Look, nobody said being famous was easy. And nobody said having famous parents was easy, either. When you're both, you might just have the most-liked photos on Instagram, like Kendall Jenner, or, like Gigi Hadid, you could have your very own collection with an iconic American designer. But we digress. Here's someone who's got not one, but two famous last names: Maya Hawke. She's the daughter of exactly who you think (Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke), and she's currently in her first year of Juilliard's acting program. Oh, and she's the face of AllSaints' latest campaign.
But don't call her a model. When we spoke with the aspiring actress, she'd just wrapped up a long day of rehearsals for Macbeth, and was walking to her pad in Brooklyn. Hawke shot AllSaints' spring 2017 campaign in her home-away-from-home of Woodstock, where she spent her weekends growing up. To most, Hawke might be another product of celebrity offspring, primed for success by way of her pedigree. But trust us — she's different. Hell, she's not even on Instagram. Thanks to a healthy combination of wit and some serious acting chops, there's something about Hawke that makes her simultaneously next season's chillest It girl and the anti-It girl at the same time.
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However, that coolness bubble almost burst when she sat down for her first day of classes at Juilliard. The AllSaints campaign came out the very same day, and her classmates took notice. It's not every day that you've got a class with someone who's just shot a major fashion campaign, but hey, that's New York — isn't it? We chatted with Hawke about what that was like, and how she kept her cool.
"So, the campaign aired for the first time on my very first day of college. The day I was shaking everyone's hands and trying to meet people, and socialize — and sort of earn my clean slate — the video kept popping up on my peers' Instagram feeds. And it was very strange. I found myself being overcome with confusion, and sadness, because I'd arrived at what I thought was the pinnacle and integrity of artistry; this tremendous academy of arts that didn't cater to commerce at all, and was only looking at talent, and strength, and productivity, and rigor," she told Refinery29.
She continued: "But, on that first day that I was introduced into that world, this thing came out on the internet that felt, to me, like pure commerce. It felt like the opposite of the kind of person that they'd want there. And I had a total identity crisis about who I was, what I was doing, and how to balance art and commerce; if they could come together," Hawke told us. "[I was thinking about] 'What is beauty,' and 'How do I use it to the best of what it's worth without having to [compromise] my life and what's important'...I had a huge meltdown pretty much all throughout New York Fashion Week this year."
"You know, I'd just turned 18, so I was looking at my adulthood and my life, and I just had no fucking clue what was happening," Hawke said. "But I ended up deciding that you can find balance, and that balance is essential to having a full, healthy, and powerful life in the arts." Well said, Maya.