By LOUIS B. HOBSON --

HOLLYWOOD -- Talk about great expectations -- Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman are expecting their first child.

"I'm elated, excited, scared and nervous," admits the 27-year-old star of such films as Reality Bites, Dead Poets Society, Alive and Gattaca.

"We're not even 20 weeks pregnant and already the news is out. Someone at the doctors' office Uma went to called the papers."

Initially Hawke and Thurman were devastated that their joy had been made public by someone other than themselves.

"It's not that we don't want to share our happiness with others. It's just that this is such a fragile time. We'd have made our own announcement in a couple of months."

Before the news of Thurman's pregnancy, neither actor was willing to discuss their relationship, which began almost two years ago while they were filming the science-fiction thriller Gattaca.

"Uma was on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine when she was 17. She knows exactly how to handle publicity.

"She insisted that even when we went out in public, including to the premier of Gattaca, we would not walk together. That's why there are no pictures of us as a couple.

"The ones you see in magazines have been pieced together by computers."

Even with a child on the way, Hawke and Thurman are not talking about marriage.

"We're taking things one step at a time. It's been difficult enough for me to get used to the idea of being a father, let alone being a husband."

Hawke admits he "hasn't had much free time since I met Uma. We've been flying back and forth between each other's sets to be with each other as much as possible."

Thurman was in England filming The Avengers while Hawke was in Texas filming The Newton Boys, in which he plays a turn-of-the-century bank robber.

The Newton Boys brought Hawke back to his roots. He was born in Austin, but his parents divorced when he was a child. His mother uprooted him from Texas and eventually raised him in New Jersey.

He began acting when he was 13, making his film debut opposite River Phoenix in Explorers, but it was Dead Poets Society that made Hawke a known commodity.

"I was 18. It was a big moment, but nothing happened again until maybe Reality Bites, when I became the poster boy for the slacker movement.

"Celebrity has come in increments which I feel has been very healthy. I've always believed the faster you go up, the faster you'll come down.

"I haven't actually been in a hit movie since Dead Poets Society. I don't know how long Hollywood is going to let me keep doing this without my turning out a hit movie."

In between his films, Hawke has managed to publish a novel, The Hottest State. It's about an actor who tries to patch up his relationship with his father and mend his broken heart.

"All first novels have to be a bit autobiographical. If I were really honest, I'd admit mine was very autobiographical, but I'm not going to."

Many of the themes in Hawke's novel are also explored in his new film, Great Expectations. It's a modern version of the Charles Dickens classic about a young man trying to rise above his station in life.

He falls hopelessly in love with a young woman (Gwyneth Paltrow), who delights in breaking his heart.

"Obsessive love is something I know a bit about. I've been there, so I understood a little of what my character in Great Expectations was experiencing."

Later this month, Hawke will be in Vancouver filming Snow Falling on Cedars for Shine director Scott Hicks.


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