Ethan Hawke says that Before Midnight may have finally found the end of the story

October 1st 2012, 10:13pm

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

There are so many missed chances in BEFORE SUNRISE and BEFORE SUNSET, whether they land in the middle or at the end of the movie. This is the beauty of Richard Linklater’s films that show us the relationship between Jesse and Celine– it’s real and sometimes it takes awhile to come to any sort of conclusion.

When we last met up with the pair, Jesse is unhappily married and has a child, and Celine is fighting the good fight as an environmentalist with a boyfriend she never sees. The two seem like they should be together, and why time and life and the world has kept them apart, we do not understand. But maybe this time we will truly get some closure on what feels like the longest it has taken anyone to figure out they are meant for one another.

During an interview with Ethan Hawke, he says, but doesn’t say that we may have finally found in an end in Jesse and Celine’s story:

Ethan Hawke: [Before Midnight’s] really a continuation. For me, we just filmed it a couple days ago and I’m still kind of high from the experience. The hardest thing will certainly be… that the first two have a real following. People care about these characters and we really feel an obligation not to let people down about it. But at the same time, there’s no way we’re going to make everybody happy so we just had to try to go about with the same approach and same attitude. I love this movie. And I feel like in a strange way we may have come to the end of the story.

Collider: So this is the last one. I can’t expect another “Before” film every six or seven years?

Ethan Hawke: We’ll see. We’ll see. You never know but it feels like the story’s reaching its resolution.

Collider: What’s the writing process now like between you, Julie Delpy and Richard Linklater?

Ethan Hawke: It’s an unbelievably weird experience. On all the movies it’s happened really organically and each one in a completely different way. But the short answer is that we usually, the three of us, have gotten together and figured out an outline of where the characters are right now and an outline of what the movie would be. Then we go off separately and write a lot and come back together and compare what we’ve written. And kinda take the greatest hits of everybody’s work.

I don’t care if this story goes on until they are in a retirement home, I cherish it so. I’m hoping, along with the rest of the fans to see BEFORE MIDNIGHT sometime next year.