Moon Knight: Ethan Hawke reveals he drew inspiration from 'Tolstoy' to play Arthur Harrow

Marvel's new series Moon Knight headlined by Oscar Isaac has released only two episodes so far but has managed to create a major stir amongst the fans. From introducing a new superhero to MCU to a captivating performance from the new cast, the series has outperformed the audience's expectations. It also marks Ethan Hawke's, who has critically acclaimed films like Before Sunrise, Training Day and more films to his name, debut in Marvel, playing the antagonist role of Arthur Harrow. 

Earlier in an appearance on The Ringer’s podcast The Watch, the 51-year-old actor had revealed that the major reason behind joining the MCU project was co-star Oscar Isaac. Despite his initial reservations, the actor became excited to become a part of the project after witnessing Isaac's excitement. Recently, Hawke talked about he built his character which is explored for the first time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

Moon Knight's Ethan Hawke reveals inspiration behind Arthur Harrow

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Ethan Hawke recalled reading the works of Tolstoy, who is dubbed one of the greatest authors of all time, and added, ''He became a little megalomaniacal in a benevolent way,'' and continued, '' I'm always nervous when people think they're smarter than everybody else, it's generally creepy,'' However, this became a base for Hawke to built his character from. 

Revealing a deeper insight into his study, Hawke candidly talked about creating a juxtaposition between his character and Moon Knight by stating, ''If Moon Knight has this fractured mind, I would be whole. If he was the moon and inconstant, I would try to be the sun and constant. If he's going to have all these sharp edges as a broken thing, I should be soft and gentle,'' He concluded, ''That's how I built him''.

During the interview, he also revealed approaching his villainous character of Arthur Harrow as the opposite of the protagonist i.e Oscar Isaac's Moon Knight. While the Moon Knight deals with Dissociative Identity Disorder, Hawke pictured his character as the doctor and added, ''I saw him as a kind of spiritual entity. I started visualizing him kind of as a monk''.

Image: Instagram/@ethanhawke/kaelnerds