Bishop Barron Presents | Ethan and Maya Hawke - Understanding Flannery 

I can honestly say I NEVER thought I'd see these three together.

Ethan Hawk must be the coolest dad to have and Maya Hawk must be the coolest daughter to have. Such a deep love and mutual respect for each other as human beings and as artists. It's such a rare, beautiful thing to see. I'm so happy for them. I can only hope my daughter and I can have that type of friendship when she grows up!

Currently battling an addiction that has consumed me for the last 13 years. I pray for the strength to overcome and will continue to fight to the end. God bless you all

Fifty years of writing comic books...now in my 70s, realizing that "gift" came from the Holy Spirit...for a reason. I'm humbled, grateful beyond understanding, and continue to write comic books...to His Glory.

Bishop Robert Barron really brought me back to faith. All of these deep deep topics and issues I’ve struggled with in my life, he dissects and breaks them down in ways I can get on with. Father Mike Schmitz helped as well. I’ve posted on so many videos because from a struggling drug addict to what I am now, is nothing but a loving gift from God

Amazing conversation! I had no idea that Ethan and Maya were so into Flannery O’connor, and they had such elevated spiritual sensibilities. Bishop Barron keeps surprising me with unexpected brilliant conversations…

This was so beautiful. I adore Ethan Hawke and he’s smart. What a great guy and what a worthy project. God bless them

Flannery is the most underrated genius by the mainstream culture. Maybe had she been like Tennessee …. Also Maya is wrong about Flannery being raised among women with traditional roles, her mother managed a dairy farm single-handedly and raised and took care of her genius daughter after becoming widowed at a young age.

Glad to see Officer Hoyt continue to fly straight after surviving his training day.

I love the respect Ethan and Maya express to each other

“Parker’s Back” is the best illustration of Christian iconoclasm as a theological heresy. Brilliant and profound.

My initial reaction to this was one of aversion. I know that Maya is an outspoken celebrant of abortion, and I know that Ethan has filmed his daughter in sex scenes, both of which go beyond the threshold of enjoyable for me. That being said, however, their willingness to break bread with Bishop Barron demonstrates that, at the very least, they’re not hardened ideologues, which means they got to experience a high-quality ministry from a strong man of God, even if just for the duration of this podcast. I can’t find any element of loss in that arrangement, so I’m going to celebrate this as a victory. Glad people are willing to bridge the gaps. Thanks, guys!

This is a good exchange: "Can you bear the prophetic identity?" "Most of us... fail, but the attempt [has] value." Also, I think people today (often young people), seem to think that they've "evolved" to a place where they can be very critical of the past (as if their values are inherently superior), although they frequently fail to see that their morals are no less bound to time and circumstance than those who preceded them. When pressed, they can almost never offer an objective basis for this supposed moral superiority, and are forced fall back on the popular consensus of tribe of their circumstance.

I wanted to hear Bishop Barron more. Ethan and Maya took over.

Jesus save me I’m losing hope. Please come soon I don’t know how much longer I can hold on. But I’m keeping faith. I keep faith even as I constantly struggle to take care of my children and I’m constantly struggling to buy groceries. BUT I TRUST YOU LORD! My husband died years ago. At times I feel so alone. I’m a single mom. I suffered an heart attack a year ago and I’m battling lupus so my health is failing. Both of my sons are autistic. I praise you Lord even as I constantly struggling to pay rent. Help me Jesus as I struggle to buy my children’s school supplies because I want to give up. I don’t know how I’m going to get through this, but thankfully I have you Lord! I know you will provide. Faith over fear! Praise God and his son Yeshua!

Thank you Bishop Barron, Ethan and Maya Hawke for this enlightening conversation. I am excited to view the film!

As a writer who also incorporates elements of the Catholic faith into my books, I deeply felt the part where they mentioned how Flannery submitted one of her books to a publisher who came back and said "it's great, but take these parts out". I felt that *so* keenly, and that's precisely why I elected to self-publish my stuff. Because secular agents and publishers don't "get it" when you include faith in a story that's not Christian fiction. Futher, I have often said that I would never allow my books to be made into movies. Watching this interview cemented that resolve. If someone sees my books simply as "art" and fails to pick up on the deeper message, I wouldn't trust them to tell that story... This felt very much like when you're praying in a beautiful cathedral, and tourists are wandering around with selfie sticks, taking pictures with the "beautiful art" rather than meditating on it and allowing it to transform them.

Maya was utterly brilliant as Robin in Stranger Things, with the character's tendency to blurt things out. When I heard she's playing my girl Flannery, I may have fist-bumped heaven. I hope they include That Incident where Flannery just blurted something out to defend the Holy Eucharist.

