Moon Knightstar Ethan Hawke is fascinated by his role as Arthur Harrow in the upcoming live-action adaptation of the Marvel comic, which debuts later this month on Disney Plus. During a recent press junket, the four-time Academy Award nominee discussed playing the antagonist in a story where nothing is as it seems.
The newMarvel Studios' series followsOscar Isaac’s Marc Spector/Moon Knight, a former mercenary who suffers from Dissociative Identity Disorder and is also the avatar of Khonshu, an otherworldly entity once worshipped by ancient Earth people. Hawke’s character sees Moon Knight as an obstacle to his megalomaniac affairs, so he tries to get Spector to embrace his dark side.
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Although religious zealot Harrow is framed as the villain,Moon Knight’s mental illnessmakes him an unreliable narrator —which, according to Hawke, is the most interesting aspect of the forthcoming Marvel series. “Once you’ve broken the prism of reality, everything the audience is seeing is from a skewed point of view,” he said at the press conference. “That’s really interesting for the villain: Am I really being seen as I am?”
Hawke continued, explaining that audiences have seen countless stories where mental illness is used as “a building block for the villain” but few (if any) where the hero is suffering from mental health issues. “That’s fascinating: we’ve now inverted the whole process, and now as the antagonist, I can’t be crazy because the hero is crazy,” said Hawke. He then added that it forced him to find inspiration in a “sane lunatic or a sane malevolent source” —like real-life cult leader David Koresh.
Hawke previously shared that he had some concerns aboutplayingMoon Knight’s main antagonistbecause he didn’t want to get pigeonholed. He explained that by potentially playing a villainous role, audiences may have a hard time moving past that performance when they see him in future projects. However, he ultimately decided it would be an interesting challenge in his decades-long career to experiment with a darker role.
Hawke is known for mostly playing good guys, andMoon Knightwill mark his first-ever performance as a comic book villain, but there have been a few disturbing roles in the actor’s extensive filmography. For example, he is set to play a serial killer dubbed The Grabber in the upcomingsupernatural horror filmThe Black Phone, which arrives in theaters this summer. For the film, Hawke will reunite with director Scott Derrickson and Blumhouse Productions, with whom he previously worked on 2012’sSinister.
