Hollywood can be a remarkably small town, but somehow two of cinema’s most beloved Gen-X icons managed to orbit each other for four decades without ever actually shaking hands. That decades-long streak came to a hilarious and surprisingly flirty end when Ethan Hawke made his guest debut on The Drew Barrymore Show on Friday, October 16.
Hawke dropped by the daytime studio to promote the second season of his FX drama The Lowdown, which premiered earlier in the week. However, the conversation quickly veered away from episodic television and into their parallel lives as former child stars who successfully transitioned into acclaimed Hollywood auteurs.
Reflecting on Barrymore’s lifelong presence in pop culture, the Sinister and Before Sunrise actor confessed that he had been tracking her career long before they ever shared a room:
“I can’t remember a time in my life when I was not aware of you,” Hawke admitted.
Barrymore immediately mirrored the sentiment, expressing that she had felt the exact same way about his screen work throughout her adolescence and adult life. That mutual admiration prompted Hawke to voice a thought that had apparently been on his mind for decades:
“What I can’t believe is that we never dated, you know? I mean…” Hawke mused with a smile.
“Where were you?” Barrymore playfully shot back. “And by the way what me and every other girl on the planet wouldn’t have given to date you. Where the hell were you?”
When Barrymore pressed him on why their paths never crossed romantically during the peak 1990s indie cinema era, Hawke joked that he was simply trying to exercise cool restraint rather than forcing a Hollywood setup.
“And look what happened — nothing!” Barrymore teased, to which Hawke laughed: “We’re meeting on a talk show.”
Today, Hawke’s romantic life is firmly anchored. He has been married to his wife, Ryan Hawke, since 2008, with whom he shares daughters Clementine and Indiana. Hawke is also a proud father to actress Maya Hawke and Levon Roan Thurman-Hawke from his previous marriage to Kill Bill star Uma Thurman.
While a ’90s romance wasn’t in the cards for the pair, their instant, magnetic daytime rapport proved that some connections are simply worth waiting forty years for.
