The MAGIC OF MAYA
Actor Maya Hawke is firing on all cylinders. She talks to Laura Antonia Jordan about friendship, family and Stranger Things
Maya Hawke is, by her own admission, not cool.
Yes – star of mega hits, indie darling, singer-songwriter, Prada ambassador, New Yorker, daughter of Hollywood royalty – that Maya Hawke, the one with the objectively impeccable cool girl credentials. But hear her out. ‘You know that dream where you stand up and you’re naked? It’s kind of how I feel all the time. Just in my life. I’m not able to create some kind of cool persona. I’ve tried so many different times in my life. “OK, this year at school, I’m gonna be the quiet, mysterious one […] You don’t need to hug everybody. You don’t need to tell everyone you love them. They know. They know. Shhh, shhh…”,’ she says, sounding not unlike her pace-quickening, endearing character Anxiety from Inside Out 2. ‘And I struggle with it. I want to tell people when I love them, and I want to kiss their cheeks, and I want to hold their hands and tell them that they’re magical and important. And I want to laugh too hard and make the wrong joke, and I want to have the conversation with you about why it’s the wrong joke. And there’s something a little bit humiliating about moving through life that way.’
Humiliating? To her perhaps. But from the outside, Hawke’s brand of energetic guilelessness, her unapologetic goofiness, is irresistible. In a world where authenticity is scarce, her transparency, words and thoughts pouring out like groceries from a split shopping bag (‘rambley’ according to her), is precious and refreshing. This uncoolness is exactly what makes her cool. It’s also what’s made her hot property; a vim and openness that she has brought to screen roles from Jo March in the BBC’s 2017 adaptation of Little Women, to a Manson girl in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, and a schoolteacher in Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City. Not bad for someone who only turned 27 this summer.
PHOTOGRAPHS Magnus Lechner
STYLING JEANNA KRICHEL
Published on 24th November 2025
Coat, price on request, Danny Reinke; top, £910, Prada; jeans, £200, Frame; earrings and necklace, Maya’s own
It’s 11am on a Saturday morning when we talk and Hawke is sitting on her bed in Portland, Oregon in a George Jones T-shirt, easing into the weekend ‘in a city not my own with my dog and my guy’. She’ll go to the cinema later, meet with a director, do a spot of painting.
Hawke is in Oregon to film surrealist romcom Wishful Thinking, opposite Lewis Pullman. ‘It’s a tiny little movie and I think it’s going to be really special. I’m so excited.’
Also very exciting – if on a totally different scale – is the fifth and final season of the Netflix mega-hit Stranger Things. Hawke watched the show as a fan at first, joining the cast in season two. As the gung-ho Robin, Hawkes quickly became a fan favourite. Particularly adorable is her on-screen buddy relationship with the coiffed hunk-with-a-heart, Steve (Joe Keery) – Robin’s coming out speech to Steve is many people’s favourite scene from the entire show.
Hawke describes Stranger Things – like Pixar’s Inside Out 2 – as a ‘rainbow project’, rare. ‘It’s art, it is high quality, it is popular, and it is morally good, putting good message into the world. And for something to be popular, quality and moral is an extremely rare rainbow. And that is the highest accomplishment.’
Why does she think it has been such a hit with viewers (the third most popular show of all time on Netflix, with over 140m views globally)? ‘For one part, I think it’s the love. The love between the characters and the loyalty, and just the full commitment to each other,’ she says. ‘You watch that show, like I did, and you want to be a part of that group. You want to have those friends who’ve got your back that hard.’
Where the cast got really lucky is that that there was genuine ‘love behind the camera too’, Hawke explains. ‘We’re a family and the authenticity of the loyalty among the cast and crew, [bleeds] over into the story.’ That, she thinks, is one of the reason’s so many sniffed the show out amid the glut of content out there.
