Ethan Hawke praises his daughter Maya's acting skills, says, "I can be proud of her"

Washington [US], April 28 : Actor Ethan Hawke, who recently directed his daughter Maya in the movie 'Wildcat,' said he 'geeks out' when he sees her in 'Stranger Things', reported People.
The father of four recently directed his daughter Maya, 25, in the feature film 'Wildcat', which is all set to hit the theatres on May 3, and while having "tremendous respect for her talents," Ethan, 52, shared that he had to make sure he didn't fawn over her performance while wearing the director's hat.
"I worried I would fail her if I did that," he said, of making sure they were highly professional on set.
"We had so many amazing collaborators and all these very serious artists that were there to try to make a serious work. They weren't there for it to be cute or for us to make a home movie."
However, when he's watching Maya play Robin Buckley in 'Stranger Things', it's a different story.
"I can be proud of her and geek out with so much joy when I watch Stranger Things," he added. "But when I'm directing her, I have a job to do which is to make sure we accomplish that goal."
He mentioned that Maya is now filming the next season of the popular series in Georgia, but despite his best attempts, she refuses to give any details.
"I nudge her for them and she won't give them up!" he shared. "She says, 'You've got a big mouth.' So nope, not even to dear old dad."
According to People, 'Wildcat', which is about the life and work or short-story writer Flannery O'Connor, was the brainchild of Maya, who was turned on to the author's work while still in high school. She then acquired the rights to the stories, but Ethan said they both knew that bringing O'Connor's life to the big screen wasn't going to be easy.
"Those were some of our secret midnight conversations, like, 'How could we make a movie about this?' Not just make a movie about Flannery O'Connor, but about the way in which she lived her life, and the intersection between creativity and imagination and how that intersects with faith and reality," he says.
He continued, "Maya wanted to make a movie about a fiery young woman who's complicated. The world is full of movies about complicated men and their relationship to their work. She had this idea to make a movie about a young woman's own relationship to herself and her work."
"She was like, I see all these movies with Gene Hackman and Jack Nicholson and Dustin Hoffman, and all these things you keep telling me are so great. I want to play a screwed up person too."
He added, "I thought that sounded like a great idea," reported People.