Ethan Hawke Responds to Why Arthur Harrow Has Shards of Glass in His Shoes

Moon Knight's first episode opens up with the show's big bad, Ethan Hawke's Arthur Harrow in a very unsettling scene where he is putting some shards of glass in his shoes, which was revealed to be Hawke's idea all along.

Marvel's latest Disney+ series premiered last Wednesday, with 5 more episodes coming over the next few weeks. Moon Knight's first episode features Oscar Isaac's Steven Grant, a gift shop employee, trying to navigate his disassociative identity disorder while also trying to outrun Egyptian god, Khonshu's control.

Alongside Isaac, the series also introduced the show's main villain, Academy Award nominee Ethan Hawke as Arthur Harrow. Harrow already made an impression in the very first sequence of the first episode, where he was seen putting some shards of glass in his shoes, and continued walking. Given the disturbing introduction of the villain, it's a clear indication that the villain isn't joking around.

However, fans wondered about the relevance of this scene. In an interview with Variety following Moon Knight's premiere, Hawke opened up on that eerie scene; which wasn't initially included in his script. When Hawke realized that Harrow would use a cane, the actor used his imagination and it all eventually came together. Harrow explained:

"That [scene] really sprang out of my imagination and our conversations. When you read a comic book, some of the pages have eight drawings, some of them have 16, some have four, and then every now and then, they’ll give like the villain one full-page drawing. I kept asking the writers and directors, if it was a comic book, what would his full-page drawing be? And they were like, “What do you think it was?” I started really meditating on that, and I started thinking about spiritual people who go crazy, who get mad on their own spiritual pride, and how often that turns inward and you see that they’re secretly self-lacerating in some way and hating themselves. Because we all have sin, and the idea that somebody is free of sin is not really possible if you’re human. And so with the self-hatred and the turning inward, I had this image of him listening to a hymn while he put broken glass in his shoes, that he hid from other people."

"I knew he had a cane and I kept saying, “Wait, I have a cane. Do I have a limp?” They’re like, “No, you don’t have limp.” And I thought, “Ahh, I know why he has a cane.” So I told them this idea. And this is what I mean about what was so surprising about Marvel: They’re like, “Let’s shoot that. That’s a great idea. Let’s open the show with that.” I’m like, “Okay, well, I guess these guys do want to play.”

Well, we don't have to worry about the actor's feet because Hawke promised that he stepped on a candy glass, which quickly turned to sand. Ethan Hawke's work ethic and his distinct approach to Moon Knight might continue to pay off as the show progresses. While the first episode only teases a glimpse of Harrow's motivation, that opening scene tells more about Hawke's character and how much thought he puts into his performance. This assures that we certainly have so much to look forward to in the coming weeks of Moon Knight.

Moon Knight Episode 1 is now streaming on Disney+.

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