I thought ["Snow Falling On Cedars"] was brilliant. Why do you think it's not been getting such a great press?

Whenever you do anything unique, it doesn't present a narrative in the way people are used to receiving a narrative. It's [about] how we're all interconnected and how our history is not so much our own, but a collective history. It's a subject matter that Americans aren't really that interested in - what we did to the Japanese in the Second World War. It's [a] dark spot in our history.

It's been a widely read and popular book. Do you think that affects people's attitude? Do they feel possessive about the book so they don't go in with the same freedom?

When you make a movie based on a book, you don't have that same blank slate. If you read a book and you love it, you think about how you would make the movie, or how you think it should be done so there's expectation there. It's hard not to disappoint, actually, if people really love the book.

You've got a lot to deliver, in terms of your performance, without having a lot of dialogue to help you along the way. How do you go about [that]?

I think the single most challenging aspect of making the movie was the silence, the fact that my character [goes through] a whole emotional journey which isn't really articulated via dialogue.

You once said you want to make something people can see and not think, "It's a movie," but "It's art." I wonder if you can expand on the distinction that makes something art rather than a movie in your mind.

It's whether or not you're setting out to articulate something for yourself, or whether you're trying to please somebody else.

Ethan Hawke on choosing parts and his forthcoming part in an adaptation of "Hamlet".