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When Details magazine recently decided to do an editorial package on "Generation X: Ten Years Later," the editors chose, as their cover boy, Ethan Hawke. Along with Hawke, the cover listed such Gen-X memorabilia as Nirvana, Winona Ryder, goatees, Douglas Coupland, flannel, Pearl Jam, Courtney Love, Lollapalooza, Seattle, slackers, and Starbucks.
Of these, Hawke seems the most reasonable choice to pose as the embodiment of this loosely defined and mostly media-created phenomenon; after all, Kurt Cobain's not available, Courtney Love's gone wacko, and Winona Ryder isn't taking calls right now.
Also, and more importantly for our purposes, Hawke is just about the only Gen-X icon who's still relevant. Sure, Douglas Coupland's still writing and designing those nifty-looking tables, and Pearl Jam is apparently still touring in Eastern Europe and releasing forty live CDs at a time. And Lord knows Starbucks hasn't exactly faded from the landscape.
But Ethan Hawke -- he just got nominated for an Oscar! He was in three movies last year, none of which was terrible! And along with Uma Thurman, he's part of Hollywood's most genetically blessed couple -- or at least the most genetically blessed couple that actually sleeps together and produces its own offspring.
In fact, as big and successful and central as Ethan Hawke was in 1994 -- they year in which he played the dreamy, cocky, slacker prince who stole Winona's heart in Reality Bites -- he's just as big and successful and maybe even more central now. And you sure can't say that about Coupland or Courtney Love or goatees or Seattle or flannel.
Truth is, the reign of Generation X -- that glorious half-decade when being a layabout and living in your parent's basement and watching art films all weekend and starting a band at age twenty-eight were not frowned upon, but celebrated! Venerated! -- has left only two lasting legacies: Ethan Hawke and grande, no-fat lattes.
It's fitting that Hawke and Starbucks should be the last Gen-X icons standing, because their histories, and destinies, are similar in many ways. Both caught our attention in the early '90s by offering a fresh, contemporary twist on an established favourite. (In one case, coffee; in the other, the moody hunk.) Both came to symbolize their age, and, predictably, both quickly became gratingly ubiquitous.
As such, it soon became fashionable to hate both: Starbucks, because it seemed intent on bulldozing every mom-and-pop store in sight in order to establish yet another beachhead from which to pump its happy java down our throats; and Hawke, because...well, Snow Falling On Cedars. And Gattaca. And that stringy goatee he refused to shave off. And all his talk about his theater troupe in New York. (No one who uses the word "troupe" in conversation can ever fully be taken seriously.) And then there was the novel. A novel! Whoa there, slacker boy! Let's not get ahead of ourselves.
And yet, at the end of the day, when tempers have cooled and reason's been restored, don't you have to admit that, despite its predatory business practices and hell-bent expansionism, Starbucks coffee is good, dagnabbit! It's really good and tasty!
And similarly, while your instinct might be to cringe when you hear the name "Ethan Hawke," when you see him staring out from the cover of Details, the last, lone survivor of a halcyon, bygone age, don't you grudgingly have to concede that, dammit, he's a pretty handy star to have around? Kind of like a not-as-beautiful but better-acting version of Keanu Reeves -- and that's not so bad, is it?
In fact, when you sit down and add up both sides of the ledger, Ethan Hawke comes out looking all right. Because, come on -- you liked him in Before Sunrise. And you secretly had a crush on him after Dead Poets Society, even though he looked twelve years old. And not one of you wanted Winona to end up with Ben Stiller. And you liked that Lisa Loeb song, and were glad when it came on the radio. And who do you have to thank for that? Ethan Hawke!
And no, you didn't expect him to get nominated for an Oscar either, but he was not bad in Training Day, now that you think of it. (Just co-starring with Denzel "King Kong's got nothing on me!" Washington and having people remember that you were even in the movie is a pretty mean feat.) And he's not going to win, so where's the harm?
And he and Uma do make a fine-looking couple. And he's finally, finally shaved off that damned beard.
Come on. He's making the effort. Meet him halfway.
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