Ethan Hawke has described the shoot for his upcoming movie Blue Moon as “the hardest” he’s ever worked “in (his) life”.

The Before Sunrise actor recently reunited with filmmaker Richard Linklater to shoot the biographical musical drama, which focuses on the final days of American musician Lorenz Hart, who was one-half of the songwriting duo Rodgers and Hart.

Reflecting on making the movie, which is named after the duo’s classic song of the same name, Hawke described the project as “the hardest I’ve ever worked in my life” during a Q&A at the Venice Film Festival.

Hawke and Linklater have been collaborators for almost 30 years, working together on the Before trilogy, Boyhood, Waking Life and Blaze.

During the Q&A, the Gattaca star revealed he was first sent the script 12 years ago but Linklater wanted to wait for him to become less attractive.

“I read it and called him up and said let’s do it,” Hawke explained, reports Deadline. “He said cool let’s make it but we have to wait a while. He said you’re still too attractive. Let’s just put it in a drawer and read it every few years and see if we’re ready or not. And every couple of years we read it, gave the writer notes, and it got a little bit better. One year, he saw me on a TV interview with Jimmy Fallon. He called me and said, ‘Let’s make Blue Moon, we’re ready.'”

Blue Moon, also starring Margaret Qualley, Bobby Cannavale and Andrew Scott, is primarily set on 31 March 1943, when Hart mourns Rodgers’s new creative partnership with Oscar Hammerstein. He is also struggling with alcoholism and depression.

Hawke was in Venice to present his Dead Poets Society director Peter Weir with the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement on Monday.

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