Joe Rogan Experience Review podcast - 482 Joe Rogan Experience Review of Ethan Hawke

Episode Date: December 21, 2025

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You're listening to the Joe Rogan Experience Review. What a bizarre thing we've created. Now with your host, Adam Thorne. This might either be the worst podcast, for the best one a long time. One, go. Enjoy the show. Hey, guys, and welcome to another episode of the J-R-E review. First off, I want to say that we are gearing up for a very special episode release

that's going to drop somewhere around Christmas, maybe New Year's. We haven't quite decided. where we have Kagan Gil on F-18 pilot. We are discussing the long-awaited release of the documentary. What the hell is it called? I totally forgot. The Age of Disclosure. There we go.

And the UAP discussion that has been all over the Internet. It was a wild conversation. It blew my mind. I know Brandon's still in shock. I can see it on his face. I'm shaking. Yeah. It changed everything.

It was actually amazing. He has some personal experiences with UAPs and tell some stories and give some insights on what he sees in the future and where he sees all this going, as well as like some more insight into UFOs, aliens, UAPs, just some really interesting stuff. It was really awesome. It kind of an honor to talk to him, just amazing guy. Yeah, it was great. It was one of the best pods, the most enjoyable part I think I've ever done.

For sure. Keep your eyes out for that. We will be releasing it soon, kind of the end of the year, a little special treat. And, yeah, pretty exciting. And I know you guys are going to love it. Who are we reviewing today? Ethan Hawke. Ethan Hawke on J-R-E.

What a good guest. What a nice guest. Great eye. Good December, end of the year, guess. This guy is an absolute legend. If you are a movie fan and you don't like Ethan Hawke, I don't even know what to say. He's up there with Denzel.

He's that cool. Yeah. Better keep a mouth shut, Tarantino, because this guy, this guy's the best. One of, like, just such an amazing actor, man. So incredible. And it's cool how not only is he a great actor,

but he's just like, such a down-to-earth cool dude at the same time yeah he definitely sounded um he was just like i expected him to be you know what i mean it's like how matthew mccanahey was just that way as well often often like the the rock stars and the actors get on rogan or you see him on interviews and they're just weirder or wackier or kind of like more stuck up or full of themselves than you would expect, and it just kind of ruins it a bit. Well, they're a bit like, I don't know, they're a bit kind of like ass kissy or just like empty vessels almost, just kind of like crowd pleasing.

I felt like John Cena was a bit like that. But sometimes you get someone that's just very real, very down to earth. like you just for sure know if you met them anywhere this is what they're this is who they are this is a real person and to be famous for as long as he has been and as good of an actor as he has been and to just be that normal that normal sounding is is is pretty damn impressive i mean he can't go anywhere without people recognizing him for sure yeah it was a real fly-on-the-wall conversation where it didn't feel like a production in terms of their conversations, his awareness.

It just felt like two dudes at a bar shooting the shit, catching up after a while. It was so good, man. It's like why I love this conversation is not only does he seem like someone you would want to be friends with, but he had some amazing insights too, just a really knowledgeable guy. and his views on acting, everything he learned from his parents, his childhood, really interesting stuff. Yeah, it was like a cool biography, almost.

Definitely. Autobiography. And those are really the best ones when you get somebody on an actor for the first time. And it kind of really breaks down the behind the scenes. Obviously, you know, we've seen his movies and them through the years. often you've seen kind of a bit of their personal life, you know, with actors, often you've heard some of the controversies, you at least know who they've dated, you know, but to get that extra bit of an insight and to hear some of the hardships, too, the challenges that they've faced

and how they kind of overcame some of those things. It's really cool. And also what inspired them. Yeah, and how some of those hardships were like great to have happened, you know, what I mean, like with that first movie flop, how that really, like, changed his trajectory and like mindset. He actually went to school after that. I had a little bit of a normal life before he really dove into acting, where, you know, they talk about if that first role took off and really did a lot for him, he could have been, you know, on the podcast, coming straight out of rehab, 18 ex-wives, you know, And they dive into that how important having an actual childhood is and how so many child actors just spiral and it's just not good for you.