I appreciated this interview! I've written about Flannery O'Connor for years, and have written a bit in anticipation of this film. I understand that the Hawkes worked to respect O'Connor's faith, and in filming in Kentucky, consulted with the pastor of the parish which they used to stand in for Sacred Heart in Milledgeville. I was struck, though, by their very generalized understanding of Flannery's faith, most clearly expressed in the discussion of "Parker's Back" - no disrespect to what they saw in the story, but it's so obviously a story *about* the power and scandal of the incarnational faith that Catholic sacramental theology embodies - it's hard for me to see how they could *not* see it! One more point: the grace moments that are at the center of O'Connor's work aren't just about seeing the world as it is - it's about seeing yourself as you are. As you really are, no matter what your pride tries to hide from you. The point in "Revelation" - a story mentioned in the interview - when Ruby rages at the memory of being called a "wart hog from hell" - she yells - "Who do you think you are?" ...and her words come back in an echo....

The interview felt rewarding. Like I was Assigned a coach seat on the plane. Then the airline hostess says would you like to sit In First Class. Unexpected. ✌️

As an admirer of Flannery (as you might guess from my profile photo haha) I truly enjoyed this conversation. First of all, I love Ethans humility at the end to suggest that his conversation with the Bishop might impact his editing of the film! What a neat grace that is! I also enjoyed seeing how much time, energy, and knowledge (and respect) that the Hawks are putting into this project about O'Connor and I am beyond excited to see the film. I think that the Bishop did a fantastic job of Christian "active listening" to affirm truth and to sometimes be silent and show respectful listening when less-than-orthodox ideas were shared, as he always models well. I was delighted to see such insighful, respectful dialogue happening between people who might have rather different opinions on many things here in the year 2023. I felt a little protective of Flannery towards the end, however, when they suggested that her regionalism limited her in any way, or that she had somehow missed out on things, or might have been a "better person" (my words not Mayas but the sentiment seemed to be there) had she not had lupus and been able to live a more metropolitan, typical life. I was glad to hear Ethan say that it was lupus that opened the door to her genius, and I think this is the better reading. Her illness and the limitations and loneliness, not to mention the physical pain, that it brought her, were part of her vocation as a writer and she understood that well. I think, at the end, despite the hardships she wouldnt have had it any other way, as she had such a good theology of redemptive suffering. Mary Flannery O'Connor is one of the most gifted writers of the modern age, and she is a gift to the Christian who longs or creative, insightful, honest fiction that is entirely Christocentric (a rare find). Her letters are just as profound a gift to humanity as her fiction was, as uncomfortable as she might have been to know they would be so widely read, as her faith and her unique character shines through them. I have learned so much "at her feet" by reading her, and I am so grateful that the Hawkes are using some of their hollywood cache to bring light to this underrated author and artist. May the Lord use this film for His glory and the good of others. Flannery O'Connor, Ora Pro Nobis.

One of the best books i've read in recent years was Rules for a Knight, by Ethan Hawke. The Christian influence on the book is undeniable. So it's no surprise to see Ethan Hawke talking to Bishop Baron about making a film about a Catholic writer.

Thank you so much Bishop Barron and Ethan and Maya Hawke for such a wonderful and heart and soul felt discussion of Flannery and her peacockish ways. Blood runs true.

I would’ve never thought I’d see these three together. God bless ‘em

Didn’t expect this conversation, lovely!

Fiction as a great art form seems often rather underated and I love to hear such a genuine conversation about art, this is a joy to listen to!

Thank you ,enjoyed this conversation.

Thanks Bishop Barron for the interview with Father and Daughter! Christianity on display! God bless you all! 🎄 🎄Wishing you and your family a Merry Christmas! 🎄 🎄

What an amazing interview!! So thrilled to hear all that Flannery communicates is being heard!! This movie has so much for all of us to learn!!

It is good to see that Ethan Hawke as a good father encouraging and guiding his daughter to the right path. Jesus Christ is our Lord, the only Saviour. Thanks Bishop Barron for the interview with Father and Daughter! Christianity on display! God bless you all!

Brilliant conversation. Thank you! I’m absolutely going to see the film.

Really profound insight by Ethan that you discover who you are by what you love. "Holiness is the fruit of good desire." I learn who I am by my identity in Jesus Christ. Happy Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary!

Great interview! Thank you so much 🙏🏻

What a wonderful start of a video! So touching to see both views, the father, amazed at the evolution of the daughter, the daughter so eliquitely telling her story. Thanks

Bishop Baron is a courageous man. I'm sure on a personal level he's very different than these two people, but I trust him to dialogue with others in this way.

How lovely. ❤ thank you

This was an excellent conversation.

