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First thing in the morning, and the actor is sitting on a couch in the Four Seasons Hotel, doing an imitation of the way his little daughter speaks to him first thing in the morning.
He is witty. He is sweet. He is articulate. He is smart.
As the last dregs of our objectivity slip away, we remember to switch on the tape recorder.
Hawke was in Toronto earlier this month to promote Training Day, a movie about corruption in the Los Angeles police department. Denzel Washington plays a detective, and Hawke plays a rookie assigned to work with him for a day. The movie is scheduled to open here Friday.
Although Washington's role in Training Day is larger than life, Hawke's part in the film requires a rather more intricate performance. The 30-year-old Hawke sums it up by saying, laughing, "I thought if I did my job right, Denzel would get an Oscar."
Training Day is a bit of a change for a guy whose movies run mostly to such thoughtful fare as Hamlet, Snow Falling On Cedars, Gattaca or Dead Poets Society. But an action movie suits him just fine, says Hawke. "I'm happy to be in a movie that I think people will like. Some of my past movies I've liked, but they are not that accessible." He talks about going to see The Perfect Storm, a film that was released around the same time as his own star turn in Hamlet. "I realized that absolutely NOBODY in the theatre for The Perfect Storm was waiting with great anticipation for my movie."
About Training Day, he says, "I wanted to do this movie. I just hope it doesn't confirm my worst fears, which is that all you need to do to be a successful male actor is carry a gun."
It's important to accept commercial roles, Hawke reckons, because it is otherwise difficult to find work with good directors. "Look who's in Scorsese's next movie -- Cameron Diaz, Leonardo DiCaprio -- it's not like it used to be. And it starts getting harder and harder to get something like Hamlet made."
Speaking of DiCaprio, who is a friend of Hawke's, the actor says that the two almost did a play together. "But it would have been impossible. It would have been a stunt," says Hawke, referring to DiCaprio's ridiculous level of celebrity. "We could be doing the darkest Eugene O'Neill play ever and girls would still be screaming all through Act III."
Not that he's lacking for other projects. Hawke has just finished directing his first movie, Chelsea Walls. It stars his real-life wife, Uma Thurman, plus Kris Kristofferson, Natasha Richardson, Steve Zahn, Vincent D'Onofrio, and ... everybody. Chelsea Walls was shown at Cannes this year.
"We shot it digitally, which is so fun. It's like watercolouring alone in your room. It really opens doors for people. I can't wait for people to see it."
He's also in two new Richard Linklater movies, Tape and Waking Life, and he's currently performing on stage in New York in Sam Shephard's new play The Late Henry Moss. Hawke, who himself founded the New York-based theatre company Malaparte, has also completed his second book. It will be published by Knopf in about six months.
His first, The Hottest State, was published in 1996.
Hawke has been an actor since the age of 14. He is well aware of his good fortune in having found something he likes to do and having found it so young.
"It is luck, knowing what you want to do in life. The older I get, the more grateful I am that I had something I loved."
On the other hand, he adds, "There's a great flock of men and women who are becoming successful now. I wonder why I was in such a rush?"
It was during the filming of Gattaca that Hawke and co-star Thurman met and fell in love. They were married in '98. They have a little girl, Maya, and are expecting a second child this January.
Getting older and being a parent have changed everything, he says. "I feel so much less sure of anything than I did when I was 21. Then, I thought I understood the industry and acting and people and relationships and the world.
"Now I see how Democrats could become die-hard Republicans, once they become parents."
Yes, he's laughing.
"I used to be so critical of other people with kids. I'd be saying, 'Look at that! How could they give that child a sweet first thing in the morning!' " Hawke laughs again as he describes how a recent morning began with a full-blown argument with his wife ... over how he had rearranged their book shelves.
Yes, things change.
Hawke and Thurman have done an excellent job of protecting their privacy, a difficult task in their profession. Fame seems not to interest this guy.
"It's that, what I want isn't fashionable right now. My dream is not to be the most successful actor, I just want to be in a room with interesting people. People think that making the most money equals success. I've never bought that.
"The people I admired most were not necessarily the most successful."
He continues, "It seems difficult to be counter-culture and be successful. Everything seems so corporate now. I wonder how it would be possible for a young musician to write for radio today?"
Hawke's visit to our city for Training Day was part of the Toronto International Film Festival. Noting that he first came to the festival in 1990, the actor says, "I'm just so glad to still be here."
When it is pointed out to him that he used to be a bit withdrawn with the press and that he didn't always seem to enjoy being interviewed, he just smiles a bit sheepishly.
"Yeah, I said I didn't like it, but if I really hadn't liked it, I could have stopped, right? I could have gone off and been a forest ranger.
"They don't do any junkets."