Ethan Hawke Remembers Brilliance And Burden Behind Robin Williams’ Magic On Dead Poets Society

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as a teenager, Ethan Hawke sensed that Robin Williams carried a heavy emotional burden behind his brilliance on the set of Dead Poets Society. In a recent interview, Hawke reflected on making the 1989 classic and said Williams’ 2014 death hasn’t altered how he views the film. “I was aware of the complexity of his emotional life,” he noted, explaining that even at 18, he could see there was more beneath Williams’ magnetic charm.Hawke had just one film to his name — the ill-fated 1985 sci-fi Explorers — when he was cast as quiet prep-school student Todd Anderson. Williams, meanwhile, was already beloved thanks to standout turns in Popeye and The World According to Garp, though his greatest successes still lay ahead.

Yet Hawke quickly realized that Williams’ exuberance came with shadows. “I've had a lot of depression in my family, and it was obvious to me that all that power and that charisma came at a certain cost,” he said while speaking at the CBS Sunday Morning show. Williams, he added, was “a deeply, deeply sensitive person who was highly attuned to the energy of a room.”Also Read: Did Katy Perry, Justin Trudeau Just Make Their Relationship Instagram Official? PDA Pics Indicate So!Hawke recalled watching Williams work a scene, freely improvising as the crew erupted in laughter. But later, he spotted a different side of the actor. “Then I went to get a glass of water, you know, get a bagel or something, and I saw him hiding in a little corner. He was hiding in the dark by himself. And I [thought], ‘Okay, it makes a lot more sense to me now.’ It was a lot. It was taxing.”In Dead Poets Society, Williams plays John Keating, the passionate English teacher who urges his students — including Hawke, Josh Charles, and Robert Sean Leonard — to challenge conformity and chase their dreams. Off camera, that dynamic resonated in real life as Williams began informally guiding Hawke through the filmmaking process.“Robin Williams didn't do the script,” Hawke recently told Vanity Fair. “And I didn't know you could do that. If he had an idea, he just did it. He didn't ask permission. And that was a new door that was opened to my brain, that you could play like that.”Looking back now, Hawke said he thinks of Williams’ extraordinary presence on set and the effort it took for him to give so much of himself. “I think of the spirit of the man that I knew on those days, and how powerful it was, and how much he weathered that storm of his own psyche for us and for other people. And I admire him tremendously.”