FRIENDSHIP IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT FLAMES OF LOVE
Creativity is deep-baked into Hawke. The daughter of actors Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman – something she doesn’t bristle about talking about – she was brought up surrounded by art. Are her parents an effective sounding board? ‘I use them a lot for like kind of a gut check on whether or not I’m being a baby or something unfair is happening.’ Choosing her next projects is scary, she admits. ‘I’ve been very lucky. I’ve managed to jump on some bandwagons that already are working. Which is part of what’s nerve wracking about going into this post-Stranger Things world. Now I have to sniff out the rainbow,’ she says, letting out a comic yelp.
Another lesson from her parents: how to create a harmonious workplace. ‘I think that the job of number one on the call sheet is to be a unifying force and a leader of sort and a set an energetic tone of how we’re all going to treat each other. And I think my mom and dad both really showed me what that looks like.’
Coat, £1,240, AMI Paris; top, £2,190, and shorts, £1,500, both Hermès; tights, £35, Wolford; earrings, Maya’s own
Coat, £860, Stylein; top, £990, Ferragamo; jeans, £140, G-Star; shoes, £300, Aeyde; earrings, necklace and ring, Maya’s own
FOR SOMETHING TO BE POPULAR, QUALITY AND MORAL IS RARE
All of her creative work is driven by ‘a deep desire to understand people. I write [music] when I am trying to understand someone or myself [and] I act to try to understand someone and myself. It feels like it’s all the same energy source. You’re just plugging lamps into the same outlet.
‘It’s the way my brain wrestles with something I don’t understand, an insecurity I bump into, something that upsets me and I don’t know why. That’s kind of the tools that I have to interrogate and pursue that feeling.’
What does she hope people will take away from Stranger Things’ swansong? ‘I think that this final season will bring home the messages that the show has been sending from the beginning of its inception: growing up is hard, growing up is mysterious, and the world is scary. But if you find your people and hold on to them tightly and treat them with kindness, you’ll be OK.’
Stream the final season of ‘Stranger Things’ on Netflix from 26 November
creative director: carolyn roberts; SHOOT PRODUCERS: ANNA DEWHURST AND GINEVRA DETASSIS AT IRA STUDIO; HAIR & MAKE-UP: LISA BREITFELD; PHOTOGRAPHER’S 1ST ASSISTANT: TIM LÖBBERT; PHOTOGRAPHER’S DIGI TECH: STEFAN HOEFERLIN; PRODUCTION ASSISTANT: FEDERICO CESARI; FASHION ASSISTANTS: GAVI WEISS, FRANKA KLAPROTH, ELLEN SCHULDES
Editor-in-chief: HATTIE BRETT; Deputy editor: HANNA WOODSIDE; Associate editor: Rebecca lowthorpe
Blazer, £2,850, Prada; jumper, £329, FTC Cashmere; jeans, £725, Stella McCartney; shoes, £450, Scarosso; ring, and earrings, Maya’s own
MAYA HAWKE
MAYA HAWKE
It’s also rejuvenating to see a show which spotlights and heroes friendship. ‘It’s the most beautiful thing in the world. I mean, there’s nothing more special than friendship And, you know, it can be found in all places. A friendship can be developed between a mother and a son, between two lovers. It can be everywhere. I think it is one of the most important flames of love because it is the most long lasting.’
The final season was her favourite to film she says. ‘I think it took me until the last year to get over my new kid syndrome,’ she says. ‘All of a sudden I was like, “Oh, this is home.”’
As a result, the weeks either side of wrapping were ‘rough’ for Hawkes, ‘deeply confusing. I was really feeling lost and heartbroken. I will miss it my whole life. What we all want is community, family, and like, a place to call home. And something that you know how to do. I don’t know if I’ve ever cried harder than I did on the last day. If they told me I could go back and do it again, I would say yes.’
Not that there would be time right now. Hawke has a broad scope of creative projects in the works, including a part in the blockbuster Hunger Games prequel, Sunrise On The Reaping. She’s also been forging her way as a singer-songwriter, releasing her third studio album, Chaos Angel last year, all folky melodies and self-reflective (sometimes self-skewering) lyrics.
The Magic of Maya
Magic
MAYA