Last month, Ethan Hawke told a French magazine that he was developing a third Before Sunrise film with Richard Linklater and Julie Delpy, but when we caught up with him last night at the Plaza Hotel (where he was presenting a New York Stage and Film honor to Christopher Plummer) and asked him if the movie would really happen, Hawke hedged his bets a bit. “I don’t know. It’s been all over the little Internet chatters, but when we do one, we’ll do one,†he said. “I regret talking about it, you know? The wonderful thing about the first two is that they were such a wonderful project for us. So we’re trying to — if there is a third one, we want it to happen all by itself.†And what would they title it, given that Before Sunrise and Before Sunset have already been taken for the first two installments? “We’ll call it, um, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead,†said Hawke, who starred in that 2007 film. He then added unhelpfully, “We’re gonna call it Dante’s Inferno.â€
Moving on, we mentioned that Giorgio Armani was recently quoted as saying that if an Armani biopic were ever to be made, the designer would like Ethan Hawke to play him. Hawke just laughed. “Oh, really?†he said. “Well, then why doesn’t he give me a couple free suits and I’ll play him? That’s such a funny thing. Why me?†Piped up Natasha Lyonne from nearby, “Isn’t he very tan, that guy? He’s so tan. He should give you suits and an island in Capri.†When we asked whether Hawke was at all into fashion, he made a face, but after we noted that he had grunge appeal back in the Reality Bites era, Hawke finally assented. “I created that, baby,†he said.