For an actor, the little things inform a performance and can help figure out a character as so much is never seen or heard but is all in the performer’s mind as they get in character. After having some difficulties when signing on for the role of The Grabber, a serial killer hunting children, Ethan Hawke figured out it was all about the masks in The Black Phone to help him understand how to play the villain, as he explains in an interview with Collider.
Ethan Hawke Puts on Masks in The Black Phone
In the interview, Ethan Hawke talks about the mental process of The Black Phone to become The Grabber. Since the film lacks exposition, a lot of it had to be created internally with his imagination.
Donning masks in The Black Phone is not the first project Ethan Hawke has done with director Scott Derrickson and co-writer C. Robert Cargill. The three worked together on Sinister. Cargill and Derrickson are often collaborators as they worked together on the first Doctor Strange.
The Black Phone is based on a short story by Joe Hill, Stephen King’s son who followed in his father’s footsteps by writing horror. The adaption releases in theaters on June 24th.
