I treat my friends. My parents are proud of me because I travel alone a lot and haven't died."
Maya also cares more about making art that means something to her than the "need to identify myself as separate from my parents."
"I don't think I care about making a name for myself," she concludes. "I'm happy."
Source