Ethan Hawke has likened ageing in the film industry to a “weird riddle”.

The 51-year-old star admits that on-screen opportunities have become harder to come by over recent years, but the type of work he’s been offered is also more interesting than ever.

The Hollywood star said: “It’s a weird riddle. You start getting asked to play complicated people. You don’t have to play the ingenue parts. The job isn’t about being good-looking any more.

“But there just aren’t as many parts, because movies and the entertainment industry are geared towards young people – you just don’t realise it when you’re young, because they’re geared towards you. So the good news is, the opportunities get better. The bad news is there aren’t as many of them.”

Ethan has always been wary of fame, and he’s also always tried to take a long-term view of his own career.

He told The Independent: “At a young age, I was already thinking about what a career looked like, rather than what today looks like. And if you can see that larger plan, you can be a little bit more patient.”

Ethan was always scared by the idea of child stardom. And the movie star now thinks he’s lucky to have been surrounded by so many good people during his career.

Ethan – who appeared in various films before starring in the Generation X drama ‘Reality Bites’ in 1994 – explained: “Luckily, I was surrounded by good friends at varying degrees of success, so I never really equated professional success with success as a person.

“There are plenty of people who are successful in their professional life that are total failures as human beings.”