Joe has the whole concrete analogy, which I agree with. And it's just cool to hear like a child actor come out of it and survive and have his insights and his stories because it really makes you, you know, see this in a whole new light. it does seem like so few of them make it out well jody foster was the one they talked about right that they think yes yeah and she was very young very yeah uh mcculley calkin was uh definitely an example of one who didn't um but but managed to come back he he's been pretty good he's doing very good now yeah he actually had a really good episode on rogan i thought yes yeah yeah Yeah, that was a good one. I should revisit that one, actually.

Yeah, but talking about child stars and that first movie flop, I mean, that was with River Phoenix, who, as we know, Child Star grew up, ended up ODing, I think, at Johnny Depp's club, the Viper Room, was massively famous. And, you know, Hollywood hit him hard. And it's just, I mean, it's so much. he just kind of hits you in the face and you know like Ethan Hawks said like and I really do believe it

it's easy to kind of say it years later I'm sure at the time he wished that that movie blew up but he said that he couldn't be more thankful that it went that way and it's something important to remember for anybody it's like you know

when something doesn't go exactly the way that you want it takes Try to take a second and not see it as this giant failure that's ruined your life. It might actually be exactly what you needed it to be. I know it sounds a bit cliche and you, you know, and it's who's to say, right? But sometimes it's really clear. I think everyone can look back on points of their life and see where a left turn was made that you didn't want to happen. And then you realize five other things that.

have become really good in your life, you wouldn't have seen at all if you hadn't gone that direction. You wouldn't have ended up anywhere close to it without that. Yeah, failure is only failure if you don't learn anything from it. You know, there's so many learning lessons out of every mistake.

And this was a master class in picking yourself back up and continuing on because look where he is now, you know? I do also want to add that I thought was really cool, is just his talk about his parents and his father and how his father pretty much kept him into reality the whole time instead of just like, you know,

there's so many dads when it comes to child actors who just fucking sell the soul of their kid. Oh, yeah. Where this dude was like, you know, being so real about it, had real integrity. It's like, yeah, but who are you? Who gives a fuck about the money? Who are you really?

and it just goes to show like I feel like the like parents and it's a it's a topic and a conversation that I don't really hear much about of the role that like the psychology of the parents when it comes to the kid because it's like yeah the kid you know gets all this money gets all this fame it fucks him up but I feel like a parent can be a safety net potentially and I think this was a great example of that where of course you know the first move movie flopped and then he went back to school and was able to have a bit of a childhood. But I also want to think that even if that first movie did well, his dad could have helped him enough where he still would have been okay because his dad just seems so level-headed and so

honest and just so in touch with reality and the horrors and everything that being a child actor can do to a kid. you definitely don't want to be surrounded by people that are really excited about celebrity when you start becoming a celebrity because then everyone you know starts acting weird around you you're not you're definitely not going to get honesty out of anybody and if you're not getting honesty out of your own parents that's a bad place to be because the guidance is just gone because it's they don't see you they don't see you as a kid anymore as as their child they see as a product that they're trying to sell and that's so dangerous for the kid uh yeah and just like you know that's you you talking about how yeah hearing people talk about you and everything and then that makes me think of the story where they're in the bathroom and there's some people in the bathroom at like the premiere of their movie the first movie and they're like yeah was doesn't that movie fucking suck and they're in the bathroom just hearing people talk like shit on their movie which that has to be good you know instead of just the

instant gratification of this is awesome this is you guys are like gods that that kill like and hurt so many so many young actors um yeah you know it was cool also uh just i i've heard a lot of actors talk about like immersing themselves in roles but i found this to be really fucking cool how it was described here. I really haven't heard it be described like this at all where, you know, what is method acting? You know what I mean? And his definition of it. I thought that was real interesting how like it's not, there's no real strict definition. I always thought there was. You know, you look at, you know, the Joker. There's so many examples of actors method acting where he kind of says it's really just the eye of the beholder here where it's not

just a strict definition of just pretend like just straight i am the joker now where everyone has their own definition of it whether reading 20 books whether you know locking yourself in a prison cell whatever it is whatever it takes to unlock that imagination which i just thought was so cool yeah i really like that too and i was under the same the same misconception i guess like i really did think that it was like you just become that person and then you don't get out of character um what was it jim carey did um man on the moon yeah exactly yeah he did that guy and was like that person for a long time supposedly like literally became like an asshole for like a long time as well when he was like being him and um the

