Ethan Hawke getting ready for his 'last act'

Four-time Academy Award nominee Ethan Hawke says that at 51 he is readying himself for the "last act" of his professional life. His long and prolific career ranges from teen roles in "Explorers" (1985) and "Dead Poets Society" (1989) to this year's Marvel Studios' "Moon Knight" miniseries and the horror film "The Black Phone."

"I've definitely made the turn from being an old young person to being a young old person. I prefer this," Hawke told Indiewire in an interview posted Tuesday.

Referencing his 2020 Showtime miniseries about the pre-Civil War abolitionist, Hawke said he felt that "playing John Brown in 'The Good Lord Bird' was that for me: the beginning of my 'old man' career, the beginning of my last act. But it's the beginning of it, you know? I definitely find myself looking over a filmography and thinking about which ones I could've cut out because I only have so much time left. I know I only have so many movies left."

After decades as an actor (2001's "Training Day," 2007's "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead," 2017's "First Reformed") and also a writer (sharing Oscar nominations for 2004's "Before Sunset" and 2013's "Before Midnight") and a producer-director (the HBO Max documentary miniseries "The Last Movie Stars," about Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, premiering Thursday), Hawke said he has "an awareness of time. When I was younger, I was like, 'I'll do this, I'll do that, that'll be a good learning experience, and then I'll try this,' thinking I had all the time in the world."

But, he added, “Now, I'm like, ‘I didn't learn anything from that one or that one, and that one would've been better spent in three months with my family.’ ” Hawke has four children: daughter Maya, a star of "Stranger Things," and son Roan from his seven-year marriage to film star Uma Thurman, whom he divorced in 2005; and daughters Clementine and Indiana with his wife, Ryan Shawhughes.

"I always look back at the periods that I perceived as the hardest as being the ones with the most growth," Hawke mused. "It seems funny, but there was a period right before [his Oscar-nominated role in] 'Training Day' where I couldn't get a … job because I was the Gen-X poster boy and everyone thought they knew me. … Everyone knew who I was and they didn't want me. I'm sure if you talk to Matt Dillon or [Leonardo] DiCaprio — anybody who's had young success — they'll acknowledge that you hit these walls where people think they've figured you out and then they're done with you. You have to be willing to be humble enough to keep getting up to the plate."