Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#118
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Ethan Hawke represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 41 years in, and Ethan is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Ethan Hawke appears in 62 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Ethan. Before Sunrise is the clearest case: a film rated 8.9 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for crime, drama, thriller. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Padraic McKinley, Rick Gomez, Andrew Niccol and others, Ethan Hawke helped set a standard other performers now audition against. Awards bodies have been slower than the work, which is usually the sign of a career built on choices rather than campaigns.
Before Sunrise (1995) as Jesse · Dead Poets Society (1989) as Todd Anderson · Before Sunrise (1995) as Jesse
Career snapshot
Ranked #118 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
62
1985–2026
Career length
41 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.9
Before Sunrise
Average Nutevio score
6.3
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.3
Dead Poets Society
Most frequent director
Richard Linklater
10 films together
Longest collaboration
10×
With Richard Linklater
Most common genre
Drama
43 titles
Average runtime
1h 47m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.0
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
7.0
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
1980s
7.4 average MV
The 1980s are where the work and the material meet. Dead Poets Society, Explorers — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1980s
7.4
Across 2 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1980s
7.3
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1980s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Dead Poets Society, Explorers.
Most productive era
2010s
25 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 8.51 film | 7.09 films | 6.99 films | 6.514 films | 4.710 films |
| Action | — | 6.42 films | 6.63 films | 6.18 films | 6.72 films |
| Thriller | — | — | 6.84 films | 6.38 films | 5.47 films |
| Comedy | — | 6.52 films | 6.02 films | 6.04 films | 5.84 films |
| Crime | — | 6.11 film | 6.95 films | 5.73 films | 4.53 films |
| Romance | — | 7.25 films | 6.92 films | 6.84 films | 6.31 film |
| Horror | — | — | — | 6.33 films | 7.12 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1985Explorers
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Ben Crandall.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
1995Before Sunrise
8.9 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer. Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2026I, Object
The current state of the argument, as Little Ben (voice).
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
62 of 62 films
as Jesse
Directed by Richard Linklater
as Jesse
Directed by Richard Linklater
as Jesse
Directed by Richard Linklater
as Everett Lewis
Directed by Aisling Walsh
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Showing 24 of 71 titles · 75 total credits · active 1985–2026
The Weight
2026 · Samuel Murphy
She Dances
2026 · Brian
I, Object
2026 · Little Ben (voice)
Blue Moon
2025 · Lorenz Hart
Black Phone 2
2025 · The Grabber
The Lowdown
2025 · TV · Lee Raybon · Executive Producer
The American Revolution
2025 · TV · Anthony Wayne / John Andrews (voice)
Variety & CNN Actors on Actors
2025 · TV · Self
Vietnam: The War That Changed America
2025 · TV · Self - Narrator (voice)
My Generation
2024 · TV · Self - Narrator (voice)
Leave the World Behind
2023 · Clay Sandford
Strange Way of Life
2023 · Jake
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
2022 · Efficient Man
The Black Phone
2022 · The Grabber
The Northman
2022 · King Aurvandil War-Raven
Raymond & Ray
2022 · Ray
Moon Knight
2022 · TV · Arthur Harrow
Batwheels
2022 · TV · Batman (voice)
The Last Movie Stars
2022 · TV · Director
The Guilty
2021 · Sgt. Bill Miller (voice)
Zeros and Ones
2021 · JJ / Justin
Cut Throat City
2020 · Jackson Symms
Tesla
2020 · Nikola Tesla
The Kid
2019 · Sheriff Pat Garrett
The defining work
#1
Jesse
Before Sunrise (1995)
Performance score9.3
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Jesse gives Ethan Hawke a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Todd Anderson
Dead Poets Society (1989)
Performance score8.7
Dead Poets Society asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Todd Anderson is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Jesse
Before Sunrise (1995)
Performance score8.4
Before Sunrise asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Jesse is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Jesse
Before Sunset (2004)
Performance score8.3
Before Sunset asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Jesse is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as Jesse
Start here. Before Sunrise is the clearest statement of what Ethan Hawke does — accessible, 101 minutes, and rated 8.9 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Ethan at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.
Dead Poets Society (1989)
Keeps the drama register of Before Sunrise but asks for a colder reading of it.
Before Sunrise (1995)
Keeps the drama register of Dead Poets Society but asks for a colder reading of it.