And his performance was spectacular. And everyone hated working with him. And it was fantastic. And I'm like, well, but that's how you do that. And it's really good. And probably it is weird for everyone around you. But it also just kind of makes sense that there could be other ways. Because at the end of the day, it's about making the performance.

Because if you think about it, there's people like Matt Damon, who has said that he doesn't do that type of method acting. he's just himself on set and then he jumps into the role Leo doesn't do that either he's himself and then he jumps into the role he has this like second before scenes where he can become the character but there's definitely something he's doing to figure out who the character is right which by definition is his own method what exactly exactly and it's a lot more personalized than people think you can't just because you know, it's so bullshit, you know, seeing the whole thing with Jared Leto

sending like a dead bird and a used condom to other actors being like, I'm the Joker now. This, I'm crazy, you know, it's more personalized than just pretending to be the dude on set. And this is such a great insight on that. It really changed my perspective on acting. Not that I'm an acting. Did Jared Leto really do that?

Yeah, man. When he was, uh, when he was the Joker and suicide, squad he was just the worst on set apparently it was sending like used condoms to other actors he sent a dead bird in a bag i think just some crazy stupid shit and then it turned out to be one of the cringiest performances i think i thought he was terrible as the i mean to be fair he was in a long line of great joker actors to be honest and that he oh i don't even know what to say that's just like dude you were trying way too hard and

clearly did not pull that off that's sad that's real sad for him yeah it's almost worse than bad acting with how committed he was which is really insulting but that i probably i don't like yeah i did see a thing on instagram not that long ago where somebody said uh list your four favorite jokers actors and then it you know know because there's been five right like including even the adam west like tv version and then even jared lano on instagram wrote hey there were five oh thanks a lot there were five and and like just how disrespectful like that whole set up was it was like clearly they left him off for a reason how people aren't even acknowledging him that's so funny yeah he was just the worst the absolute

worse and uh yeah you know what and they talk about you know he talks about exploring roles through identity and i love i love the chris christopherson story i'm not sure how much of a country guy you are i love old country like outlaw country and chris christopherson's this you know was in the highway men uh toured with johnny cash willy nelson wayland jennings some of the greats alcoholic one just a classic old country guy you know and then he talks about in his first film how he's like ripping off this this french director and he's like here's what you're doing you're walking in each room and then you're sitting down and you're having the bottle of whiskey and christopherson goes have you ever been an alcoholic he's like dude you're an idiot I would never do that he's like

I'm drinking that thing, like, out the door of the liquor store. It's like, what the hell do you think I'm, I'm gonna do here? It's so good, so good. It's amazing. What a legend. He died. I think shit, I think it was, it was late last year. Chris, he was great in blade.

Yeah. Some shitty roles for sure. Yeah. He was great in blade. Don't you dead like that. I completely forgot he was in Blade. Why the hell was he in Blade? Legendary role. God, that was a good movie.

Crazy. I got to rewatch Blade. It's been a while. Blade One is up there. It's literally one of the last ones. People don't think about it. Legendary. Yeah.

I know. No, that was a great, that was a great example because, you know, and I think it really speaks to this kind of like humbled theme that he talked about throughout. where you know he's going in as this famous actor but he's willing to say hey yeah i am a director and i think i am good and i want to be a good actor but let me tell you this story about this time i completely missed the the mark and i got told by this person hey that's not how it would go at all you're completely wrong and this is why and i listened to it and then the scene was much better like that's cool man that's your idol that's too yeah that's that's really cool that he was able

to say that i mean also down to that point where he said when he was younger he went to that kind of acting mentor who said come here with all of your expertise and all the things that you've done and say that you don't know how to do anything and if you can say that i can work with you And if you can't, then we can't work together. You have to be a beginner again. And that's a really cool thing to think about because I think we all can accidentally think we're good at something. And Brandon, you can speak to this. It was always a death sentence with stand up early on to ever think that you were good at it.

