Ethan Hawke reveals confusing and messy link between TV and real life. Like jumping off a cliff.

In real life, Ethan Hawke doesn’t go around getting his butt kicked.But viewers of “The Lowdown” have watched his character, Lee Raybon, take repeated punches in the name of uncovering the truth.Now back for a second season on FX, Hawke is once again getting his (literal) kicks playing Raybon, the used bookseller and “truth-storian” at the center of the show, a noir drama with comedic elements set in the secret backrooms of Tulsa, Oklahoma.In a chat with The Post, Hawke compared making the show with creator Sterlin Harjo to “jumping off a cliff together.” When he signed on, there was just one episode with a full script.

“It was a bet about what themes we wanted to talk about, and the tone of the show, and what we both wanted Lee to be like.”The five-time Oscar nominee — who became famous for 1990s hits like “Dead Poets Society” and “Reality Bites,” but kept returning to indie theater and smaller, stranger projects — told The Post that after working with Harjo on his critically acclaimed TV show, “Reservation Dogs,” he was hooked on a future collaboration.“We kind of auditioned each other,” he explained.“Afterwards, we felt really strongly that we needed to work together again.”That “need” became Season 1 of “The Lowdown,” where Hawke spun Lee Raybon into a fascinating, but bumbling hero with a nose for corruption — and a motormouth that often worked overtime to undo the trouble he’d talked himself into.The main plot had Lee poking into the supposed suicide of a gubernatorial candidate’s brother and uncovering the murky real estate dealings of some shifty businessmen.

He pulled at threads and found both stories were woven together with plenty of danger attached.Reviews of “The Lowdown” were overwhelmingly great — the show currently boasts a 98% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes — and Harjo and Hawke brainstormed Season 2 while on the initial show’s press tour.“Ethan and I talked about how accompli...