Wild cat, Directed and co-written by Ethan Hawke, with Maya Hawke (Stranger Things, Little Women) as Flannery O’Connor opens in New York and LA this weekend. O’Connor, one of the country’s most impressive, brilliant and ambitious writers, was diagnosed with lupus at the age of 24. She reluctantly settled with her mother, played by Laura Linney, on a dairy farm in Georgia and continued to write until she died in 1964 at the ripe old age of 39. Growing up in the Jim Crow South, where her work is set, she portrayed cruelty and hypocrisy in luminous prose.
The film premiered at Telluride and opens theatrically in New York and LA this weekend via Oscilloscope. Four-time Oscar nominee Hawke spoke to Deadline on Wild catThe author’s backstory, the connection between the author’s life and her fiction, and the current difficult situation of indie film – “It’s never been easier to make an independent film.” It’s never been so difficult to have someone to watch (The questions and answers have been lightly edited for clarity.)
DEADLINE: Flannery O’Connor is an incredible author who may be underrated. Her story “Good Country People” blew me away years ago when I first read it. How did you get involved with her and this film?
ETHAN HAWKE: It’s really kind of a generational movement. When I was a child, my mother sold college textbooks in Atlanta, Georgia, and while we were down there, she fell in love with the writings of Flannery O’Connor. So I grew up in a household where I thought she was extremely famous. My mother just talked about her so much that I thought everyone was reading Flannery O’Connor. Maya discovered it on her own through a great high school English teacher. It gave us something to talk about together, we both just liked it. And then as Stranger Things began to explode, and Maya began to become more and more interested in taking responsibility for the things she brings into the world. She approached me if she wanted to do this film. It was kind of amazing that I had been talking to my mother about Flannery O’Connor, and now I was talking to my daughter about her. It was a long way.
DEADLINE: Was it hard to figure out how when you decided to make it? She was very withdrawn.
HAWKE: She became ill at a very early age and spent most of her life trapped in her home with her mother. She once said to someone that it would be very boring if someone tried to write a biography about me. And I thought, yeah, unless you wanted to make a film about the power of imagination and what imagination can achieve, she would be a great starting point for a film like that.
DEADLINE: By changing the plot back and forth from her real life into her stories?
HAWKE: Right. You mentioned “Good Country People.” She herself has said that this is her most autobiographical story. I chose the ones that really explored her relationships, especially with her mother. Therefore, we see some continuity of characters throughout the course of this film. [In ‘Good Country People’ a creepy bible salesman seduces a disabled woman and steals her wooden leg.]
DEADLINE: What fascinated you most about her?
HAWKE: Like many people, we don’t know where to properly place our ambition. You know, what’s the point of ambition if it’s really just to make yourself more important? That hardly seems like a cause worth pursuing for a lifetime, and that’s something she really struggled with. She was extremely ambitious. She didn’t just want to be a writer. She wanted to be Tolstoy. And that seemed extremely arrogant to her. And that was at odds with the humility she sought in her religious life. And I find that very compelling and really interesting.
DEADLINE: O’Conner was bold in her portrayal of the Jim Crow South. But some of her private letters carried racist epithets. What do you think?
HAWKE: The whole conversation is interesting, but this country is a racist country. You cannot tell the story of America without stumbling over these wounds. And people in the generations before us grew up on this soil, and all of these wounds become apparent when you go back in time and explore them. Not everyone is Martin Luther King. Not everyone is a champion, but that doesn’t mean their life has nothing to offer us. Alice Walker said, “A country doesn’t throw away its geniuses.” I thought that if Toni Morrison and Alice Walker found their way to forgiveness, then I think some of us lesser souls could. [Both are admirers of O’Connor’s writing.]
DEADLINE: What was it like working with your daughter?
HAWKE: It was wonderful. I love acting and I love it when an actor has a strong passion for performing and doing something and plays a role. She came to me with this idea – the idea that she’d spent her life watching movies about men who were complicated, nuanced characters who didn’t need to be likable. The whole film would revolve around her relationship with herself and her work. And she says: “I would like to see a film about a young woman who has the same confidence.” I found that very convincing. And she’s at a point in her career where, you know, I’m working with my adult daughter. [Others have done it – he mentioned John Huston’s The Dead, written with son Tony Huston and starring daughter Anjelica Huston, one of Hawke’s favorite films.] If you really take it seriously, you can build on the shared enthusiasm and, like a good band, use your own intimacy to create something worth people’s time. And that’s exactly what Maya and I wanted to do.
DEADLINE: Is there anything difficult about it?
HAWKE: It’s a little difficult to go public with it. Release of the film. You know, the fear for… a relationship that is so sacred [being used] promote a film. And that’s the only part that’s uncomfortable. The actual creation was simply one of the best times of my life.
DEADLINE: The film opens in New York and LA this weekend before expanding. Are you going on tour with it?
HAWKE: I’m just taking advantage of the month of May and traveling around the country doing Q&As in different cities. If you want to release a unique film, you have to do it in a unique way.
DEADLINE: I saw that you did a handful of screenings before the opening weekend, which were often sold out. Are you Flannery O’Connor fans??
HAWKE: I don’t know who is interested in cinema anymore. I don’t know who is interested in literature anymore. But I know I do. And that’s why I’m interested in seeing it. I’m just traveling all over the country talking about the film. And I’ll see if anyone is interested.
DEADLINE: What do you think about the indie film landscape right now?
HAWKE: I’ve been doing this long enough to know that it’s always changing. And there are moments when things are simple and it’s easy to make interesting things. And then there are moments when it’s really difficult. And the way the medium interacts with the public is changing. Streaming has changed everything. Covid, the strikes, everything has set people back.
A lot of money is being made [by some]. And that has some positive impacts on the community and a lot of negative ones because [there’s a] Danger of huge groupthink and the entire medium turning into McDonald’s. That is the fear. But I also know that every setback only brings about a breakthrough. So everything is changing. I’m glad I can do work that I believe in. But I do not know. Like everyone else, I wake up in the morning and read articles about it myself.
How do you get interesting work? Does it happen when streaming? What does the future of independent film look like? Making an independent film has never been easier. Getting someone to watch has never been harder. It’s really hard for producers. People can easily lose their shirt when they try to take a risk. But if we don’t take risks, we really sacrifice a lot. The task of the artistic community is to stimulate interesting conversations. But if you don’t make people money, you can’t do it. It has always been a mystery.