Do you ever notice that? Yeah. And a lot of like open micers and everything have that mindset, Even like, you know, the first two years of comedy, I remember just being like, like, you know, I'd kill and I'd be like, I'm the fucking best. I'm so good at this, you know. And then like I went to Austin and there are so many comics. It's such a humbling. It was such a humbling experience because you're doing like, you know, I was when I was in Austin, I was doing eight mics a night. and just some of the mics were just brutal in Boston the bar is a little like you know everyone has this thing of like the bar so high in Boston it's really low and it's so low that like I mean it was it was higher in the 80s and 90s oh my God it was it was the highest it was the highest in the world in the 80s in the 90s now it's like it's you know I there's a I don't and I'll wrap this up

real quick. There's a Boston guy. He was, Danny Kelly, he got, you know, he was a regular at the comedy store, moved back to Boston. He's a good friend of mine. And he said that now, nowadays, there's not a single headliner in Boston. And I think that's kind of true, unfortunately. But that was the environment I started in. And then I'm like, Boston, one of the greatest comedy scenes of the world. I'm, you know, getting booked on all these shows. I'm having better sets than, you know, people who are headliners. It's like, I'm going to go to Austin and kill it. Went to Austin. And it was so fucking humbling, dude. I came back and I'm like, the world is so much bigger than this little scene, you know. And it just changed my perspective

on everything. And this happens in every single art form, you know. And I thought there were some really cool parallels here with comedy. Even Joe jumps into it a little bit. bit with some parallels he's had with uh with his life and with acting and comedy and i thought that was interesting too it's not just an acting thing in terms of like what he's talking about and his experiences you can find these experiences in all walks of life i think for sure for sure and you know it's that humbling theme that's very important um i you know it just doesn't make you any better to think that you're too good at something it's like don't get me wrong if you want to indulge on that for a day let's say it's christmas or the end of the year and you just want to kind of like

you know bask in your success and a bit of glory and reflect on your successes and just be like yeah i nailed it this year well done and yeah i'm really good of that but tomorrow comes take a step back and get back to work and be humble because, you know, going into something with a big head is just, it really is just not useful because there are levels to everything. And you're going to get smashed. I mean, and just because Tarantino smashes you, it doesn't mean you're bad, you know. Now that's a good point. And I love that they brought that up. And, you know, Ethan brings up a good point. How much love has come out for, what's that guy's name again? Paul Dano. Oh, there we go.

How much love has come out for him? And let's be fair. How many people have gone back and watched that scene and been like, that's a good scene, dude. Come on. There are definitely worse actors. The ending of There Will Be Blood is one of the best. One of the best endings in all film.

And Paul Dan is so good in that ending, I think. He is good. Yeah. I mean, if Daniel Day Lewis says you're a good actor, you're a good actor, dude. There's just no way around it. I mean, look, Quentin says a lot of things. I mean, Ethan hit the nail on the head.

And he also said something else very important as well. And Ethan was fair. And I think wouldn't have even upset Quentin with this. He was like, look, you get a few drinks in Spielberg in a quiet corner of a bar. He's going to say some things too. Okay? People just talk a lot. You know, and that's a good point.

