Oscar hopeful Ethan Hawke: Kids tell me off for using our experiences in Boyhood

Boyhood star Ethan Hawke says he was told off by his children for basing parts of the film on his own experiences as a father.

Hawke lost out to Whiplash star JK Simmons for best supporting actor at the Golden Globes but is tipped to land an Oscar nomination for his role in Richard Linklater’s coming-of-age movie, which was shot over 12 years.

The actor has four children — Maya, 16, and Levon, 12, with ex Uma Thurman, and Clementine, six, and Indiana, three, with second wife Ryan. He said: “They don’t remember a time period in my life where I wasn’t working on Boyhood.

“‘Did you have to put that in, Dad?’ — they said that about so many things that if I talk about them in a newspaper I’ll get in trouble again.”

Hawke, 44, said he would love to be nominated for an Academy Award. “I’ve dedicated my life to acting. This is my 30th year of being a professional actor so it would mean a tremendous amount to me. I’ve always been the kind of person who can live a good two or three weeks on a compliment, you know. It’s pretty much the fuel of my life so I could probably live for another 14 months on that.”

The Oscar nominations will be announced this Thursday with Boyhood, which won three Golden Globes including best film drama, expected to dominate.

Hawke also spoke about how much he missed Robin Williams, with whom he appeared in Dead Poets Society, and Philip Seymour Hoffman, his co-star in Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead, who both died last year. “Robin was a comic genius and that genius came at a price,” he said. “Philip was a tremendous force and tremendous inspiration to me. The whole community feels a black hole that he’s left behind.”

Boyhood will be re-released in cinemas on Friday and is out on DVD next Monday.