Maya Hawke and Lewis Pullman Share Acting Advice from Their Famous Parents (Exclusive)
Maya Hawke and Lewis Pullman Share Acting Advice from Their Famous Parents (Exclusive)
Rachel Raposas, Kristen O'BrienFri, March 13, 2026 at 4:41 PM UTC
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Maya Hawke and Lewis Pullman.Credit: Mike Coppola/Getty; Valerie Terranova/Getty -
Wishful Thinking stars Maya Hawke and Lewis Pullman opened up about how their famous parents impacted their acting careers
Maya is the daughter of Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman, while Lewis's father is actor Bill Pullman
The pair's forthcoming film follows a couple whose fights have fantastical impacts on the world around them
Maya Hawke and Lewis Pullman have some famous family members cheering them on.
The two leads of the forthcoming fantastical rom-com film Wishful Thinking spoke to PEOPLE at the SXSW Film & TV Festival about how their famous parents helped them prepare for their own on-screen careers.
Lewis, the son of actor Bill Pullman and professional dancer Tamara Hurwitz, starred opposite his father in 2017's The Ballad of Lefty Brown, his breakout role. Lewis tells PEOPLE he admires his father's stoicism and his "valuable" ability to separate his personal life from his career.
"My dad leads through example. He doesn't really force feed mantras down my throat, which I think has been very helpful," Lewis says, adding that the lessons Bill has provided are "priceless."
Lewis also has two siblings in the entertainment industry: brother Jack Pullman, who featured in If Birds Fly (2021) and Terror on the Prairie (2022), and sister Maesa Pullman, a singer-songwriter.
Lewis Pullman and Maya Hawke.Credit: Christopher Ripley
Meanwhile, Maya tells PEOPLE that her parents, actors Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman, showed her how to embrace "grace and gratitude" in such a public, visible industry.
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Especially in on-screen careers, success can turn "so sour" for many, Maya says, because, as her parents imparted to her, the cost of fame is privacy. Sometimes actors avoid regular activities in public, like going to the grocery store, to maintain privacy, Maya says, but the result is living an isolated life.
"I'm really grateful for the ways my parents showed me that the price to your humanity, of avoiding interacting with the world, is a more expensive price than the price of taking a picture with someone on the street."
Like Maya, her brother Levon Hawke followed Ethan into acting, recently starring in Blink Twice in 2024 and in Marty Supreme in 2025. Maya also has two half-sisters, Indiana and Clementine Hawke, whom Ethan shares with wife Ryan Hawke.
Wishful Thinking cast.Credit: Jason Bollenbacher/SXSW Conference & Festivals via Getty
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Set to debut later this year, Wishful Thinking follows Julia and Charlie (Hawke and Pulklman), a temperamental couple in Portland, whose fights put "earthquakes, the stock market, and entire nations at risk," per the film's synopsis, via SXSW. The pair must decide whether their love can withstand the midst of all the carnage around them.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