It's like that's very true. One thing I wanted to talk about, they hit on crows. critics. And I thought that Joe had a really good point when he brought up that thing about Fear Factor and the critic that was like, you know, after 9-11, do you really think that you should be making this show that's like scary? And, you know, Joe kind of went at him and this guy was like, hey, that was mean what you said. And Joe just made this point of like, dude, these things are not connected. Yes, I'm the first to admit this show is stupid. Like, I'll give you that like that's totally reasonable i'm not defending the show but connecting those two

pieces um and then getting mad at me from me saying that's stupid to do is just doesn't make any sense you can't live in that world like circling like that that's not how to be a critic yeah who also who the fuck watches fear factor and is like fuck this is like 9-11 like what kind of mindset is that of like oh i'm scared like i was on 9-11 like like in that like that perspective also it's like oh so should we stop making horror movies too like that is the dumbest not scared anymore things can only be happy after 9-11 because that was scary we need to ban fear like what the hell are you talking about well number one fear factor wasn't even scary it was more just exciting. And disturbing.

Scary things are like horror movies, right? They're like things that jump out. I mean, I guess it could make you a bit anxious. If you're like scared of heights. Like I didn't watch, ever watch Fear Factor was like, I'm fucking shaking. I'm so scared. I'm terrified.

It's disturbing. It's disturbing. Or, whoa, that's nuts that they get to jump over that thing. Yeah. And those are all things I did not think during 9-11. There's no connection. I didn't think any that? No. It's a dumb comparison.

Joe was 100% right making that comparison. And to be fair, another thing he said and, you know, I hate to, I'm glad we have critics, right? Like, as a job or as a hobby, like that's a thing. People should write reviews.

They're useful. I look on Amazon and I want to see how many stars a thing has or Google to see, like, should I go to this restaurant? The same with movies, though, these days it's kind of useless because i'd rather see the audience um uh reviews than the critics because they're often opposite and it's hard to even tell but you know back in the day you would listen to a ciscoe and ebert or whatever those guys names were and be like oh was it two thumbs up for

whatever this movie is you know before i go watch it but joe is right it's like they often are people that couldn't write couldn't act couldn't do it a lot and they just critiqued And I think that's probably true with, like, people that do, like, food critics as well. I think I've heard Gordon Ramsey talk about that. Now, the only one I will give credit to is Anthony Bourdain, though. I will allow that because he's a legend. RIP. It's hard to, it's hard to look at that, though.

I think there definitely is a fine line because any criticism is someone who hates their lives. Reddit, I get. I really understand that because Joe telling that story, famous comedian goes on Reddit and it's like everyone hates me. And she's like, no, dude, they hate themselves where I think there is a fine line. Like when you look at someone like too lazy to try on YouTube, I don't think he like is, I don't think he hates himself. I think people are just into drama, you know.

I think there is a fine line because you also have political. commentators. You have political commentators too who critique politics and politicians. I don't think they all hate their lives. I fucking hate my life, so I'm going to go into politics, which honestly isn't rare. But I think there is a fine line. And I don't necessarily agree with the opinion on anyone who critiques is miserable. No, I don't either. And let me tell you my theory on elephant graveyard for example and i don't know if we talked about this but we have reviewed one of his things for our patron i think elephant graveyard and why his move his little docu comedies are so thorough

is because or then so knowledgeable really when it's like about rogan or kill tony space or whatever is because he must have been a very dedicated fan for a long time he knows that space inside and out that's why he hits so hard with the jokes and the the little things that he said but now he's obviously a little kind of he i think he feels a bit portrayed by the space i think he's seen some changes within maybe joe as a podcaster or a comedian and even kill tony as a thing you know because they have changed a lot i mean kill tony used to be a cult thing you know people used to know it originally and it was like when we used to pass around

tapes of that one band that nobody's heard of and it was punk rock and we were like oh yeah they're cool check this out but now all of a sudden they're mainstream and we can't think they're cool anymore because they do stadiums they used to barely have enough for a lot of people exactly they used to barely have enough

bucket pulls I had a friend who was living in LA and when uh kill Tony started and he was saying yeah there would be like five names in the bucket. Dude, that was me. I used to go and sign up. They'd have 10 people. How insane is that? I used to go and sit in the belly room and they'd have 40 people in there. 40 people for Kill Tony. Like nobody was excited to go watch it. It was just, you know, but they still had dope gas. They'd be like, top, like the, you know, Christa Leia would be up there. Obviously, this was before the Crystal Leia stuff. So, but he was like,

one of the main headliners. I saw Bill Burr on it once. So they had big time guys. You were there at the Bill Burr episode. Oh, yeah, yeah. Wow. He was not into the show. That's a famous episode.

