While Moon Knight wasn't quite the mind-blowing experience we'd hoped for, there's really no faulting the work we saw from its leads. Oscar Isaac delivered a pitch-perfect take on Marc Spector (and Steven Grant), while Ethan Hawke was a suitably formidable villain as Arthur Harrow...even if he didn't have quite enough screentime to fully flesh the character out.
That was an issue for Thor: Love and Thunder's Gorr the God Butcher as well, and most fans walked away from that movie feeling like it had only scratched the surface of Christian Bale's work.
During a recent interview with IndieWire, Hawke didn't talk negatively about his time working with Marvel Studios. He did, however, share a very interesting response when asked about the way the MCU is perceived by filmmakers like Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola.
"If you keep reviewing these movies that are basically made for 14-year-olds like they’re ‘Fanny and Alexander’ or ‘Winter Light,’ then who the hell’s going to get to make ‘Winter Light’?" the actor says. "I appreciate the elder statesmen of the community reminding people not to set the bar too low. I know it makes some people think they’re stuck up, but they’re not stuck up.”
"That group of people [at Marvel] is extremely actor-friendly. They might not be director-friendly, and that could be what Scorsese and Coppola are talking about. But they love actors," Hawke continues. "When actors are excited by a part, audiences get excited about watching them. Feige understood the algorithm there, so they’re extremely respectful toward the process."
We're not sure if Hawke is referring to the directors who worked on Moon Knight, but we've seen nothing to suggest any of them clashed with Marvel Studios. However, the actor went on to explain why he didn't join the MCU with the hope of becoming a mainstay in this shared world.
"I’m not supposed to talk about it. I had to sign an NDA about dealing with them, but I’m not interested in long-term commitments. I protected myself because I didn’t know what it was going to be," he explains. "I just wanted to know what that sandbox was like. And it’s what young people are watching, so why are we going to sit there and tell them it’s not good?"
It sounds a little like Marvel Studios may be getting actors to sign NDAs so they can't talk negatively about working with them, but we don't want to misconstrue what he's saying here. Ultimately, Hawke did seem to enjoy his time working on Moon Knight, and while we can't agree with his assessment about these projects being made for 14-year-olds, the Oscar-winner makes a lot of sense.
All six episodes of Moon Knight are now streaming on Disney+.