Shakespeare Reference in Variety, December 2, 2014

The December 2, 2014 issue of Variety has several pages featuring brief conversations between actors. One of these is between Keira Knightley and Ethan Hawke, and a section of the conversation regards Shakespeare. Ethan Hawke says: "Peter O'Toole died last year, and he died while I was doing 'Macbeth.' He had done, famously, this terrible production of 'Macbeth' that people didn't like. And - it's hard to imagine - but some people didn't like my production, either. To make myself feel better, I went and read some of Peter O'Toole's reviews for his 'Macbeth.'" Keira Knightley asks, "Were they really bad" (although there is an error, and it's typed as "We're they really bad?"). Ethan responds: "Oh, they were so bad! I felt better just reading them. But as I read them, they started making fun of how drunk he seemed. It seemed like he was actually walking into the wall. And then, I said, 'Wait, wait, are they talking about, you know Act 5, Scene 1? That's a great idea'" (p. 35).