Ethan Hawke says childhood costar River Phoenix was struggling with Hollywoods phoniness

Ethan Hawke is reflecting on his late pal, River Phoenix.While at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, the actor, 54, spoke to Entertainment Weekly about meeting the late star, who died at age 23 in 1993, while filming “Explorers.”Hawke and Phoenix starred together in the sci-fi film in 1985.The “Dead Poets Society” alum got candid on the pressures of “a life in the performing arts,” and how Phoenix was “struggling” throughout his career.“He was met with success much earlier than I was,” Hawke said, referring to Rob Reiner’s movie “Stand by Me,” which “launched this huge career at an extremely young age.”The director explained that Phoenix was “vibrating off of how phony that was, whenever you’re getting a lot of accolades and you’re not even in control of your own art.”Hawke noted that “people are trying to make money off you [and] if you’re self-aware at all, you understand how dangerous that is.”But, it also “led him to do the best work of his short life with Gus Van Sant.”Phoenix starred in 1991’s “My Own Private Idaho” opposite Keanu Reeves.“In a loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Mike Waters (Phoenix) is a gay hustler afflicted with narcolepsy.Scott Favor (Reeves) is the rebellious son of a mayor,” the synopsis read.“He was punk rock as an actor when he took that job,” Hawke continued.

“That was a really dangerous job for him to take — a gay hustler for a teen idol — and he was brilliant in that.”The role led Phoenix to take home the prestigious Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival.Phoenix overdosed on Halloween of ’93 while at the Viper Room.In 2013, which marked the 20th anniversary of his death, musician Bob Forrest described what his friend was going through that night.At the time, author, 64, wrote in his memoir, “Running with Monsters,” that Phoenix was on a drug binge with Red Hot Chili Peppers’ guitarist John Frusciante in the days...