Ethan Hawke never complained about filming in cold water, dodging logs or climbing around rough terrain in “The Weight.”
“I love being in different kinds of films,” the five-time Oscar nominee says. “Every film genre, whether you talk about a horror film or an action movie or a romantic drama, they have a different math to them. There are different muscles being asked of the actor and I just want to be in a good film.”
In his last effort, “Blue Moon,” Hawke was charged with memorizing a ream of dialogue and passing it off as conversational. In “The Weight,” he barely speaks once his trek begins. His character is in a Depression-era work camp and is offered early release if he smuggles gold through the wilderness. His fellow travelers are hardly on the same page, and discord becomes evident.
Behind the camera, the actors bonded.
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Ethan Hawke, left, navigates a high-stakes mission in "The Weight."
Julia Jones, who plays the sole woman on the trip, says the camaraderie was essential.
“You trust them and then they say, ‘Jump in the water,’ and it’s not the safest thing," she says. "But you don’t really think about it because you love all these people around you who are telling you to jump in the water.”
A leader willing to go through the same situations is essential, says director Padraic McKinley.
“Ethan Hawke is one of the greatest human beings walking the planet. (He’s) literally the most inspirational thing you could be around — the way he thinks about art and acting and music and cinema," McKinley says. "It’s always the same with Ethan. You never get a bad morning with him. You never get a cross look. It’s more just enthusiasm. He shows up and he’s ready to go.”
“The Weight,” Hawke says, is a “tactile, visceral experience. It’s almost nonverbal.”
Bruce Miller, Lee Enterprises' entertainment reporter, talks with Ethan Hawke and Julia Jones, stars of "The Weight."
McKinley, who makes his big-screen directing debut with “The Weight,” exuded confidence that put the actors at ease. Even though he has had a successful career as editor, he demonstrated talent as a director, Hawke says.
“He’s a genius right out of the gate," Hawke says. "He spent his life preparing for this moment. You’re with somebody that you really trust.”
When the film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, “everything he told us he was trying to accomplish, he did,” Hawke says.
Hawke, whose company, Under the Influence Productions, is behind “The Weight,” says a film like this could have sunk without the right actors, director and craftspersons.
“It either goes well or it becomes ‘Mutiny on the Bounty,’” he says. “Both are very possible.”
Like McKinley, Hawke raves about Avy Berry, the young girl who plays his daughter.
“When this young woman showed up in the audition room, the script got so much better,” Hawke says. “She’s magic on screen and it makes the movie so much more interesting.”
Russell Crowe plays a prison warden in "The Weight."
Setting the story in motion, Berry is separated from her father, forcing him to do what’s necessary to get her back. Russell Crowe, who plays the warden who offers a deal, was key to making the premise work. McKinley had worked with him before and realized he could match Hawke in intensity.
“Russell said he’d do it, and you just keep scratching your head: ‘How do you keep getting this great fortune in this film?’ Russell is just everything he’s advertised times 1,000,” McKinley says.
Key to “The Weight’s” success: “Finding the main seven actors who got along as people and as actors. It’s like in a band," McKinley says. "You don’t want everyone to do too much or they’re overplaying.”
It all starts, though, with Hawke, McKinley says. “It’s like having the best teammate in the world.
Bruce Miller, Lee Enterprises' entertainment reporter, talks with "The Weight" director Padraic McKinley on his feature film directorial debut.
"The Weight" is now playing in theaters.
