Two dozen or so of these mercenaries are perched at the building’s
entrance, most clad in uniforms of T-shirts and pocketed vests with
SLR cameras dangling around their necks.

I walk up to one of the scruffier fellows as he wearily chomps on a
cigarette and ask who they’re all waiting to photograph.

“Ethan Hawke,” he says.

“Anybody else?” I probe, knowing that the hotel is playing host to
other stars, such as Angelina Jolie and Olivier Martinez.

“Nope, just Ethan Hawke,” he replies.

Apparently, the Oscar-nominated actor has moved onto the A-list of
the tabloids thanks to his recent breakup with wife Uma Thurman. This
is partly due to comments made in the March cover story of Details,
in which he justified his extramarital liaisons by saying, “Martin
Luther King suffered from infidelity, and so did John F. Kennedy. And
you’re much more likely to find great leadership coming from a man
who likes to have sex with a lot of women.”

Like it or not, the topic is eclipsing all other aspects of his
career right now.

“There’s nothing I can do about it,” says Hawke, interviewed at a
press roundtable when in New York to promote his latest movie,
“Taking Lives.”

“I worry about it more on a personal level – having people you love
read about you, and everybody looking at you when they meet you and
thinking weird things in their head. My hope is, ultimately, that
I’ve been dedicated to the work my whole life and that will bring
itself around. (If) the work is good then what’s going on in
anybody’s personal life ends up NOT being that substantial. It’s like
craning your neck around when you’re driving by a car wreck, but then
people get on with their lives.”

That’s good news for Hawke, because the 33-year-old actor has
certainly done his part toward earning a reputation for “good work.”

Since his breakthrough role in 1989’s “Dead Poets Society,” the Texas
native has managed to straddle the bridge between indie character
actor and box-office star. His films range from small gems such as
“Gattaca,” “A Midnight Clear” and “Before Sunrise” to more
recognizable blockbusters such as “Reality Bites” and “Training Day.”
The latter effort landed Hawke a 2002 Academy Award nomination for
Best Supporting Actor.

“The first real genre movie I did was ‘Training Day,'” he says. “It
turned me on to the idea of working within a certain formula.”

Currently, the “thriller” is his formula of choice. Hawke is anxious
to discuss “Taking Lives” – except that he can’t reveal too much
about his role.

“It’s really hard to talk about why I took the part and what kind of
research I did for it without giving the whole thing away,” he
explains.

“But let’s just say I wanted to do the movie because I’ve never
worked in this kind of genre. Very few mainstream movies give you an
opportunity to play a really complex person. Most of the mainstream
movies have real simple characterizations of people.”

In the film, Hawke portrays the lone man who can identify a serial
killer who has been assuming the identity of his victims. When an FBI
profiler (Jolie) is called in to investigate the case, Hawke’s
character begins to shift from bystander to suspect.

Although “Taking Lives” puts a new spin on the stream of grisly
serial killer flicks coming out of Hollywood, it is nonetheless
familiar box-office fodder.

Is there pressure for the indie-minded actor to do more mainstream films?

“Quite frankly, if you don’t it gets harder to get anything done at
all,” he says. “You just try and find a healthy balance. I also enjoy
different kinds of movies. An indie movie is fun coming off a big
movie. If you’ve done a couple indie movies in a row it’s fun to go
do a big Hollywood movie. It keeps shaking it up for myself.”

Hawke counts 31 pictures to his credit, but he’s also been something
of a renaissance man when it comes to the magnitude of his artistic
interests. He’s directed two films and one prominent video (Lisa
Loeb’s “Stay”), authored several novels and cofounded the non-profit
theatrical company “Malaparte.”
But there is still one career path left that he’s always wanted to try.

“I’d like to be a journalist,” he says. “I always thought I might go
into journalism. It’s so interesting … Journalism is the leader in
our cultural thought. It’s guiding people to what we deem as
important. That’s why the media gets criticized sometimes because
they really are leading what the cultural dialogue is.”

Hawke believes the media is often treated unfairly by many in his
industry. He even claims to empathize with those same paparazzi who
are poised to ambush him as soon as this interview concludes.

As an example, he explains, “People magazine just had its 30th
anniversary. That magazine didn’t exist (that long ago), and it has
had so many spin-offs. So each one of those magazines needs more
fodder for a story. I (buy) it too. Reading idol gossip is much more
easy than reading ‘Moby Dick.'”

He adds, “Unless it’s about you, then you’re like, ‘Put it down! Grow up!”