Before Sunrise, Sunset and Midnight with Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke

Ethan Hawke, Richard Linklater And Julie Delpy Talk About The Changes That Come With Age

Ron Bennington:  In your forties, it’s the first time in your life when you’re really living with the past and the future.  When you are younger you live with the future, and when you’re forties you start to go, “Look at all these things I wish I could have, but I didn’t, I should have… Then what am I going to do?  It’s all ahead of me, too.”  And it’s really the real washing machine.

Richard Linklater:  And that’s an age where you really can break up and change your life and you still have a lot of life ahead of you.  I mean, if you’re going to do it, that’s an age where your life does change.

Ethan Hawke:  But, whatever age you’re at, don’t you think people feel that way?  It’s actually like, “Well, if I’m going to do it, better now.”  I have some friends who are like, “Well, if I’m ever going to find another person I better do it soon.”

Richard Linklater:  You find a couple in their eighties getting divorced…

Julie Delpy:  “I’m seventy-five, I still have a few good years.”

Richard Linklater:  That’s somewhat optimistic always reaching for more.

Ron Bennington:  But, I do know friends now who have been divorced after twenty-five, thirty years.  The kids grow up and then they just look at each other and go…

Julie Delpy:  “Done.”

Richard Linklater:  Because you’re always asking yourself, “Is this worth continuing.”  That’s what Jesse and Celine are doing on this night, I think.  They are having one of those dark nights where they have to say, “Do we keep going, is it worth it?”  You’re always asking yourself that, “Is it worth continuing?”

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Ethan Hawke, Richard Linklater And Julie Delpy Talk About The Possibility Of Another “Before” Movie

Ron Bennington:  Well, what about this project, is this something that you’ll decide in a couple of years whether you want to pick up again?

Julie Delpy:  A couple of years?  No.  Too soon.

Richard Linklater:  We’re on a nice…

Ethan Hawke:  We’re on hiatus.  We won’t ask that question for about five years.  Somewhere around 2018, we’ll have dinner and say, “What do you think, guys, is there a forth movie, or no?”

Ron Bennington:  But, can you guys even believe what the response has been what it’s been?  Three films, being able to pull that off…

Richard Linklater:  We have our little fan base that seems invested in Jesse and Celine.  So that’s kind of sweet.  It means something to us.  We respect them in a strange way that usually…

Ethan Hawke:  In a way that if we decide to do it, it would probably be for them, in a strange way.

Richard Linklater:  Small, but deep – our fan base.

Julie Delpy:  It’s a strange thing to continue making movies about those two characters.  The second one was really kind of surprising, doing the third one was a little less surprising, so we don’t know if we’ll do a forth one.

Richard Linklater:  Yeah, just no idea.  If we did the nine years, your characters would be fifty.  Whatever that means.

Ron Bennington:  The thing is, if you’re going to keep the, I don’t know, the “Die Hard” series going, you have to think of new crazy things, “How will that guy get himself into another situation.”  But with this…

Ethan Hawke:  We don’t have that problem.

Ron Bennington:  Yeah, with this, this is just life.  If you’re doing this at eighty, it’s still life.

Ethan Hawke:  That’s our joke, that we could do “Amour”, that we have the comedy version of “Amour”.

Richard Linklater:  We’re going to do a comedic version of “Amour” at the very end, it’ll be our last episode.

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Ron Bennington:  It’s been fantastic, and “Before Midnight” is available in stores, online, and across all digital platforms.  So great to have you guys in here, and congratulations, too. 

Julie Delpy:  Thank you.

Ethan Hawke:  Always nice talking to you.

Ron Bennington:  Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, and Richard Linklater, we’ll see you guys next time coming through.

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You can learn more about Ron Bennington’s two interview shows, Unmasked and Ron Bennington Interviews at RonBenningtonInterviews.com.