Fascinating to get this conversation at this stage in the film's creation. Really looking forward to it.

What a delightful discourse.Thanks.

10 minutes in and this conversation already feels like a spin-off from the 'Before' Trilogy. Thank you Ethan, Maya and Bishop Barron!

Fantastic interview for the artist! Will listen again.

Wonderful to listen to this and so excited to see the film 🎉

I’m here can’t wait!! ❤

The excitement of how they talk about their brilliant work together is fascinating. I can't wait to watch it plus all the future work!

And they sing together! I love this so much. ❤

Thank you. That was a lovely interview & it really lifted my spirits. I just ordered a print copy of her short stories & I am so excited to see the film. All the best, Jimmy James

I can’t begin to explain how timely this conversation is and how much it blessed me. We are not alone. Thank you, thank you, thank you

This was a fascinating conversation to watch! I look forward to seeing this film!

Congratulations Ethan on debut! I will definitely see this film and maybe probably read one of her books and see where it goes.

Most beautiful discussion between three people who are on a journey

Loved this episode! Loved Maya & Ethan, and you as always Bishop Barron! Working on my first Flannery now.

I just love Ethan in every way possible, he is so talented, intelligent and all. I just admire so much

Can't wait ❤❤

That was really lovely. “The goal is to turn as many ‘thems’ into ‘us’ as you can” Genius line.

Absolutely wonderful and fascinating interview that captivates and immerses one into the depth of Flannery O'Connor. Wish it wold have never ended!

This was a great discussion! This is why we read! Keep em coming! God bless you!

So wonderfully insightful and encouraging, good conversations are hard to come by these days. Thanks to both parties for a great discussion.

Fantastic Bishop. Love Ethan and even more so now.

Praying for you and your family Tiff

A great conversation with great insight into Flannery's work. I only missed more interventions from bishop Barron. I would like to hear more of his particular perspective of each story.

Definitely a favorite of the Baron interviews!

Wonderful conversation. I was recommended this because I'm a massive fan of the Hawkes (Ethan in particular), so expected a conventional discussion about the Flannery film. Little did I know how rich this dialogue would be, a fascinating dive into spirituality. One of my favourite interviews featuring either of them, and I've watched tens of hours' worth of interviews with them.

Maya’s bird/nature, them/us story really touched me. Thank you for this conversation.

Great timing: I'm in the middle of her collected stories and collected letters. It's great to read whatever she writes aloud - it's enjoyable just to say the words as you imagine she would say them. The diction is half the joy of reading her works.

This was a great meditation that I need so badly and am encouraged that soon, I might sort out my confusion, as you provide a glimmer of hope. Thank you, one of the best ever.

This was a deep conversation about art and faith. I hope it was enjoyable and insighful for all three of them.

Great interview, I’m really looking forward to seeing Wildcat!

Love you Bishop Barron.. you’re a blessing to the church

once again i come to his channel curious of what he might had been up to and i find unexpected guests. Bishop Barron thank you and to Ethan and Maya im without words just incredible.

Good talk. Bishop Barron has unbelievable patience. Lookin forward to reading Flannery O’Connor!

Very enjoyable interview; very revealing--about Flannery O'Connor and also about Ethan & Maya Hawke were so Catholic, so thoughtful, so well-read, so bright! This is what I needed to move me to read my first Flannery O'Connor book.

The Holy Spirit brings all things full circle. A father and daughter duo. Amazing.

Love this. I relate to their personal journeys so much and these writers have affected so many at different places on their spiritual sojourns.

Would have liked to have heard more insight and reflection from Bishop Barron.

Wonderful discussion.

Love the father -daughter bonding through work...

Wow, this was even better than i expected . Thank you so much for rhis great conversation. ;)

God bless you❤

I’m beyond excited to see this film. I have for quite a while now wondered how to write a biopic about Flannery. How difficult a project! I had envisioned Emma Stone as Flannery living with her mother, played by Allison Janney. Then I saw The Help and I became obsessed with the idea for a screenplay, but could not imagine how to actually pen such a problematic story. These two did it! It so happens that I’m presently writing a story specifically revolving around the wiley nature of grace that had and is working its magic on myself by dint of a year long relationship with a particular person that has come and gone. Flannery is quoted often in it. The thing is a blend of Bukowski and O’Connor, if one could I imagine such a thing. Thanks be to God for these two and the good Bishop to have them on. I’ve read everything I could get my hands regarding Flannery. Admirers should get familiar with Jessica Hooten Wilson. Look her up and you will be blessed. I’ll just leave it there.

