Ethan Hawke Recalls How Late Robert Redford Took Him 'Under His Wing'

Ethan Hawke made fond memories with Robert Redford before the Oscar winner died earlier this week.

“He picked Before Sunrise to open the [Sundance Film] Festival, and he introduced it,” Hawke, 54, exclusively told Us Weekly at the Wednesday, September 17, premiere of The Lowdown at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. “It was a big moment in [director] Richard Linklater and I’s life just to have Robert Redford take us under his wing and say, ‘I believe in you guys,’ and to open the festival with [our] movie.”

He added, “We were getting bad reviews and stuff at the time. Redford was one of the first guys to get that movie and to get what was interesting about it.”

Linklater, 65, wrote and directed 1995’s Before Sunrise, which formally opened at the acclaimed Utah film festival as the beginning