Ethan Hawke wanted to be a boxer … until his first fight

Ethan Hawke wanted to be a real-life Rocky Balboa, but quickly realized the boxing ring wasn’t his forte. 

Inspired by Sylvester Stallone’s iconic performance in the “Rocky” film franchise, Hawke briefly pursued a boxing career. After one fight, however, Hawke realized he wouldn’t cut it as a professional fighter. 

“I saw ‘Rocky’ and I decided I wanted to be a boxer,” Hawke told fellow actor Sydney Sweeney for Variety and CNN’s “Actors on Actors” series. “I took boxing lessons. I got one fight, and I didn’t like boxing anymore.

“I got my ass kicked. I felt like I was a pretty good defensive boxer, but the guy was punching my hands so hard that I was hitting myself. I dropped it. I did not like losing.” 

Hawke fared infinitely better as an actor. His decorated resume includes a Daytime Emmy Award, as well as nominations for four Academy Awards, three Golden Globes, a British Academy Film Award, and a Tony. He came closest to experiencing the boxer lifestyle while portraying an ex-boxer in a 1999 production of Tennessee Williams’ experimental play, “Camino Real.”

Sweeney, who recently played International Boxing Hall of Famer Christy Martin in a biopic, told Hawke she had trained in boxing for roughly six months for the role. 

“You fared better than I did,” Hawke told Sweeney, the latter of whom suffered a concussion on set.