I love that episode. I can't believe you were in the audience. Oh, dude, I used to go almost every week to that one. Well, the reason I was always there is because the open mic was Monday. Oh. Yeah, so they used to do the open mic on. Mondays. I think they did one, I think it was Sunday and Monday, and then they would have Kiltoni as well. Yeah. I wouldn't sign up for Kiltoni often. I hated the idea at that

minute. It seemed terrifying. It just, but I did sign up a few times. I just never got pulled. And I never got pulled when there was tiny signups. I couldn't believe it. You probably got picked when there was like 400 people on that. Yeah, I heard there was around 400. Yeah. And it was like my second time ever signing up. It was insane. You should have got a lottery ticket that day. I should have, honestly. A bunch of people bought me drinks, though, which was awesome.

But I just want to say this about the whole hate thing. You know, Joe Rogan hates that pyramid guy. The guy, I forget his name, the guy with the cigar. And he's like, I'm a scientist, Joe. I'm a scientist. I'm not a scientist. Read my book. you have to read my book who was that you know who i'm talking about yeah what is his name um joe doesn't

agree with him dr zahi hawas i'm not going to repeat that jo doesn't agree with him and joe hates him maybe not hates him but but doesn't like him and it doesn't agree with him does that mean joe is a miserable person or does that mean joe hates himself no i think there it's a fine line but hold on hold on There's a distinction to what Joe's saying, to be fair. If Joe was tweeting about it, if Joe was writing reviews about it, like, there is a bit of a difference. But he did talk about it publicly. He's saying if you're online, you know, all day keyboarding about this stuff, he's just kind of pointing out that there's a specific type of person that does that a lot. that i don't think he's saying anyone that criticizes anyone is miserable but okay that's true

there probably is a bit of a correlation between somebody that does it all day long from their keyboard anonymously um they might be slightly angry yeah and then that that brings you know that leads the point of like is all criticism of someone online of joe or tony whoever probably Shab is who we're talking about here, who Joe is referring to, but is at all criticism, just someone who just repeats the same comment all day? I think I'd say like maybe 70, 30.

Look, some of it's constructive, for sure. Like, some of it really is. I mean, it would be interested to like run that through one of the AI systems and say scan the internet, look at as much criticism. as you can on, you know, Rogan or Brendan Schaub or whatever and give me a percentage of what

you think it could be considered constructive and what is just hate or bias or bigotry or whatever it would be, right? And he could source through that. And I'd be interested to see what the answer would be. Yeah. Ring up Peter Thiel. Should be out to figure that out. It should be able to see like who is just an angry asshole or who is like, no, his show has changed. He talks too much about 50 cent AI and it's boring. Many men.

Whatever it is. Who knows? But I'll tell you what. Let's wrap this up. This was a great episode. What do you like? I really like Ethan Hawke. I'm going to go back over this holiday season.

Definitely watch a few of his movies. And yeah, I'm pretty excited about it. It's, you know, I give this, it's just a solid eight out of ten for me. Eight out of ten, you know what, man? I think I'll be right there with you, eight out of ten, maybe eight and a half. Strong eight, light nine, potentially. This was an awesome episode. Very good.

Short, too. What was it? Two hours and 20 minutes? Yeah, it wasn't too long. Yeah. Great episode. And lastly, RIP. Rob Reiner, sad, legend.

I'm going to watch a couple of his movies over Christmas as well. I'll be watching Spinal Tap tonight. Great stuff. I watched a couple of his scenes from Wolf of War Street yesterday. And man, he really pulls it out in that moment. Legend. Legend. Really, really good, sad stuff.

And, yeah. All right, Pete. I don't know what to say. It's terrible. Well, we'll talk to you guys next time. Thank you so much. And when is it Christmas? Well, we've got more episodes.

But have a Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Take care. Peace.