Fascinating conversation with three people whose work I admire. And lots of references to “Parker’s Back” - my fav Flannery story! 👍🏻

I'm a true cinephile. From being bedridden for the first 6 years of my life watching films 24/7, and for the next 12 years a continued obsession with movie theaters all around Manhattan, always looking forward to doing movie marathons on 42nd Street. I never read a book those first 20 years. My brain since birth adapted to processing information through cinema logic, Proust merrily haunting every reel in defiance of Time and Space that comes easy to film art, which, I now realize at age 76, made me an outsider my entire life, making it impossible for me to socialize, for no one I knew knew film language and logic, how I communicated. An excellent example of how film can dive into the depths of a subject that linguistic logic hasn’t even attempted yet is in the exploration of solipsism during this Age of Solipsism, having long ago transitioned from the Age of Narcissism. None of this to be found in books, but was explored to perfection in a Spierig brothers’ film, Predestination, where Ethan Hawke gets to display his radically unique and always entertaining approach to acting that has made him one of my favorite actors of all time (to begin an adventure into his acting, it can’t hurt to start with The Northman, Daybreakers and Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead; and if really bold, try his Hamlet). Although I would eventually read all of what Flannery wrote, John Huston’s cinema adaptation of Wise Blood is my favorite dive into the imagination of Flannery and what she was up to, having watched it at least 40 times. And the making of that film contains my favorite story related to Flannery’s art: Brad Dourif, playing the protagonist, Hazel Motes (an actor in that rare category of being radically unique and deep as an actor, like Hawke), along with Benedict and Michael Fitzgerald, screenwriters and advisors on set who had been lovingly close to Flannery since childhood, and other members on the set, including John Huston, all arguing about the religious framework of the film, Huston insisting on a strictly psychological interpretation, and the Fitzgeralds insisting God must remain in how the story is told, with Brad Dourif bravely and adamantly taking sides with the Fitzgeralds. At a certain point, Huston, an avowed atheist, had enough and stormed out. The next morning all were at table for breakfast, except Huston. Halfway into breakfast, Huston arrives with his gargantuan ego hovering over them, and then saying with the authority of Samuel, “Ok-you can have your Jesus!” And as far as grace, it is what’s always present sustaining and helping us to advance down many avenues of expression with degrees of intensity (“It’s not a matter of dialectics, but a matter of degrees.” - Nietzsche). The problem is we fight against grace because it always conforms to the incomprehensible logic and motion of God’s Providence that is always moving inside the will of the Father in his incomprehensible ways, what we most often reject in our willfulness, and thereby reject the graces present to and for us, an understanding of which is in my experience more easily accessed through film art, as in Tarkovsky’s The Sacrifice. And what art form travels deeper into the mystery of Man and Woman pulled irrevocably in the direction of one another while simultaneously trying to get away from each other, even unto death, than in Tarkovsky’s Solaris? Or persona at war with person in Ingmar Bergman’s Persona?

Beautiful in 1000 different ways. Wow.

wow this had to be the best interview ever

i love maya so much

Never knew this serious side of Ethan Hawk. God bless!!

Man I really enjoyed this interview. It's reassuring to see a renewed audience of her work, I look forward to seeing the film!

Fantastic interview

Wonderful conversation

For me now, at this time in my life, the greatest interview I’ve heard (and I have listened to many).. So rich in understanding Flannery, in reminding us of her spiritual and artistic vision. The Hawkes (father/daughter) are beautiful in their relationship and commitment to bringing authentic Flannery and her prophetic role. The interview was so natural, genuine, and “graceful.” Thanks to the loving relationship of Ethan(?) and Maya, their love of Flannery, their own spiritual mission, and to you Bishop Barron for creating a milieu for epiphanies to happen.

Beautiful 🙏🙏🙏

I wonder what Bishop Baron would have said if given an opportunity. Other than that... great interview. I'm very happy artists are making spiritual movies again!

Best Interview Ever!

What a wonderful thing to people use there talents well!

Saint Mother Teresa of Calcuta said what really people needs at this age is LOVE

I love what she said about all of us or some of us being part of a Mandala and shaping this forms to create a character. She has a degree of alter dimensions, that are not that abstract as this traits as colours and vitamins we use and are part to consume and create with.

Great interview and unscripted, authentic discussion! As a Catholic and a filmmaker, this hit quite a few topics of interest related to creativity and spirituality.

I am so amazed at the recent proliferation of faith based content! Thank God for all of it!

I'm very impressed by Ethan's knowledge of theological concepts as well both of their passions for O'Connor. I know just a little bit about her and read a few of her stories. It was for research I did in Bruce Springsteen who was influenced by O'Connor, especially for his Nebraska album.

Bravo!! 👏👏

Excellent discussion.