Reality Bites received mixed reviews from critics when it was released and as per reports, the movie was so disliked that few people watched it. The opening weekend of the 1994 film grossed barely $5 million. Even the film’s star-studded cast including Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke and Ben Stiller didn’t help the film’s reception.
Years later, the romantic comedy starring Winona Ryder as Leliana, a twenty-something working on a documentary on life in the 1990s, is still popular with the younger generation because they find it cool and relatable with their current struggles. Many fans were surprised to learn that the main co-stars, Winona Ryder and Ethan Hawke, did not get along while filming.
Why didn’t Winona Ryder like working with Ethan Hawke?
Reality Bites’ cast created magic with the movie, it simply took most viewers a while to realize it. Even though the cast had a great time reuniting during the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival, they didn’t get along so well while filming. Ethan Hawke told Rolling Stone that he tried his hardest to stay out of trouble on set because Winona Ryder and everybody else were “going nuts about the twenty-something stuff.” The film highlighted the difficulties that young people face while pursuing their dreams.
The Training Day star said that he and Ryder didn’t speak again after they finished their Reality Bites rehearsals. The way he lived was one of the reasons the Beetlejuice star didn’t want to stay in touch with her co-star. Ryder slammed Hawke for living in a dump when he could afford to live better than most people in New York in order to show to everybody that he was “deep.”
The Heathers star said to RollingStone that many young actors live with mattresses on the floor and books lying around because they are ashamed of their wealth. “You just want to say, ‘Don’t live this way to show people that you’re real and that you’re deep.’ It offends me because I know what it’s like to be in poverty, and it’s not fun, and it’s not romantic, and it’s not cool.”
Hawke reacted to Ryder’s remark by explaining that he lived the way he did to emulate Henry Miller’s city lifestyle. “The bottom line is that I’m not a millionaire. F*** you, you are, so you think we all are. Not to say I’m not doing well financially. But to be honest, that’s her whole thing. It’s her projection.”