Ethan Hawke Says He Hated Gen X Label After Reality Bites (Exclusive)

Ethan Hawke didn’t at all times love being related to one in every of his maximum iconic roles.

In an interview with PEOPLE about his unutilized film Wildcat, the actor, 53, remembers his 1994 vintage Fact Bites, a comedy-drama about fresh school graduates that cemented Hawke’s situation as a Year X big name.

“There was a time when it annoyed me because I was worried it was going to somehow be prohibitive of growing up, but now I kind of love it,” he now says. “I like Gen X.”

Fact Bites costarred Winona Ryder, Ben Stiller and Steve Zahn, and made for Stiller’s trait directorial debut. Hawke portrayed musician Troy Dyer within the movie, which follows 4 buddies as they navigate relationships and jobs at some time next graduating school.

“The thing about Reality Bites that I’m amazed by is I think Ben turned into one of the best directors of my generation,” Hawke says. “I think he’s brilliant, and that was his first film, and that movie exists as kind of a great — I’m proud of it as it’s representative of its moment.”

Regardless of Fact Bites’ situation as a cult vintage, Hawke says maximum fanatics don’t acknowledge him from the movie.

“The weird thing about my career is there’s certain people that just think I’m the guy from Moon Knight,” he says, referencing his 2022 Disney+ superhero form for Surprise Studios. “There’s certain people that don’t know I was in any other movie besides Training Day.”

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“There’s a certain connectivity between the Reality Bites fans and the Before trilogy fans, and then I have horror movie fans that [know] Sinister or Black Phone, they don’t know I was in another movie,” Hawke provides. “And I’ll get the odd person that doesn’t think I’ve done anything with my life since Dead Poets Society.”

Presen talking to his early stories making motion pictures like Fact Bites and Lifeless Poets People, Hawke says he recollects “everything.”

“They were so pivotal when you’re young like that and getting an opportunity to do what you dreamed of doing and every day. It’s how I imagine what an athlete might feel about their first professional season,” he says. “Sometimes you can’t believe how much of every game they remember.”

For extra on Ethan Hawke, pick out up the untouched factor of PEOPLE, on stands now.