“The guy was punching my hands so hard that I was hitting myself.”

Ethan Hawke reveals he trained to be a boxer after seeing *Rocky *but lasted only 1 fight: ‘I got my a— kicked’

"The guy was punching my hands so hard that I was hitting myself."

By Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel is a news writer at **. He began writing for EW in 2022.

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December 11, 2025 3:21 p.m. ET

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Sylvester Stallone in 'Rocky'; Ethan Hawke. Credit:

United Artists/Courtesy Everett Collection; Dominique Charriau/WireImage

- Ethan Hawke said he "decided he wanted to be a boxer" after watching *Rocky*.

- The *Blue Moon* star said he trained for six months leading up to his first fight.

- Hawke ultimately got his "ass kicked" and quit the sport after his first fight: "I didn't like boxing anymore."

Ethan Hawke didn't have what it took to become the next Italian Stallion.

The *Blue Moon* star discussed his brief pursuit of boxing glory during a conversation with Sydney Sweeney for *Variety* and CNN's Actors on Actors.

"I saw *Rocky* and I decided I wanted to be a boxer," Hawke said. "I took boxing lessons. I got one fight — and I didn’t like boxing anymore."

John Lamparski/Getty

The *Before Sunrise* star said that the fight didn't go his way. "I got my ass kicked," he recalled. "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."

Sweeney, who recently played boxer Christy Martin in the biopic *Christy*, asked, "How long did you train for this fight?"

"Six months or something," Hawke responded. "You fared better than I did."

Hawke eventually played an ex-boxer in a production of Tennessee Williams' experimental play *Camino Real* in Williamstown, Mass., in 1999.

Gilbert Flores/Deadline via Getty

Sweeney later said that she didn't escape the *Christy *set unscathed. "I got a concussion," she told Hawke. "I was proud of it. I loved the fighting sequences. We actually took all the fights from Christy’s real life. Every fight that you saw in the movie was the exact combinations that she had in those fights."

The *Euphoria* actress didn't want any punches to be pulled while shooting the film. "I told all the stunt girls, 'I really want to be hit,'" she remembered. "And they were down for me to hit them. We were just going at each other. There were bloody noses. It was real."

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Hawke told Sweeney that he watched *Christy* with his 17-year-old daughter who "has absolutely zero interest" in him, and had "one of the best nights we've had in a long time." He recalled his daughter telling him, "This is what you don’t understand. This woman is the best fighter in the United States of America, and it’s still virtually impossible to get out of a toxic relationship. That’s what so many women are up against, Dad."

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He continued, "We had such a great conversation. She wanted me to tell you she’s really glad you told that story."**

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