Before Sunset (2004)
Same director as Before Sunrise, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Maudie (2016)
Keeps the romance register of Before Sunset but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Richard Linklater
Director
10 films together
Notably Before Sunrise
Antoine Fuqua
Director
4 films together
Notably Training Day
Andrew Niccol
Director
4 films together
Notably Gattaca
Scott Derrickson
Director
3 films together
Notably The Black Phone
Robert Budreau
Director
2 films together
Notably Born to Be Blue
Joe Dante
Director
1 film together
Notably Explorers
Peter Weir
Director
1 film together
Notably Dead Poets Society
Randal Kleiser
Director
1 film together
Notably White Fang
Frank Marshall
Director
1 film together
Notably Alive
Ben Stiller
Director
1 film together
Notably Reality Bites
Alfonso Cuarón
Director
1 film together
Notably Great Expectations
D.J. Caruso
Director
1 film together
Notably Taking Lives
Sidney Lumet
Director
1 film together
Notably Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
Brian Goodman
Director
1 film together
Notably What Doesn't Kill You
Fatih Akin
Director
1 film together
Notably New York, I Love You
Len Wiseman
Director
1 film together
Notably Total Recall
James DeMonaco
Director
1 film together
Notably The Purge
Shari Springer Berman
Director
1 film together
Notably 10,000 Saints
Aisling Walsh
Director
1 film together
Notably Maudie
Ti West
Director
1 film together
Notably In a Valley of Violence
Rebecca Miller
Director
1 film together
Notably Maggie's Plan
Luc Besson
Director
1 film together
Notably Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
Paul Schrader
Director
1 film together
Notably First Reformed
Jesse Peretz
Director
1 film together
Notably Juliet, Naked
Hirokazu Kore-eda
Director
1 film together
Notably The Truth
Logan Marshall-Green
Director
1 film together
Notably Adopt a Highway
Vincent D'Onofrio
Director
1 film together
Notably The Kid
Michael Almereyda
Director
1 film together
Notably Tesla
RZA
Director
1 film together
Notably Cut Throat City
Abel Ferrara
Director
1 film together
Notably Zeros and Ones
Rodrigo García
Director
1 film together
Notably Raymond & Ray
Rian Johnson
Director
1 film together
Notably Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Pedro Almodóvar
Director
1 film together
Notably Strange Way of Life
Sam Esmail
Director
1 film together
Notably Leave the World Behind
Rick Gomez
Director
1 film together
Notably She Dances
Padraic McKinley
Director
1 film together
Notably The Weight
Julie Delpy
Actor
1 film together
Notably Before Sunrise
Andrea Eckert
Actor
1 film together
Notably Before Sunrise
Hanno Pöschl
Actor
1 film together
Notably Before Sunrise
Karl Bruckschwaiger
Actor
1 film together
Notably Before Sunrise
Tex Rubinowitz
Actor
1 film together
Notably Before Sunrise
Erni Mangold
Actor
1 film together
Notably Before Sunrise
Dominik Castell
Actor
1 film together
Notably Before Sunrise
Haymon Maria Buttinger
Actor
1 film together
Notably Before Sunrise
Harold Waiglein
Actor
1 film together
Notably Before Sunrise
Bilge Jeschim
Actor
1 film together
Notably Before Sunrise
Kurti
Actor
1 film together
Notably Before Sunrise
Hans Weingartner
Actor
1 film together
Notably Before Sunrise
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Richard Linklater
Director
10 films together · 7.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 10 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Before SunriseAntoine Fuqua
Director
4 films together · 6.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 4 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Training DayAndrew Niccol
Director
4 films together · 5.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 4 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
GattacaScott Derrickson
Director
3 films together · 7.0 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Black PhoneRobert Budreau
Director
2 films together · 6.2 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Born to Be BluePeter Weir
Director
1 film together · 8.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dead Poets SocietyAisling Walsh
Director
1 film together · 7.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
MaudieSidney Lumet
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Before the Devil Knows You're DeadRian Johnson
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Glass Onion: A Knives Out MysteryPaul Schrader
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
First ReformedFrank Marshall
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
AliveRandal Kleiser
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
White FangLogan Marshall-Green
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Adopt a HighwayLuc Besson
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Valerian and the City of a Thousand PlanetsAlfonso Cuarón
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Great ExpectationsBen Stiller
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Reality BitesSam Esmail
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Leave the World BehindRZA
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Cut Throat CityD.J. Caruso
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Taking LivesPedro Almodóvar
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Strange Way of LifeJesse Peretz
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Juliet, NakedJames DeMonaco
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The PurgeJoe Dante
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ExplorersRodrigo García
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Raymond & RayTi West
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
In a Valley of ViolenceVincent D'Onofrio
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The KidHirokazu Kore-eda
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The TruthShari Springer Berman
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
10,000 SaintsLen Wiseman
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Total RecallFatih Akin
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
New York, I Love YouBrian Goodman
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
What Doesn't Kill YouMichael Almereyda
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
TeslaRebecca Miller
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Maggie's PlanAbel Ferrara
Director
1 film together · 4.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Zeros and OnesRick Gomez
Director
1 film together · 3.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
She DancesPadraic McKinley
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The WeightSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
Dead Poets Society
as Todd Anderson
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Before Sunrise
as Jesse
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Before Sunrise
as Jesse
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Total Recall
as Hauser (long version only)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Before Sunrise
as Jesse
If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.
In their films' words
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Ethan Hawke has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
| Nutevio Performer Score | 8.0 | 9.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Career ranking | #472 of 681 | #1 of 681 |
| Awards on file | Unknown | 3 recorded |
| Oscar wins | Unknown | 1 |
| Oscar nominations | Unknown | 5 |
| Average Nutevio score | 8.9 | 9.1 |
| Genres | Romance, Drama | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, History |
| Directors | Richard Linklater | Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese |
| Performance DNA | Emotional range, Drama, Quiet performance | Transformation, Drama, Screen presence |
| Career timeline | 1995–1995 | 2006–2026 |
| Most iconic role | Jesse — Before Sunrise | Odysseus — The Odyssey |
| Most rewatchable film | Before Sunrise | Interstellar |
| Filmography | 1 catalogue film | 4 catalogue films |
Films together
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared directors
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared collections
Drama Movies
Matt Damon edges ahead here — a higher floor across a comparable body of work.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
41 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Drama Legend
Awarded
43 catalogue titles in drama, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
Before Sunrise
as Jesse
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Black Phone
as The Grabber
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Maudie
as Everett Lewis
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Sinister
as Ellison Oswalt
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Before Sunrise
as Jesse
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Northman
as King Aurvandil War-Raven
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Blue Moon
as Lorenz Hart
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Before Sunrise
as Jesse
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
Across the library
Every Nutevio collection this name turns up in, and how high they rank there.
Collection footprint
Appears in 3 Nutevio collections
Keep reading
From the magazine
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Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
David Krumholtz
Built a career in the same territory: action and adventure
Cillian Murphy
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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