"I've never done a movie with so much blood": Ethan Hawke talks Daybreakers

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"I've never done a movie with so much blood": Ethan Hawke talks Daybreakers

POSTED: Friday, January 8, 2010, 6:10 PM

Filed Under: Interview | Movies

Lionsgate

Ethan Hawke in Daybreakers

On the surface, Daybreakers is an odd choice for Ethan Hawke. Other than the high-minded Gattaca, Hawke has stayed away from sci-fi movies, bolstering his own critical profile playing supporting roles Training Day and Before the Devil Knows You're Dead after his initial splash in movies like Reality Bites. So it's a cock-your-head-confused moment when you learn he's going to be a in movie about vampires.

In Daybreakers (read Sam Adams' review here), Hawke plays a scientist in a world that has gone almost completely bloodsucker. The few humans left are harvested for food, but they're almost gone and Hawke's character is in search of a blood substitute that could save the vampiric race from degeneration. City Paper sat in on a conference call with Hawke to talk about his new film, which opens wide today.

"I've never done a movie with so much blood," he said about working on Daybreakers, adding that he's spent most of his life avoiding these types of movies. But throughout the call he reiterated the artistic merit of the genre picture, like horror or sci fi but stayed away from them because there are so many bad genre films out there as it is.

As Sam Adams points out his review, the movie is highly stylized and that's where Hawke saw the difference between Daybreakers and the rest of vampire mania. "We did tons of tests, we weren't sure what these vampires should look like. It sort of turned into this film noir thing. In the beginning it looks like a Bogart movie and then like Gattaca. We thought the same thing with Training Day, especially when you're watching cop shows every night or vampire shows every night. What can you do with this form that's special? Something unique," Hawke said. "But these two guys [directors Peter and Michael Spierig] are really, really creative. They're brothers, they're geeks. They spend all of their time talking about this, thinking about this and trying to make it brilliant."

Daybreaker's noir leanings go hand-in-hand with its concept. In a world where no one will die, it's only fitting that everyone smokes. But that's the movie, if Hawke couldn't die, what would he do? "Wow. Ride a motorcycle all the time, as fast as possible," Hawke said after thinking about it for a bit. "I love riding a motorcycle but it's the one thing as a father of three, you know, I feel like it's not the smartest way to spend my day. But if I didn't have to worry about dying, I would love to ride a motorcycle."

In other words, living without the threat of death ain't half bad. "If you walk around with the idea that you will not die, it's kind of a zen enlightening experience," he said laughing. "It's detached, you don't have to worry about anything, it's a nice personality to wear everyday."

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Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

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