Ethan Hawke’s co-star died on stage and lived to tell the tale

Cape Town – Ethan Hawke had a very traumatic experience with a fellow actor on stage an you need to hear the story.

During an appearance on The Graham Norton Show, Ethan recalled how his co-star, Canadian actor Richard Easton literally died for 11 minutes while performing on stage.

The actors were part of Tom Stoppard’s The Coast of Utopia in 2007 and had a scene in which Easton, who played Hawke’s father, is supposed to become really angry.

On this particular night however, something went wrong.

“We were doing a scene where he plays my father, where I would have to ask him for money, and he would get very angry with me… And, one day we were doing it and he was getting particularly mad and particularly heated,” Hawke recalls, adding that unbeknown to him or the audience, Easton was actually having a heart attack at that very moment.

Ethan goes on to reveal to the audience, Graham Norton and fellow show guests, Toni Collette, Jo Brand and Aiden Turner that after collapsing centre stage, Easton’s heart stopped for 11-minutes before an ambulance arrived and resuscitated him.

Needless to say, the show did not go on that night. But after a full recovery in hospital Easton returned to stage with Hawke and continued to perform.

WATCH THE INTERVIEW HERE: