Moon Knight's Ethan Hawke Breaks Down That Disturbing Opening Scene

[Warning: The following contains spoilers from Episode 1 of Moon Knight.]

In the first moments of Moon Knight, a man smashes a glass cup with the handle of his cane. Bob Dylan's "Every Grain of Sand" plays in the background, as Ethan Hawke's Arthur Harrow collects the shards and drops them in a pair of brown woven shoes. He slowly slides his feet in, stands up, and walks as a crunching sound follows every step. 

It turns out Hawke was the one to come up with the disturbing scene. "It was the opening of 102 (the second episode)," director Mohamed Diab told TV Guide of an earlier iteration. "And then was so good that we decided, you know what let's start with it, the whole show." Diab said it sets the tone from the get-go that Harrow is "not effing around."

In this new installment of Marvel Cinematic Universe's Phase 4, Harrow is the primary opponent to Oscar Isaac's Steven Grant and Marc Spector (the two share the same body). He leads a zealous cult — one prescribing a type of divine justice — and is a devout follower of an ancient Egyptian god. With the opening scene, Hawke wanted to add layers to this pious figure. "My character presents himself as so kind and benevolent and really wanting the best for others," Hawke told TV Guide. "And I wanted the audience to know that there was something subterranean happening. And that to be mistrustful of that kindness."

2:31

Watch Now

The actor thought about the lives of saints and holy people. "They often have some secret, self-laceration happening," he said. "In the desire to overcome passion or all the stuff of life, greed, and things like that, they're often somehow hurting themselves." This was the concept Hawke wanted to build on, and he had the vision of Harrow putting broken glass in his shoe and listening to Bob Dylan. "Then when you see him being kind you know there's something else happening here," Hawke explained. "And that really, I guess started from, why does he need a cane, you know? To help him walk on glass."

More broadly, Hawke viewed Harrow as someone who could be both the lead antagonist and the lead protagonist of Moon Knight. This is largely connected to the Dissociative Identity Disorder that Oscar's character has. "In the history of cinema, they're always using mental illness to create villains," Hawke said. '"He's crazy. He's mad. He's got this. He broke out of a mental institution.'" But this Marvel series presents something different. "In our story, the hero is mentally ill," the actor explained. "And so that changes what is possible from the villain, because now all of a sudden — if villains are usually in some shape or form the opposite of the hero — how could I be a sane, malevolent force?"

And that's when the image of a saintly being emerged. "I started coming up with this idea of a doctor-slash-priest figure that could, on one level, be trying to heal the world and heal the hero," Hawke said, "and also be malevolent and creepy and sinister." Although Harrow's motives are unclear in the show's first moments, this duality is present within him and becomes increasingly evident through his encounters with the Moon Knight. 

Episode 1 of Moon Knight is available to stream now.