Maya Hawke teases her dad Ethan for ‘trying’ to flirt with Rihanna after he was seated next to the star at a basketball game in 2015

Maya Hawke teased her dad Ethan for “trying” to flirt with Rihanna in a light-hearted new video.

The actress, 25, reflected on some paparazzi shots taken when Ethan, 52, sat next to the star at a basketball game in 2015.

He was attending the NBA All-Star Game with his son Levon – who was 13 at the time – when he struck up a conversation with 35-year-old Rihanna.

In a new interview with Variety Ethan joked, “I’ve been caught by the paparazzi openly flirting with Rihanna!’

Maya then teasingly joked, “Trying to flirt openly!”

Jokes: The actress, 25, reflected on some paparazzi shots taken when Ethan, 52, sat next to the star at a basketball game in 2015 (Maya and Ethan seen in 2023)

Ethan continued the joke, adding, “Yeah, I’m trying to flirt, and it’s an embarrassment to the family.”

The photos from that time showed him leaning back in his chair as they talked while Rihanna held a drink in her hands.

Also chat with the couple’s publication dealt with issues of nepotism.

The actor and his Stranger Things star daughter responded when asked if she was a so-called “fake baby” because of her famous parents, Ethan and his ex-wife Uma Thurman.

But as Ethan put it, he wasn’t giving Maya an edge with their new movie Wildcat. Instead, the movie was her idea, and she involved him in the process of directing it.

“Simply put: I’m a nepo dad!” Ethan joked. “And I’m not ashamed of it.”

However, Maya was more careful about being a fake baby.

“I had moments of uncertainty when we were shooting the movie,” she admitted of working with her father. ‘But the internet doesn’t have many nuances. My dad has been a huge teacher to me and we want to work together. We like being together.’

Chatting: He was attending the NBA All-Star Game with his son Levon – who was 13 at the time – when he was talking to Rihanna, 35

Interaction: The photos from that era showed him and the superstar talking while Rihanna also watched the match

Chats: In a new interview with Variety, Ethan joked, “I got caught by the paparazzi openly flirting with Rihanna!” Maya then teasingly joked, “Trying to flirt openly!”

In addition to getting the project moving, Maya is also a producer at Wildcat.

Despite sounding defiant at first, Ethan also acknowledged that viewers could decide for themselves whether Maya had unfairly benefited from having celebrity parents in Hollywood.

“If someone wants to criticize us for working together, that’s perfectly fair. You have to give people their opinion,” he said. “You just have to try to do well when you’re on stage.”

In the film, which has been given a SAG-AFTRA wobble to get Maya promoted for it, she plays acclaimed Southern Gothic writer Flannery O’Connor.

Wildcat focuses on the writer of Wise Blood early in her career as she struggles to complete her first novel.

According to the father-daughter duo, it was Maya’s longtime obsession with O’Connor that made her want to pitch the film.

She was introduced to her writing in 10th grade, and when it came time to audition for Juilliard, Maya prepared a monologue adapted from O’Connor’s A Prayer Journal.

While neither she nor her father would admit that her parents were the main reason she went to the prestigious school, Maya admitted that she sent the monologue to Ethan while he was filming his Magnificent Seven remake so that he could could help.

“He helped me coach, and the idea kept floating around,” she said.

Though she joined Juilliard – and then dropped out after a year to star in the BBC adaptation Little Women – Ethan wasn’t sure if it was simply a matter of Maya’s family landing her a spot.

“Famous parents can help you audition, but they won’t get you in,” he claimed.

Maya’s experiences reading O’Connor continued to appeal to her, and she eventually persuaded her father to direct a film about the writer for his production company, Under the Influence.

‘I don’t know anyone else That interested in art, faith and America,” she said, citing Ethan’s recent work directing and starring in the literary adaptation miniseries The Good Lord Bird as one of his qualifications.

Laura Linney, who appears in Wildcat as O’Connor’s mother, said the film allowed Maya and Ethan to “grow their skills and contribute to the world in an artistic way.”

She noted, “The demands of production were high. It wasn’t a cute father-daughter thing.”

But Maya admitted that friends had warned her against working too closely with her father.

“Before we started,” she said, “everyone asked me, ‘Are you nervous about working with your dad? I didn’t think so.’

Ethan heard the same warnings, but he didn’t think they applied to his relationship with Maya.

‘What don’t I see? What am I missing?” he recalled, thinking, before joking that Thanksgiving was a less “safe” time for the two of them compared to working on a low-budget movie set.

Part of what made Ethan so sure that his daughter wasn’t just riding his coat was that she had been interested in acting since childhood.

He recalls performing in a Sam Mendes-directed production of Shakespeare’s The Winter Tale in 2009 and a pre-teen Maya joining him one day for the technical rehearsal, which he called “insanely boring” because the play was played repeatedly. stopped and started. lighting and technical instructions correctly.

But when he was about to send her home in a taxi before the play was to be played a second time, Maya insisted on staying.

Having their say: Also while chatting with the publication, the pair weighed in on issues of nepotism

Questions: The actor and his Stranger Things star daughter responded when asked if she counted as a so-called ‘fake baby’ because of her celebrity parents, Ethan and his ex-wife Uma Thurman

Literary Hero: In Wildcat, Maya plays a young Flannery O’Connor as she struggles to complete her first novel

“Maya said, ‘Can I please watch it again?’” Ethan recalled. “It’s a three-hour play. It’s Shakespeare. I said, ‘Wow. It’s on: If you want to see a Shakespeare play final rehearsal twice in a row when you’re twelve—”

“…you’re in serious trouble,” Maya interjected jokingly

“… that’s what you’re going to do with your life,” her father replied.

Maya remembered how Ethan was supportive of her potential acting career, but he tried to convey wisdom to her about the business.

“If a young person was nominated for an Oscar, he would say, ‘The best thing that person can do is go to a convent for a year and not take the next ten jobs that are about to come their way’.” she remembered. “I’ve learned that philosophy over time.”

Maya, who will appear in the buzzing Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro, starring and directed by Bradley Cooper, will soon also team up with her mother Uma Thurman in the comedy The Kill Room, which also stars her Pulp Fiction coster Samuel L. is visible. Jackson.

“I love it so much that people see my mom being funny,” Maya said. In recent years she has made independent comedies that, for whatever reason, have not seen the light of day. She’s the funniest person I know.’