Ethan Hawke Won’t Look Down on Tulsa
In an October 13 GQ interview, Ethan Hawke rejected a hypothetical actor's objection to filming in Tulsa. Interviewer Zach Baron clarified he meant the demands of leaving home for work, rather than criticizing the city. Hawke's first response was blunt.
His father is the problem
Hawke plays Tulsa journalist and bookstore owner Lee Raybon in The Lowdown, which began its second season last Wednesday, October 14. Betty Gilpin joins as a public defender dealing with a missing prisoner. Tommy Lee Jones plays Lee's estranged father, whose arrival interests Lee's daughter rather more than Lee would like.
The family trouble is the part of this pitch that would get us back. An investigator can make a persuasive living explaining what's wrong with other people. His own father knows things that won't fit into the explanation. Add a daughter who wants to hear the other side, and the man asking questions has to start answering them.
That sounds like a good use of a famous actor. Give him somebody who is immune to his charm. Make him share scenes with people who remember him before he learned how to win an argument. A modest family grievance can make a mystery more inviting than another promise to expose a vast conspiracy.
Follow the maker back
A setting earns its place through the people who make it difficult to leave. We want the shopkeeper who remembers an old debt, the friend whose help will cost too much, the relative who will never let an embarrassment die. A recognizable skyline cannot do that work.
Creator Sterlin Harjo also co-created Reservation Dogs, about Indigenous teenagers in rural Oklahoma dreaming of California. It is the companion we'd choose: a way of spending more time with characters for whom leaving and staying are both complicated.
If Lee is new to you, begin with The Lowdown's first season. Returning viewers can catch the second on FX or Hulu. Watch whether the family scenes make you as curious as the investigation, then try Reservation Dogs. The interesting question is who keeps you watching once the movie star has got you through the door.
